The lost quilter - Jennifer Chiaverini

Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson holds in her hands a quilt called by three names-Birds in the Air, after its pattern; The Runaway Quilt, after the circumstances under which it was made; and The Elm Creek Quilt, after the place to which its maker longed to return. That quilter was called Joanna, a woman who travelled by the Underground Railroad to reach safe haven in 1859 at Elm Creek Manor.
Though Joanna's freedom was short-lived - she was forcibly returned by slave catchers to Josiah Chester's plantation in Virginia - she left behind with the Bergstrom family a most precious gift, her son. Hans and Anneke Bergstrom, along with maiden aunt Gerda, raised the boy as their own, and the secret of his identity died with their generation. Now it is up to Sylvia, drawing upon Gerda's diary and Joanna's quilt (returned to Sylvia by a former quilt camper and Chester descendent), to connect Joanna's past to the present of Elm Creek Manor.