Foundation Speaker Series: The World's Fair Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

Join bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini as she discusses her latest book, The World's Fair Quilt: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel. 

Jennifer Chiaverini returns to the well-loved circle of Elm Creek Quilters to illuminate a nearly forgotten jubilant moment in women’s history during the trying years of the Great Depression. In chapters alternating between 2004 and 1933, THE WORLD’S FAIR QUILT: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel (William Morrow: On sale: April 1, 2025) stitches together a story of sisterhood and sibling rivalry, guilt and resentment, forgiveness and peace. 

In her eighth decade, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson is content to be back at Elm Creek Manor—the home she fled, in grief and despair, after her first husband and younger brother were killed in World War II, followed by an irreparable falling-out with her elder sister, Claudia. Her fifty years’ absence has made each day at her ancestral estate in rural Pennsylvania all the more precious, especially since she is surrounded by her new family—her husband, Andrew, and kindred quilters. Thanks to dedicated, gifted faculty and the business acumen of Sarah McClure, the Elm Creek Quilt Camp has blossomed into a perennially popular quilter’s retreat. Sylvia often marvels at how, in her golden years, she has forged cherished friendships, founded a thriving business, rediscovered the artist within herself, fallen in love with a long-lost childhood friend—and still feels as if the best is yet to come. All would be well—if not for new, unexpected financial worries. Restoring the woefully neglected estate she inherited after her spendthrift sister’s death was no easy feat, and now the roof needs replacing. Perhaps the launch of Elm Creek Orchards, a venture spearheaded by Sarah’s husband, will spare Sylvia from having to raise the price of sessions for campers—or worse, seeking a loan or a benefactor. A child of the Great Depression, Sylvia abhors the thought of both debt and bankruptcy. 

As she ponders her options, Sylvia receives a startling request from her young friend and colleague Summer Sullivan, curator of the Waterford Historical Society’s quilt gallery. Summer would like to exhibit a quilt Sylvia and Claudia made together when they were in her early teens—a rare artifact indeed, since the sisters’ prickly and competitive relationship made them very poor quilting partners. Yet in 1933, they put aside their differences to collaborate on a quilt for the Sears National Quilt Contest for the upcoming Century of Progress Exposition. The sisters were driven by dreams of winning the $1,200 grand prize—then an enormous, life- changing sum of money—and having their quilt in the spotlight at the at the Chicago World’s Fair. Submitted under the name “Claudia Sylvia Bergstrom,” their World’s Fair Quilt won first place at the local level— accompanied by a check for ten dollars from the Harrisburg Sears—and went on to receive a Ribbon of Merit at the regional level in Philadelphia. 

As a Master Quilter, Sylvia has reason to be proud of her early masterpiece. It won two prizes in the largest quilt contest ever held, then and ever after. Twenty-five thousand quilts were submitted, which, given the population at the time, meant that roughly one of every two thousand American women participated. The quilts revealed how the concept of progress was imagined and defined by a people still recovering from World War I and struggling through the Great Depression. For the quilt she made with her sister, Sylvia seized on the idea of illustrating progress of values, depicting scenes of the Emancipation Proclamation, women’s suffrage, and labor unions. Then, there was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s role in the contest, a controversy behind the grand prize winner, and the mystery of how the winning quilt vanished. Sylvia agrees that the World’s Fair Quilt is a work of historical significance. Still, she grants Summer’s request with misgivings, and not only because the fragile, long-neglected quilt is sorely in need of cleaning and repair. 

As The World's Fair Quilt unfolds, readers will discover a troubling secret that Sylvia has been keeping since 1933. Did she hide a critical document to protect her sister, or was her motivation not purely selfless? If she had told Claudia the truth when they were teens, might they have had a better relationship as adults? And so many decades later, has Sylvia continued to judge Claudia too harshly? Can the lessons of the past help secure Elm Creek Manor’s future? 

Affirming the power of women’s friendship and the importance of quilting, The World's Fair Quilt is a heartwarming addition to a series described as “like a strong cup of tea—cozy yet hard-hitting” (Booklist). At one point in the novel, Sylvia reflects, “If she had learned nothing else in her eighty-plus years, it was that she should choose hope.” That’s a timely message for us all.

Boswell Books will be on hand for those who wish to purchase copies of Chiaverini's books for signing.