Many publishers are looking for that big score right away. I'm lucky that my publisher stuck with me. Now there's a sizeable readership eagerly awaiting the release of each book.

Readers are story lovers, but are creative people in their own right. When they read about the quilt, they want to create one of the patterns touched on in the book.

'What I would give,' I thought, 'to have been present as Elizabeth Keckley measured Mary Lincoln for a new gown, to overhear their conversations on topics significant and ordinary, to observe the Lincoln White House from such an intimate perspective.'

In this story, two founding members of Elm Creek Camp had to leave to pursue other interests. This is the search for two replacements. There are five new characters, four women and one man, who have different backgrounds and areas of quilt history.

Anyone who works on a quilt, who devotes her time, energy, creativity, and passion to that art, learns to value the work of her hands. And as any quilter will tell you, a quilter's quilting friends are some of the dearest, most generous, and most supportive people she knows.

Elizabeth Keckley was a woman of remarkable strength, courage, perseverance, and dignity. She was exceptionally talented, but also very diligent and ambitious, and together those qualities enabled her to deliver herself from slavery and become a successful businesswoman.