Always and Forever

By Cathe Swanson

Description:

Scrap quilts, bridal gowns, an old Swedish farmhouse, and a hidden family heirloom. What more could you want in a Minnesota Christmas romance?
Penny Anderson has a dream. She’s going to be an exclusive bridal gown designer, and she won’t be held back by her dyslexia, a rural location, or the doubts of others.

Brian Michaels has waited seven years for Penny to see him as a man instead of just a childhood friend. Can he work up the courage to speak before the tall, dark and handsome business consultant sweeps her off her feet?

Great-aunt Violet chronicles the family history in a series of patchwork quilts. When an unexpected family heirloom is dug up in the farmhouse garden, her genealogical research takes an intriguing turn, shining new light on the past and future of the Anderson family.

This is Book 1 in the Glory Quilts series. It was previously titled The Christmas Glory Quilt

Book Takeaway:

Family matters. Individuals matter.

Why the author wrote this book:

The Christmas Glory Quilt is about a large, homeschooling family in Minnesota, with a strong Swedish heritage, an old family farm, and an avid genealogist great aunt. Oh, yeah... That's me! The settings and seasons are familiar from my childhood. Now, having migrated all the way to Wisconsin, I enjoy visiting my family who (all) still live there.

Family – the extended, multigenerational family – is important to me. As the Glory Quilts series progresses, there will be more of the Andersons’ family history woven into the contemporary plots. Great Aunt Violet has been chronicling their stories in quilts, like scrapbooks, and she’s come across a new family mystery – a family heirloom, buried long ago, and no one is left to tell her why it was hidden!

I especially enjoy celebrating my ethnic heritage at Christmas, with so many Scandinavian traditions and foods, and I included several of them in this book. I even included some of my personal opinions of the St. Lucy processions – not only dangerous but extremely gruesome and odd!