Weekend Review: Stitched

 

Stitched / Eli McCann
Salt Lake City, UT: Torrey House Press, c2026.
280 p.

I picked up this book at my library after hearing quite a bit of chatter about it. So I was looking forward to it -- it's the story of a small quilting group that needs new members so end up inviting two gay men without any quilting experience to join them. And the connections between the ladies and these two men start to develop. 

It sounds good -- the author's mother was in a quilt group, and he says that's what he based a lot of the story on. I did like the mix of characters and could see that this story had a lot of potential. There's a small quilt group, I won't call it a guild because it's a handful of women who meet weekly to maybe sew a bit. There's a big biannual quilt competition coming up and they want to run up a viable entry to show off their skills. But with a couple of longtime members no longer able to participate they aren't sure they will be able to manage it. Enter Byron and Rob -- who I would have thought would add something to the groups since they don't have any quilting skills. But even Rob's design skills are not used in the creation of their competition quilt. 

There is also a strong rivalry with a nearby quilt group, who usually win competitions. There is some lead up to potential drama there, but it fizzles out without much to-do. 

I really wanted to like this! But. In execution there were many flaws, for me. The female characters often feel stereotypical, except for a couple of them. The premise to the story also had many holes that were easily seen. While I was reading I didn't mind too much but once I finished and was thinking about it, there was a lot that didn't really make sense to me. 

The women are often bickering and not committed to quilting -- this is not like any quilters I know. And their group meets weekly. Weekly! Who does that? Also, their competition quilt is described as they develop plans, and it is godawful. I don't need to see it to know that it would be a dog's breakfast. How a quilt shop owner could approve this as part of her group's entry, I will never know. 

Anyhow, lots of people on Goodreads love it, and if you read it without expecting too much maybe you will too. I think there are many novels out there by actual quilters who have a better grasp on what quilting is all about.

The cover is gorgeous and I'm happy they used an image of an actual quilt, and attributed it properly. There were some funny moments in the sttory, but overall I found this underwhelming, with bland writing, and the promise of the story of two gay men lighting up a bunch of quilters was never quite reached. Not my thing, sadly.