The Quilt Walk

Ten-year-old Emmy Blue Hatchett is excited about moving to Colorado Territory. It's 1863, and entire new settlements are sprouting around the gold that has been found in the past few years. Emmy Blue's pa, with an eye for business, intends to construct a building for all the services that will be needed by the many gold prospectors - lawyers, doctors, bankers, saloons.It's true that Emmy Blue is a little sad about having to leave their Illinois farm, the only home she's ever known, and their beloved family and friends. But Uncle Will and Aunt Catherine will be coming along with them, and like Pa says, she's looking at their journey as an adventure. Who knows what life in Colorado will bring?Just before the family leaves, Ma's friends give her a Friendship Quilt, with blocks of fabric made by and autographed by each of them. Ma treasures it above all else, as she loves quilting and considers this the perfect reminder of the friends she isn't likely to see again. Emmy Blue also receives some quilting - in pieces - with instructions from her grandmother that she is to use the time traveling West to make a small quilt. Considering how much she loathes quilting, sewing and anything even remotely related, Emmy Blue is less than thrilled. But she knows that her mother will make her do it, so she simply sets her mind to doing as much as humanly possible each day to get it over with.Yet as the weeks and months pass, Emmy Blue is startled to realize that she does enjoy her "quilt walks," as she dubs them - times each day when she walks alongside the family ox-pulled wagon, talking with her mother, Aunt Catherine or her friend Joey, another child traveling West with their wagon train.Although the long journey is often difficult, with daily problems ranging from rattlesnakes to severe storms to just plain argumentative, sly fellow travelers, Emmy Blue finds that her father was right when he promised her an adventure.Although "The Quilt Walk" is technically a child's book, largely because it is told from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl, Dallas' account of a wagon train heading toward a new life in Colorado Territory is a must-read for all ages! Not only will readers learn the facts about this crucial period in American history, but they will enjoy the enthusiasm of Emmy Blue and the daily adventures of her close-knit family - which, although fiction, is in fact based upon a real girl named Alice, who once made that long-ago trek.

It's a great story about a girl and her family traveling to Colorado. For a moment it had quite a lot of characters, might be a little hard to keep up with all of them as a little kid. I also didn't like how they focused too much on a woman who had an abusive husband. That kind of ruined the story, but overall enjoyable, and fun to read. I would defiantly recommend it.

This is a fictional book based on a true story.Emmy Blue is having to leave her friends and family behind because her Pa wants to move to Golden Colorado. Gold was found in the mountains (remember Pike's Peak or Bust?) and her Pa, instead of becoming a gold miner, instead wants to set up a block of buildings to sell items to the miners. This is the trip to Golden that Emmy Blue tells.Emmy learns throughout the trip, the hardships of the people traveling, and learns a lot from her parents about how a person should be. Even though she is more of a tom-boy, Emmy Blue takes up quilting, a small quilt for her wax doll, Waxy.As the author states in the back of the book, there is such a quilt that did travel from Ohio to Golden, CO. This is a beautiful little story for those 9 years and up. Even I, an adult, loved reading the story. The characters are real and the scenery in the story is much like what it was back then--beautiful and peaceful. And I did learn some about the different quilts and how much work went into one.If you like Colorado history, this is a good book, even though fiction, is one to read.

This is a pretty good book. My daughter started to ask some questions about real life issues and concerns and I was wondering why. I asked her and she told me that her third grade class was reading this book. There is a storyline about an abusive husband in it and that was something she was asking questions about. It disturbed me a little bit so I got the book to read for myself. I ended up reading it in one night and now I realize what she was talking about. I also know that wasnt the main storyline and there was a reason it was a part of the book. I think this had a great mixture of family and friendship and unity and oppurtunity but the unity stood out the most for me. I am glad I read it.

Well worth the read. Historical and entertaining. Colorful as the quilts they must have made. I love a happy ending!

This is Sandra Dallas' first book for young people. It was a sweet story about a young girl whose father returns after a year in the mining towns of Colorado and decides to move his family out west. It is Emmy Blue's story of the trip in covered wagon with her parents. The join a wagon train and head to Golden, Colorado to start a new life as business merchants. She discovers encounters with rattlesnakes, Indians and discovers not every father is kind. I will read more stories by this author as I enjoy her work and the story lines and characterizations she weaves.

I am not Kevin but his wife. I am 74 years old and honestly didn't know it was written for the young when I purchased it. I have read the book and couldn't put it down. I read it in a day. The story was so interesting. The people were all so real. I loaned it to three of my senior citizen friends and they all loved it too. I have loaned all the books I have by Sandra Dallas and we all look forward to each and every one of them. I intend to purchase some of the non-fiction books Sandra Dallas has written. I lived in Colorado for many years. I enjoyed the history she put into this book as well as all the others I have read. I think it is the history that all we seniors enjoy reading about. Thanks for wanting my opinion.

This was a lovely book? A Storting about families travelling in wagons across the prairies to ColoradoI couldn't put thr book down.

I didn't realise when I bought the book that it was intended for children. That probably explains why it was rather short!

My 4th grade granddaughter loved this book.