Road to Triumph Ranch

While researching The Quilter’s Homecoming at the Stagecoach Inn Museum in Newbury Park, California, I discovered the antique quilt spread upon a bed in the Newbury cabin that inspired this design.  In the novel, Elizabeth discovers this quilt in the ramshackle cabin that becomes the newlyweds’ home, and the hexagonal blocks remind her of wagon wheels. She names the quilt “Road to Triumph Ranch” in honor of all the pioneer women who made their way to the Arboles Valley, drawn by the promise of prosperity. The pattern for “Road to Triumph Ranch” appears in my third pattern book, More Elm Creek Quilts (C&T Publishing, 2008).