“Stitched” wasn’t a shoo-in for the best-seller list, at least according to the many editors who rejected it. Eli McCann’s debut novel isn’t about dragons, witches or video games. It doesn’t take place on another planet or on a ranch in Idaho. It’s not written by a franchise author. In the end, a tiny nonprofit press in Salt Lake City was the only publisher willing to take a chance on it.
Nevertheless, on Sept. 27 “Stitched” debuted at No. 5 on the paperback list, becoming the first-ever best seller for Torrey House, an independent publisher that formed in 2010.
The book tells a bighearted story about a ladies’ quilting association in Ogden, Utah, that welcomes two gay men in the run-up to its biggest competition of the year. It features long friendships among women of a certain age who wear aprons, get their hair done once a week and engage in acts of “confectionary ambush” (one woman’s brownies versus another’s peach cobbler) at their Wednesday meetings.
“A lot of my earliest memories are of being with my little sister under a quilt stand, with my mom and her friends sitting around it,” McCann, 42, said in a video interview from a hotel in Medina, N.Y., not far from where he was about to visit a quilting group. “Just seeing their hands going up and down through the quilt and listening to them gabbing — that was the backdrop of my childhood.”
One bookseller described “Stitched” as “Schitt’s Creek” meets “The Golden Girls.” Imagine “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” if the friends wielded sewing needles, or “Fried Green Tomatoes” with a Mormon twist.
McCann, a corporate lawyer who writes a humor column for The Salt Lake Tribune, shared the can-do back story on his book’s success. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and tangents on the joys of crafting.
How did the idea for “Stitched” come to you?
In 2021 my husband, Skylar, and I were at dinner with my mom and she said, “There’s so much drama going on in the quilting world right now.” We were like, “What are you talking about?”
My mom’s been in her quilting group, Common Thread, for 46 years. For the next two hours, she told us all about what makes a quality quilt. What quilting groups are like. What hers is like. How they’ve known each other forever. How they’ve helped each other through every life milestone.
When we left dinner, Skylar said, “You need to write a book about this.” I told him, “I’m not qualified because I’m not a quilter.” And he said, “Don’t write a book about quilting, write a book about people who quilt.”
What happened next?
A few months later, I wrote one chapter. Then I asked my mom if I could start coming to quilt night for research purposes. Initially she was resistant, but she consulted the other ladies and they said I could come. So I went to quilt night with women who are mostly in their 70s, 80s and 90s. It was fascinating to watch them work on these incredible pieces of art while having 16 different conversations at once. One of the women started talking to me and one of the others said: “Don’t disrupt him. He’s here for research purposes.”
Then you wrote “Stitched” and lived happily ever after?
[Laughs] Not exactly. It took a little over a year to write. Then my agent started pitching it to publishers and editors who said they didn’t know how to market a book about older women quilting together in Utah. I was asked if I was willing to rewrite the book to have it be about women in their 30s. Would I consider making it coastal? Moving it to the South? Adding more men? How about romance?
How many rejections did you get?
A couple dozen at least.
Oh dear. How did you respond?
I thought that feedback was so crazy. This was the most confident I’ve ever been about anything in my life. And I’ve scrapped projects before. I’ve killed my darlings.
I ended up connecting with Torrey House Press in Salt Lake City, where I live. They read the manuscript and loved it. I understood they weren’t going to have this massive marketing budget but I felt confident in my own ability to market this book.
The day after I signed a contract, I started posting videos on TikTok and Instagram of myself telling stories. I thought, If I can develop a reputation for being a good storyteller, hopefully people will say, You know, let me give his book a chance.
What kinds of stories?
Childhood memories, what I was up to as a parent, stories from when I was in law school. I told the story of how I met my husband, how we planned our wedding, how I got my two horrible dogs that I love so much. That sort of thing.
Which was the first one that really took off?
I told a story about a time probably 15 years ago when I went to a car dealership and they were going to give me a loaner vehicle and I drove away in another customer’s car. That got a lot of traction.
Earlier this summer, I posted a video telling the story about my mom gossiping about quilting over dinner. I held up “Stitched” and said, “It’s coming out in September and I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.”
The next morning I woke up and that video had gone viral across the internet.
What was it like to find out the book was a best seller?
I was sitting on a plane taxiing when I got the email. I wanted to yell and cheer but I just kind of held it to myself. I called my parents and they were over the moon. They were like, “How big of a deal is this?” And I was like, “It’s a very big deal.” But the person who is the most excited in the entire world is my husband, who screamed and cannot stop.
Why do you think crafts aren’t taken more seriously?
There’s a lot of misogyny baked into it. Quilting and knitting are viewed as “women’s hobbies” — they’re not taken seriously as pieces of art. Quilts are like giant paintings. They’re beautiful. If you go to a quilt show, it’s like walking through an art gallery. If you spend any time looking at these crafts and seeing how complex and difficult they are, you’ll see they deserve a lot more respect than they get. I’ve been knitting for a decade or so, and it’s hard.
How has “Stitched” been received by the quilting community?
I had anticipated that I would visit bookstores, but earlier this summer I started hearing from quilt shops and quilt guilds across the country. The first event I did at a quilt store was at a little shop near my house called Sewtopia. There were 150 quilters gathered there two days after the book came out. Amy, the owner, presented me with a quilt she designed based on the cover of “Stitched.” It’s gorgeous.
My mom was sitting in the very front row filming everything, because that’s what she does. She ended up making a patch for the back of the quilt with a picture of me and Amy and what she said when she presented the quilt. She said: “Eli, your book isn’t really about quilting, it’s about the community we build when we share a hobby. I truly don’t think I could do what I do without the people this hobby has brought into my life. I’m so grateful for those relationships. Thank you for capturing that so beautifully in ‘Stitched.’” If this is the takeaway that people have of this book, I will die happy.
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