Amanda's overbearing grandmother and frail old Mrs. Hankinson, newly arrived from the hills of Kentucky, are natural-born rivals for the blue ribbon in quilting at the Pacific County Fair, and when Amanda and her three friends (13 years old, but still quite childish in the slower paced world of 1894) throw in their lot with the newcomer they're presented with a challenging (and historically authentic) quest -- finding seven shades of color-true red cloth for Mrs. Hankinson's original "O The Red Rose Tree" pattern. More than the by hook or (mostly) by crook methods that the girls use to acquire the goods, it's the quilting lore, rural superstitions and 1890's society fads that provide the momentum for a full length story. And Amanda's seizing of the last "red" -- the petticoat of an Italian opera singer -- in the "morally bilious" city of Portland, Oregon is an appropriately colorful climax.