he was alive, he gave Constance a dog to keep her company. Although it is rumored that she is having an affair with Dean, she knows that her love for her husband and her dog are her true companions. Her panel for Finn's wedding quilt depicts a yellow rose bush under which she and Howell buried the dog after it died. Anna Neale As a young maid, Anna starts an affair with her boss's son Beck, who's visiting from Chicago. She becomes pregnant by him, and when her great aunt Pauline finds out about it she sends Anna away with their family story quilt (which she had sold to the boss's wife). During her pregnancy, Anna met Glady and Hy as she was taken in by their family. Anna becomes particularly close with Glady, eventually teaching her to quilt. During one of these quilting lessons, she starts labor, eventually giving birth to Marianna. It's only then that Anna realizes that her fancy notion of romantic love was nothing in comparison to the maternal love she feels for Marianna. Anna now orchestrates the quilting group. Marianna Neale Marianna gives the appearance of being in love with her promiscuous freedom until a moment of vulnerability comes in a conversation with Finn. She speaks of a man that she met in France. They had met and spent one evening together during which they connected over a meeting of minds before she discovered that he was married. Although she has taken many lovers since, she realizes this man is her soulmate and she doesn't even know his name. Cast Production Amblin Entertainment optioned Whitney Otto's bestselling novel after it was released in 1991. Amblin co-founder Kathleen Kennedy brought on producers Sarah Pillsbury and Midge Sanford, who had read and loved the book before its publication. When the two producers could not field potential interest in the film from studios, they persuaded Steven Spielberg to finance the development of a screenplay, something which was rarely done without a studio's backing. Said Spielberg, "I've always loved stories about women. I had three younger sisters. I was the only boy. Amblin until recently was dominated by women. That feminine side of my brain is very strong." Sanford and Pillsbury reached out to screenwriter Jane Anderson to pen the script and chose Australian filmmaker Jocelyn Moorhouse as the director. One of the structural changes that Anderson brought to