Quilt As You Go

'I'm not crippled,” she said and opened the studio door and went inside.

No one said anything as Harriet dropped her purse in the wing-backed chair and then went through the interior door into the kitchen.

'Can you sit with her while I go pack a bag?” Aunt Beth asked Mavis.

'Sure,” Mavis said. “Let me put the kettle on, we've some detecting to do.'

Beth raised an eyebrow.

'I'll fill you in later,” Mavis said in response to the unspoken inquiry.

A few minutes later, Mavis had Harriet settled on the velvet chaise lounge in the sitting room. She had propped Harriet's arm on down pillows from the upstairs guestroom and had pulled a dark cherry side table closer so Harriet could reach it with her good arm.

'Are you comfortable?” she asked, and when Harriet nodded she disappeared briefly, returning with a canvas bag containing the plaid flannel quilt.

'I brought Gerald's quilt,” she said and unfurled it. “This has to be a clue.'

'I suppose it would be too much of a coincidence for it to have been returned by one of your kids only a few days before your…” Harriet caught herself before she said husband. “Gerald died,” she finished. “But what on earth does it mean?'

'That's why I brought it.” She laid the quilt in Harriet's lap. “I've tried to look at it, but all I see is memories.” She sighed.

'Let me give it a try.” Harriet ran her left hand over the surface of the quilt. It was amazing how different things could feel when you were forced to use your off hand, she mused. She felt with her left hand all the time when she was holding the quilting machine control in place-which hand she used depended on which edge of the quilt the machine head was close to. Somehow, though, it was different when you didn't have a choice.

Gerald's quilt had narrow sashing-the strips of fabric that framed the sections of the quilt. Sashing could form a grid or lattice, depending on the size and placement of the strips and was often a solid color, enabling a quilter to correct for any variations in the size of the blocks that occurred. A sashing strip that was an eighth or even a quarter-inch wider or narrower than its fellow strips was not noticeable in most cases.

When the sashing was narrow, it was often an indication the quilt had been produced using the quilt-as-you-go method. Individual blocks were completed through the quilting step then connected using the narrow strips.

Harriet fingered the sashing in several places. Knowledgeable fingers could detect the break in the batting that occurred between the quilt-as-you-go blocks.

'So, this was a quilt-as-you-go project?” she asked to be sure, and Mavis nodded. “And I'm guessing you hand-pieced and hand-quilted the blocks.'

Mavis again agreed. “That didn't exactly stress your detection skills,” she said and smiled. Mavis rarely did anything but hand assembly. She knew how to machine-piece and quilt-she just didn't prefer the method.

Harriet continued feeling the individual blocks. “Have you thought about what you're going to do about a funeral?'

Mavis was silent.

'I hadn't thought about it, to tell you the truth,” she admitted finally. “I've wondered where he's been, and I've wondered why the elaborate disappearance charade, but I guess in my mind I've already had his funeral. The one we did twenty years ago.'

'I just thought that, since you're his next of kin, his body would be released to you.'

'I suppose you're right. I'll have to talk to the boys about it. Ben and Harry are pretty angry, as you might expect, them being the youngest. Pete and James were more indifferent than mad, and Gerry was upset-but then, he and his daddy worked together, so they had a more adult relationship. None of them said anything about doing a memorial, but of course they were in shock when they found out, as we all were.'

'If you need any help, I'd be happy to do whatever you want.'

'Oh, honey,” Mavis said, then stopped as she noticed Harriet pressing one of the quilt blocks between the palms of her hands. “Did you find something?'

'I'm not sure.” Harriet continued to manipulate the section of quilt. “Did you use fusible material in any of the quilt blocks?” Heat-activated adhesives were used in a variety of ways by quilters. The most common use was to attach cut-out pieces of fabric to background material with fusible fiber using an iron. The completed image could then have a line of machine stitching placed around its perimeter, creating the appearance of applique without all the fine hand-stitching.

'No, why would I? The whole quilt is nothing but various plaid flannel blocks.'

'That's what I thought. This one block feels a little stiff, though, like it has fusible on the back of the flannel. Here, feel it.” She held the quilt out.

Mavis folded the quilt section back and forth in several directions.

'You're right,” she said, and set the quilt on the sofa beside her. “It feels like something's in there.'

'Let me look again,” Harriet said. She held the quilt closer to her face, looking carefully around the seams that joined that block to the rest. “The stitching looks different on this one edge. Look.'

'There's one way to find out,” Mavis said. “I'll be right back.” She got up and went to the kitchen. Harriet heard the door to the studio open and close again. When Mavis returned, she had a pair of sewing scissors in her hand. She took the quilt and sat down on the sofa again.

'Are you cutting into the quilt?” Harriet asked, her voice rising slightly.

'Well, Gerald isn't going to have any use for it, and we need to know what's going on.'

She carefully cut the stitches holding the sashing to the square of flannel that was the top layer of the suspect block. She worked carefully, and in a few minutes had an opening about four inches long. Harriet moved closer to watch.

'Oh, honey, you shouldn't be up.” Mavis said as she clipped stitches.

'Let's look,” Harriet said.

Mavis bent the top edge of the fabric back, exposing dense, dark-gray fiber where they should have seen soft off-white quilt batting.

'Whoa,” she said. “What's that?” She grabbed the strange material by its corner and tugged gently. When it didn't move, she pulled harder. A dark square slid free of the quilt.

'What on earth is that?” Harriet asked, and tilted her head to examine it from all angles.

'If I had to guess, I'd say it's a sample of Gerald's work. When he was alive-” She stopped then started again. “When he still lived at home, he was forever bringing pieces of test fabric home from the factory. I've still got some of the oven gloves we field-tested. And one time I had to sew pieces onto the knees and rear ends of the boy's jeans. He glued some onto the bottom of Pete's tennis shoes another time, and Pete had to wear those shoes every day until the stuff wore through. He got real tired of those shoes, and ended up growing out of them before they wore out.'

'That must have kept life interesting,” Harriet said.

'I suppose. I never gave it much thought. With a houseful of boys, I was too busy to think about much besides filling the refrigerator, doing laundry and running the home taxi service.'

'I wonder what he was testing,” Harriet mused aloud, and felt the other squares that made up the quilt. “I don't feel any other squares like that one.'

'I didn't feel any, either,” Mavis said as she folded the quilt and stuffed it back into the carrier bag. “As sample pieces go, it seems kind of small. He usually brought much bigger pieces home, but who knows what he was doing.'

Harriet worried the fabric between her fingers. It had a woven appearance but didn't ravel at the edges, as if it had been woven and then pressure- or heat-treated.

'Not to change the subject, but I met Carla's friend earlier,” Harriet said. “It wasn't under ideal circumstances, since I was on the ground writhing in pain when he found me, but he seemed okay in a military sort of way.'

'So, you approve?'

'I wouldn't go that far, but compared to whoever hit me, he was a real gem.” Harriet paused. “Actually, now that I think about it, maybe he was the one who clubbed me.'

'Beth told me he was walking with Carla in the woods when he found you.'

'It isn't a perfect theory. I suppose she'll claim he was with her until they heard me scream.'

'I suppose she will,” Mavis said with a smile. “Well, I'm glad she's met someone nice.'