2 Knot What It Seams (28 page)

Beatrice cleared her throat and said, “I was. You and Ramsay arrived at the perfect time.” Because, clearly, Meadow had somehow trumped up a reason for them to be there.

“Meadow’s gotten you bandaged up all right? Is there anything else I can get for you?” he asked. She shook her head.

Meadow blinked. “Are you leaving, then? But you’re stranded. Ramsay took off with the police car.”

“The quilt show has wrapped up for the evening,” he said. “Meadow, would you mind giving me a ride back when you head out?”

“Of course I don’t mind, Wyatt. That’s no problem at all. I have a little clearing up to do . . . but I think I’ll come back early tomorrow to do most of it. I’m ready to call it a day,” said Meadow.

“I’ll throw some cups and plates away while I’m waiting. Glad to see you’re all right, Beatrice,” said Wyatt with another smile before he ducked back out.

Meadow put her hands on her hips and said severely, “Well, you really stuck your foot in your mouth this time. The very idea of saying that your and Wyatt’s relationship is a no-go! But I can fix it all. I’ve already got some ideas. Now tell me what you were saying about Karen and Wyatt.”

“She was absolutely dead set on him. And she thought I was standing in her way, since you’d said at Karen’s dinner party that Wyatt and I were an item. Plus, she was already worried about my poking around in the murders. She decided she needed to get rid of me,” said Beatrice.

“Simply ridiculous,” said Meadow. She thought for a moment. “I guess we avoided a Tremendous Disaster, didn’t we?”

“Did we?” The whole night was fairly disastrous. Aside from the fact that a murderer had been taken off the streets of Dappled Hills, of course.

“We did,” said Meadow, looking more cheerful. “After all, Karen was about to be a member of the Village Quilters. With her competitive nature, she’d have slowly eliminated us, one by one!”

Beatrice decided to break the news to Meadow gently, since it hadn’t apparently occurred to her. “I don’t think Karen really saw the rest of the Village Quilters as competition. She thought we were talented quilters, simply not competition level. Remember how she was giving everyone instructions?”

“But she wanted us to do well,” said Meadow.

“No, she wanted the group to beat other guilds. Because she likes to win. But she wouldn’t have been happy with our quilters beating her individually. And maybe that was the whole reason she was having problems with the Cut-Ups guild and was ready to leave them.”

“But you did beat Karen tonight, Beatrice,” said Meadow, beaming. “Karen didn’t know, of course, and that’s just as well, what with her trying to kill you and everything.”

Beatrice frowned. “How could I have won anything? I didn’t even have a quilt entered.”

“You beat Karen because she was disqualified for being a murderer,” said Meadow, waving her hands around excitedly. “And you might have forgotten, but remember back when you were first starting to fiddle with quilt designs? I told you I wanted to try something different from my usual stuff and I asked you to create a design for me.”

She did remember. She’d thought Meadow was simply being kind.

“So I did it! I took your design and got all the fabric and I made the quilt. I could enter in the show, since I wasn’t a judge. And it won a prize! For best design!” Meadow looked proud enough to pop. “I’m going to run and get it.” She trotted off and returned with a stunning quilt that made Beatrice catch her breath with pride. Beatrice had a new take on the old sawtooth pattern design . . . setting the pattern in riotous motion. There were periwinkle blue accents of color with shades of black and tan dominating the color scheme. The design was strong and powerful and there wasn’t the usual, static feel to the quilt. It was the kind of quilt that made itself known.

Meadow handed over the ribbon to Beatrice. “Here. You deserve it. It was your design that won. All I did was follow through. Besides, after all you’ve gone through tonight, a ribbon might make you feel a little better.”

Amazingly enough, it did.

* * *

The long evening had wrapped up quickly at that point. Piper had come, exclaimed over her injuries and story, chastised herself for not being there, fussed over the rigorous and lengthy conference that had kept her from the quilt show, and quickly taken Beatrice home and tucked her in.

She’d thought there was absolutely no way that she’d be able to fall asleep after all the fear and excitement of the quilt show, but she apparently dropped into a deep sleep as soon as she crawled into bed.

After a quiet morning, she put on some gardening clothes to tend the new flower bed in the front yard. She was watering the flowers when a car pulled up in her driveway. She looked up to see Wyatt and Miss Sissy waving at her. Her breath caught in her throat a bit and she carefully set down the watering can before she dropped it.

Miss Sissy climbed out of Wyatt’s car. “Came to teach you to quilt!” she bellowed. She nodded a greeting, then nimbly trotted in, presumably to clean out all the food in Beatrice’s kitchen. Was Miss Sissy or Boris the worse unexpected visitor? It was hard to say.

“Is this all right?” asked Wyatt. “I was checking in on Miss Sissy and she said that she needed to have me help her run errands and then come here and quilt with you. She made it sound like an official date, but it occurs to me that you might possibly be surprised by our visit.” His eyes crinkled and Beatrice exhaled in relief. He wasn’t upset. Or, if he had been, it had passed by now. Ministers must have exemplary temperaments.

“Oh no, this is fine. I did ask her to help me with my technique. I have all these big ideas, but I don’t have the skill to implement them.” She gestured to the cottage. “Would you like to come in and have some coffee with us? I’m sure Miss Sissy wants a snack to start out with, and you can leave when we start getting into the quilting. I can walk Miss Sissy back home, since she and I are both without cars right now.”

“I’d love some coffee,” said Wyatt. “And that’s the nice thing about Dappled Hills: you can walk almost anywhere. Let me know when you want to make a big trip to the grocery store, though—I’ll drive you to Bub’s.” His eyes crinkled in a smile again.

They were almost to the cottage door when a sudden frenzied crashing came from the direction of the bushes. It was Boris, of course, leash trailing behind him and big tongue lolling out of his mouth. He spotted Wyatt and jumped ecstatically at him, putting two huge paws over either shoulder.

Meadow huffed and puffed through the bushes behind him. “Bad Boris! No cookie! No treat!” Twigs and leaves stuck from her long gray braid, making it look like a withering vine. “Coffee, Beatrice?” she asked with a hopeful look in her eye.

“I was just inviting Wyatt in for some, so of course, Meadow—come on in,” said Beatrice.

Meadow’s eyes widened and a smile played on her lips. “Oh, well, I wouldn’t want to interrupt. . . .” Then she spotted Miss Sissy and Noo-noo in the picture window at the front of the cottage. Noo-noo was grinning at Meadow, and Miss Sissy was scowling at her. “Looks like you’re having a party, though, so I’ll take you up on that coffee.”

* * *

“June Bug’s little home is as neat as a
pin
, I tell you! Spotless. And
guess
what was covering every possible square inch of that cute house? Quilts! Yes, quilts. Magnificent quilts all made from everyday fabrics or castoffs or hand-me-downs or whatever. Remarkable! She made art out of scraps. And the most amazing thing is that she didn’t recognize or acknowledge her talent whatsoever. June Bug was horrified at the thought of showing her quilts, so I just invited her to join our guild and then the shows will come later. I invited her right on the spot. She doesn’t think she’s good enough! Imagine.”

Meadow’s face glowed with excitement. Beatrice had never seen her so pleased.

Wyatt smiled at her. “Meadow, this is wonderful news! I know how you’ve worried about finding a new guild member.”

Even Miss Sissy grinned at Meadow, with her gap-toothed smile.

“Wait,” said Meadow, fanning herself with her hand to revive herself from even more excitement. “It gets even better. When I was coming back from June Bug’s house, I ran into Booth at Bub’s Grocery. He told me that he was completely dropping the idea of assessing fees and taxes and permits on the quilting guilds!”

“That’s wonderful news!” exclaimed Beatrice. “It was a silly plan to begin with, but he’s such a stubborn man that I was sure he was going to try and stick with it. Did he say what made him change his mind?”

“He said that he wanted nothing to do with the
killer quilters
.” Meadow beamed with delight. “Isn’t that wonderful? He said that we were too violent a group to try and wrangle with.”

Meadow took a restorative gulp of her coffee, to help her regain her composure after her excitement over her wildly successful morning. “I firmly believe,” she said with a happy sigh, “that this is the start of a lovely new chapter for the Village Quilters. And,” she added, beaming at Beatrice, Wyatt, and Miss Sissy, “a lovely day. There’s nothing better than time spent with friends.”

And for once, with the promise of a quilt to be stitched, bonds of friendship to be strengthened, and conversation and coffee to be enjoyed, Beatrice had to agree with her.

Quilting Tips

Leftover blocks can be used for table runners, grocery totes, pillowcases, or doll clothes. Batting scraps can be used to stuff pillows.

Empty tissue boxes make good wastebaskets for your work area.

If you’re drawing diagonal lines on blocks to form triangles, it’s easier to work from the inside out on the corners.

Use adhesive lint rollers to collect loose threads.

Skirt or pant hangers can be used to store unfinished projects or to group completed blocks. Or you can group projects together by putting the pattern and fabric in a large zipper bag and hang it on the hanger.

Magnets are a great way to hold needles while you’re quilting.

Recipes

Southern Spoon Bread

2 cups boiling water

1 cup white meal

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

2 cups milk

Pour boiling water over meal, stirring constantly, and boil five minutes. Remove from heat, add butter, salt, and milk. Mix well. Beat eggs lightly, add to mixture. Sift dry ingredients into mixture and mix well. Pour mixture into greased baking dish and bake for 30 minutes in 350-degree oven.

Cucumber Dip

3 tablespoons shredded cucumber

8 ounces cream cheese

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

½ teaspoon Worcestershire

¼ teaspoon celery salt

dash paprika

salt to taste

Blend all and serve with crackers or chips.

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

½ cup chopped nuts

3½ tablespoons flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

¹
/
₈
teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped apples

Beat eggs well, add other ingredients, and mix. Bake in shallow greased pan 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with whipped cream.

Olive Hors D’oeuvres

1 cup salted peanuts, crushed

small jar pimento-stuffed olives, drained well on paper towels

Mix 8-ounce block of cream cheese with teaspoon of water to soften. Take small amount of cream cheese and roll around olive in palms, until coated. Roll olive in crushed peanuts until coated. Store covered in refrigerator.

King Midas Chicken

1 cut-up chicken

1 teaspoon salt

1 8- ounce can crushed pineapple

¼ cup mustard

½ cup chutney

½ cup chopped nuts

Sprinkle chicken with salt. Place skin side up, single layer, in shallow dish. Mix remaining ingredients and spoon over chicken. Bake uncovered 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Read on for a sneak peek at the next

Southern Quilting Mystery

Coming in late 2013 from Obsidian.

Beatrice Coleman looked in horror at her neighbor Meadow Downey. “You mean we’re not even invited? We’re crashing the party?”

They were in Meadow’s aging van, and Meadow was speedily driving them to an elderly quilter’s home just slightly outside their town of Dappled Hills, North Carolina. Meadow chortled. “It’s not a
party
, Beatrice. It’s more like a special quilt guild meeting. And
what we’re doing is dropping in without calling first.”

“What we’re really doing,” said Beatrice gloomily, “is trying to persuade a sick, elderly woman that we’re the best candidates to chair a quilting scholarship committee.” She looked out the van window again as the scenery flew by. “Meadow, I think it’s going to snow. The sky is that odd mottled gray. I’m getting a really bad feeling about all of this. We should turn around now and go back home.”

Meadow glanced away from the road to give Beatrice a reassuring grin. The result was anything but reassuring, though. Meadow had that fervent look that she had whenever she was all geared up for quilting. Her eyes behind her red glasses were full of it. She’d tried to tame her long gray hair into its customary braid, but must have been distracted while braiding because it escaped in wisps. The overall effect was rather maniacal, Beatrice decided.

“We can’t go back, Beatrice. This is the perfect opportunity for the Village Quilters. If old Mrs. Starnes wants to create a quilting foundation and award scholarships to ensure the longevity of the quilting craft, I can’t think of a better guild than ours to distribute them. I already have a recipient in mind!”