The Christmas Quilts
Olivia Gaines
Published by Davonshire House Publishing, 2017.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
THE CHRISTMAS QUILTS
First edition. December 12, 2017.
Copyright © 2017 Olivia Gaines.
ISBN: 978-1979734585
Written by Olivia Gaines.
Also by Olivia Gaines
Modern Mail Order Brides
Oregon Trails
On A Rainy Night in Georgia
Buckeye and the Babe
The Tennessee Mountain Man
Lobsters, Bisques & Berries
Sunflowers and Honey (Coming Soon)
Bleu, Grass, Bourbon
Serenity Series
Welcome to Serenity
Holden
Farmer Takes A Wife
Slice of Life
Friends with Benefits
Slivers of Love
The Cost to Play
Thursdays in Savannah
The Blakemore Files
Being Mrs. Blakemore
Shopping with Mrs. Blakemore
Dancing with Mr. Blakemore
Cruising with the Blakemores
Dinner with the Blakemores
Loving the Czar
Being Mr. Blakemore
A Weekend with the Blakemores
The Davonshire Series
Courting Guinevere
Vanity's Pleasure
The Delgado Files
Killers
Becoming the Czar
Yunior
The Men of Endurance
A Walk Through Endurance
A Return to Endurance
A Walk Through Endurance
The Technicians
Blind Hope
Blind Luck
Blind Fate
Blind Copy
Blind Turn
Blind Fold (Coming Soon)
The Value of A Man
My Mail Order Wife
A Weekend with the Cromwells
Cutting it Close
The Zelda Diaries
It Happened Last Wednesday
A Frickin' Fantastic Friday
A Tantalizing Tuesday
Standalone
Santa's Big Helper
A Menu For Loving
North to Alaska
Turning the Page
An Untitled Love
Wyoming Nights
Montana
Blind Date
The Christmas Quilts
Watch for more at Olivia Gaines’s site.
The Christmas Quilts
By
Olivia Gaines
Contents
Chapter One- A Bag of Scraps
Chapter Two – Gathering the Tools
Chapter Three – The Set Up
Chapter Four – 9 Inch Square
Chapter Five – Batting
Chapter Six – Cutting Up
Chapter Seven – Patterns
Chapter Eight – 1/4 Inch Seam Allowance
Chapter Nine – Finger Pressing
Chapter Ten – Assembling the Blocks
Chapter Eleven – Quilt Tops
Chapter Twelve – Ironing It Out
Chapter Thirteen – Sandwiching
Chapter Fourteen – Trimming the Edges
Chapter Fifteen – Basting
Chapter Sixteen – Batting
Chapter Seventeen – Quilting
Chapter Eighteen- The Binding
Coming February 2018
On A Rainy Night in Georgia
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Davonshire House Publishing
PO Box 9716
Augusta, GA 30916
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s vivid imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely a coincidence.
© 2017 Olivia Gaines, Cheryl Aaron Corbin
Copy Editor: Teri Thompson Blackwell
Cover: Nu Class Graphicz
Olivia Gaines Make Up and Photograph by Latasla Gardner Photography
ASIN: B0763BK8DP
ISBN-13: 978-1979734585
ISBN-10: 1979734585
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means whatsoever. For information address, Davonshire House Publishing, PO Box 9716, Augusta, GA 30916.
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 9 8
First Davonshire House Publishing December 2017
DEDICATION
For Lillie Mae who handed me a garbage bag full of scraps at the age of 10 and
made me make my first quilt.
.
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thank you to the Tuesday Sushi Club, Jessica and Hildie, for keeping me grounded.
To all the fans, friends and supporters of the dream as well as the Facebook community of writers who keep me focused, inspired and moving forward.
Write On!
Also by Olivia Gaines
The Slice of Life Series
The Perfect Man
Friends with Benefits
A Letter to My Mother
The Basement of Mr. McGee
A New Mommy for Christmas
The Slivers of Love Series
The Cost to Play
Thursday in Savannah
Girl's Weekend
Beneath the Well of Dawn
Santa’s Big Helper
The Davonshire Series
Courting Guinevere
Loving Words
Vanity's Pleasure
The Blakemore Files
Being Mrs. Blakemore
Shopping with Mrs. Blakemore
Dancing with Mr. Blakemore
Cruising with the Blakemores
Dinner with the Blakemores
Loving the Czar
The Value of a Man Series
My Mail Order Wife
A Weekend with the Cromwell’s
Other Novellas
North to Alaska
The Brute & The Blogger
A Better Night in Vegas
Other Books
A Menu for Loving
Turning the Page
The Zelda Dairies
This is Bisa Washington, The Quilting Bee.
Chapter One- A Bag of Scraps
Lily Rose Richardson eyed the bag of baby clothes dropped off by her granddaughter Jane for the construction of her son Gideon’s quilt. Thus far, at the ripe age of 88, Lily had made at least twenty-four quilt tops for each new arrival in the Richardson family. The tops of the quilts she knew how to make, it was the sandwiching and quilting portion which gave her trouble. Meticulously she collected the first years’ worth of baby clothing from each new addition to the family, carefully cutting the fabric down to six-inch blocks and the rest of the garment she would place in the scrap bag. The bag of scraps over the years grew as did the four beautiful children she gave birth to with her long since passed husband, Bart Senior.
The four children—Dirk, Amanda, Drusilla and Bart Junior—were all accomplished in their own ways as well as having families themselves. Of Lily’s twelve grandchildren, only three were not parents. Amos, Amanda’s son, would never marry, at least not a woman, by Lily Rose’s calculations. In Lily Rose’s estimation, that boy had more sugar in his tank than a Co
ca-Cola truck headed to Mardi Gras. In general, she liked Amos. His apple pie puts hers to shame, but if she had to choose a favorite grandchild, which no grandmother never should, it would be Cody.
Cody, Bart Jr’s son, was an engineer at the nuclear power plant down in Beech Island. As smart as Cody was, even as a child he was always a bit of a fish out of water. She smiled wistfully as she sorted through the clothes, reminiscing on the time when all his cousins were running down the side of the gulch in order to climb up to the other side and he would be the one kid standing back, waiting to see what was in the gullet. Nine times of ten, he would be the one suggesting the construction of a suspension bridge from one side of the hill to the other to get across the gulch, but that was Cody in a nutshell. No task was too great for him. His cunning little mind always would find the safest, most logical approach to any problem, creating a workable solution that was a win-win for all involved. He was a bright spot in her life, unlike the bag of baby clothes.
The clothing in the bag were all dull colors which matched Jane’s personality, so Lily feared a life of boredom for little Gideon. The bag of scraps would come in handy to mix cheerful colors into his quilt. She prayed for a solution for the quilt tops as her 89th birthday would be approaching on Christmas Eve. If only she could find a means to turn the tops into actual quilts, then it would be a nice gift to give her family before she left this world. Her old hand shook as she tried to hold the scissors, dropping them in a loud clank of metal against the wooden floor.
“Nana? Are you okay in there?” Cody asked, coming around the corner.
“No. These old scissors are too dull to cut butter. I need them sharpened,” Lily Rose told him. Like clockwork every Saturday, he came to the old house to visit. When she reached her 80th year, he worried about her living alone in the big house and chose to give up his townhome in Aiken to move in with her so his Nana didn’t live by herself.
“I’ll get that for you,” he said, picking up the scissors and taking them into the remodeled kitchen.
Initially, she been opposed to such a handsome young man leaving his life to come and take care of her, but in the eight years he’d been in the home, he’d made nice improvements to the four-bedroom, two story Antebellum house. It still had a guest bedroom for when her grandkids would stay over, but the sitting room, off the downstairs bedroom, he’d converted into a sewing room for her. The fourth bedroom belonged to him and he kept it as neat as a quilting pin. The old carpet had been removed and Cody had refinished the hardwood floors underneath. Crown molding was added around all of the ceilings along with fresh coats of durable, vibrant paint colors, which gave the old home a retro feel, maintaining all the character which was due to an old Antebellum house. The front porch swing was updated with a fresh coat of paint and new cushions, and six new chairs were on the porch.
Cody returned with the sharpened scissors, looking at the pile of baby clothes. “Nana, are you trying to cut up all of these pieces into squares for Gideon’s quilt?” he asked, eyeing her shaking hands.
“Yes, I am, but my hands don’t seem to want to agree with my brain’s ability to get things done,” she told him.
“Can I help? Tell me what you need me to do,” he said.
Quietly, she eyed her six-foot-tall grandbaby. He was the oldest of all the grandkids and she knew secretly that moving in with her wasn’t just to help her out but to keep his cousins from trying to move in and take over her home. He’d arranged for transportation during the week for her to attend the Aiken Active Senior’s Club, an organization which was disguised as an adult daycare program, but they served lunch and had a few bachelors who attended during the week as well. They also served a decent hot lunch and the chicken salad wasn’t half bad. Lily Rose enjoyed the daily outing, which made her feel like she was still an active participant in her own life, versus sitting around and waiting to die. At least this way, if she were called home to glory, she would do it sitting around with a bunch of other old people versus in front of her television watching game shows and soap operas. Most nights, Cody would be home for dinner, cooking with her on Sunday when his father, Uncle, and Aunts would come by after church. The family was too big to do Sunday dinners together but every Thanksgiving the family would head to Dirk’s large home on Lake Thurmond for the family meals. Christmas Eve was reserved for Druscilla’s sprawling home, which Lily Rose believed looked more like a set from a Science Fiction movie. That left Easter dinner to be hosted by Amanda.
It all worked out in its own way, but she wanted to do something special for her ninetieth birthday if she lived to see the day.
“Yes, you can help, Cody. Open that closet door over there,” she said pointing at the old door with the shiny clear knob. As a child, he always thought the knobs were giant diamonds, even trying to take one off to sell for the space ship he was planning to build. His grandfather made him put the doorknob back, the same one, he was opening now.
He did so, going to the closet and spotting stacked clear containers loaded with materials.
“Do you want me to take these out?”
“Please,” she said, moving closer to stand next to him.
He pulled out four full containers, laying them out side by side. The first container he opened, followed by the other three. Inside each were beautiful hand sewn quilts.
“In that first container are five quilts, one each belonging to Dirk, Amanda, Druscilla and Bart Jr. I think your quilt should be the one on top,” she said, touching the fabric.
Taking out the quilt on the top, he smiled, looking at all the pretty quilt blocks carefully sewn together with perfectly even stitches in baby blue thread.
“This is amazing, Nana,” he told her. “So each of us have one of these?”
“Yes, I have been making quilts for my family since Dirk was born, but these are just tops. It would be amazing if you could find someone or help me get these quilts finished so I can present them to the family next Christmas,” she said. “There are twenty-three quilts in there, all queen sized. A few years back I priced having them made, but the cost was too much on my fixed income, but I have been saving.”
He was still holding the quilt top as his eyes looked at the other three containers.
“I don’t want to send them off to some stranger to have them quilted. I am afraid they won’t come back,” she told him. “Will you find out for me if there is somewhere local that we can have these done?”
“Sure thing, Nana,” he said.
“You are such a sweet young man,” she patted his arm as she spoke. “I have money to get them done. Since you moved in and pay all the bills, I have a nice little nest egg that can go for putting them altogether, but time is of the essence.”
“I will get started on this right away. You said there are twenty-three?” he asked, looking at the bag of scraps.
“Yes and I will work on getting Gideon’s done as well, which would make it twenty-four,” she said.
“I’m on it, Nana,” he said, neatly folding his quilt, placing the tissue in between his and his father’s quilts in bold, big blocks.
He neatly stacked the containers into the closet as he had found them and looked at his Grandmother’s frail body. She’d lived a good life as a doctor’s wife and as far as he knew, she’d never experienced any hardships outside of being lonely. Her children had become her life and the house a safe haven filled with love. In his 38 years of life, he’d never known his family to have arguments or brawls or his aunts Amanda and Drusilla to have petty cat fights. His father and Uncle Dirk still fished together on every third Saturday morning, rain or shine and the 4th of July was still celebrated at his parent’s home with the family. His cousins were more like brothers and sisters to him, and all of that he attributed to Grandma Lily Rose.
Lily Rose raised her family in love with solid principals of giving, sharing and caring. She never asked anything of her children, not even a ride to church, the market, or to take her to a doctor’s appointment. Lil
y Rose took care of herself and those around her, which is why Cody took such pride in taking care of her.
Before he closed the closet door, he decided he would find a way to make these quilts come together to give her a gift, which in turn she could give to her family.
“I will make this happen for you, Nana,” he said, not knowing where to start or how, but he would find a means. Lily Rose never asked for anything and had never asked anything of him other than this.
This he could do.
“I CAN’T DO IT,” HE mumbled, hitting his desk with his fist. “That is just too much money.”
“Man, what are you going on about over there?” Antione Sharps asked him.
“My Nana has made all of these quilts tops for our family, and next Christmas Eve will be her 90th birthday. I am trying to get the tops made into quilts. Every website I have checked, these people want to charge me nearly a thousand bucks to make each one. That is twenty-four thousand dollars,” he said, sighing loudly.
“That’s a lot of money, dude,” he said to Cody.
“Yeah, she’s saved up ten thousand to get them done, but I can’t see paying this amount. I mean, in the overall scheme of things, it would be worth it, but that is a lot of money,” Cody said, gripping the mouse, clicking on the next site.
“Hey, my girl Bisa just opened a quilt shop right here in Aiken,” he said. “Want me to give her a call, maybe set up a time you can go by and see her? Who knows, she might be able to guide you or offer some help in getting them done for you.”
Cody bounded to his feet.
“That would be great, and she is local, too! Antoine, when you call, can you see if I can stop by this evening and talk to her?” Cody asked excitedly. “Why didn’t her quilt shop come up online?”
“She only has a Facebook page right now, I think,” Antoine said. “It’s just a small shop that she is trying to get off the ground. The business would do her good. I don’t know her prices or anything, but like I said, maybe she could help.”
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