Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt

by Leah Day

  She stuffed the smaller bag into the tote and found there was still a lot of space left. She scanned the room and spotted the scrap baskets on the window seat. “You can never have too much fabric,” she said, upending the contents of three scrap bins on top. Grandma’s sack overflowed with scraps of all shapes and colors and she pushed and tucked to pack it all in.

  She slung the sack over her shoulder and grabbed the quilt top off the sewing chair and hauled it all over to the cutting table. She spread Quilst out flat and stared at the surface. Even with the twelve blocks added, it still wasn’t a very large quilt.

  The row of mountains looked bigger on the horizon. Mally frowned, unable to tell if they were bigger, or it just appeared that way with the new border surrounding the landscape. The largest purple mountain in particular seemed to stretch higher into the sky. Mally did a double take as a dark shape in the middle caught her eye.

  “Is that the…” She leaned closer to peer at a dark blue square in the middle of the triangle. “Yes! It’s the mountain room where Ms. Bunny and I were trapped. And there’s a tiny orange triangle below. It’s showing up here on the quilt and I know it wasn’t there before.”

  “She might have made it bigger. Bring me closer, let me see it.”

  “There’s something else. An orange triangle.” Mally said, scooting Patch over. “Wait, you don’t think that could be Sunshine, do you?”

  “A very good possibility. That wouldn’t be the first time that evil witch has stitched someone to the side of a mountain to send a message.”

  “That’s horrible! Stitched? She’s tied her there with a spider web?”

  “Exactly. Do you see anything else? Any sign of the rabbit or your grandma?”

  “No… wait! There’s something else! The Closed Door block I went through the first time. Uggh! It’s surrounded with gray balls of fluff,” Mally said, pulling on a tangled bird’s nest of broken threads that had appeared on the landscape. The threads stretched off the quilt and she was just reaching for something to cut them free when Patch yelled in her mind.

  “That’s a snarl! Let it go!”

  Mally immediately released the tangled ball. “What? Shouldn’t I cut it off? It’s right next to the door like it’s waiting for us.”

  “Don’t cut it. That might be a friend of mine. Remember what I said about the Ripping Witch? If you pull it off the quilt, there’s no way we can repair the damage. That’s if we can ever figure out how to fix someone that’s been shredded to pieces,” he added as an afterthought.

  “But what about the tornado? I cut off a big chunk of the quilt yesterday. Won’t some of your friends be lost now?”

  “Maybe. We’ll need to save that piece and bring it back into Quilst later if this plan works. Let’s use another door. Hopefully she hasn’t noticed the extra blocks you added yet.”

  “I sure hope not. Which door do you think? Up in the sky or underground?”

  “I vote for underground. We need to stay completely out of sight until we’re ready to attack.”

  “Good idea,” Mally said, running her fingers over the green fabrics. She hadn’t had time to repair the rips in the landscape and she could easily see the cutting mat through several holes around the Great Tree.

  “I’m worried about these rips Menda made in the quilt. I think layering it with batting might fix the holes. I helped Grandma baste lots of quilts and I don’t remember it being too hard.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Patch said. “I’d help, but you know, I can’t move. So I’ll just sit here and watch.”

  Mally searched the sewing room for more fabric and batting. She found a large piece of light blue material that looked bigger than they needed. Thank goodness! That’s one thing I don’t have to stitch, she thought.

  Grandma kept packages of batting piled up under the cutting table. She was just checking the size printed on the plastic wrapping when she heard the familiar sound of Dad’s truck pulling up outside.

  Mally froze, her hands gripping the batting so tight the plastic popped and air hissed out. What if he found her now? They were so close to returning to Quilst. Her mind whirled. Had she cleaned up her crackers in the kitchen? She couldn’t remember and suddenly she felt completely terrified. What if he came storming up the stairs?

  “Move! Mally, spread out the fabric and batting. NOW!” Patch’s voice cut through her terror and she rushed to follow his instructions. She jerked the quilt top off the table and spread out the piece of blue fabric as quickly as she could. It was so big it draped over the edges on all sides.

  The truck door slammed loudly outside. Her hands were shaking as she ripped open the package of batting. It was also much too big and seemed to fill the room as she shook out the folds and spread it over the table. A white cascade of fluffy material fell to the floor. If Dad checked this room, he would notice this change. Will he move the quilt? Will he call the police? A swirl of questions she couldn’t answer danced around her head.

  She heard the porch door open downstairs as she scooped the quilt off the floor. She lifted her arms high to snap out the wrinkles and brought it down gracefully in the center of the table. It was perfect. A total of fourteen patchwork quilt blocks ringed the center landscape. Mally wished she had more time to look at it as she quickly ran her hands over the surface, smoothing out the wrinkles

  She jumped at the sound of heavy feet pounding up the stairs. “MALLY!” Dad yelled. “Mally, are you here? Mally Lauren Spencer, answer me!”

  There was no time to secure the layers of the quilt together with pins or stitching. Just being layered like this would have to be enough. She pulled the heavy tote bag over her shoulder and turned to snatch Patch off the table. Tucking the doll securely under her arm, she twisted the button on the new Closed Door block pieced to the bottom edge of the quilt.

  For an agonizing moment she didn’t think it would work. Grandma hadn’t attached this block to the quilt after all. What if it was something about her, or the button, or maybe magical thread that opened the portal to Quilst?

  But she needn’t have worried. Just like before, a rush of wind and sound filled her ears as the tiny patchwork door clicked open. She could just make out the sound of Dad shouting and the sewing room door rattling as her bare feet lifted off the floor.

  “I’m sorry, Daddy,” she whispered. “I’ll be right back.” She closed her eyes and once again disappeared into the world inside the quilt.

  Chapter 9 - Never the Same Again

  “We’re back,” Mally whispered. She hugged Patch to her chest as she stepped into a vast chamber with glowing white walls stretching as far as she could see. “At least I think we are. I’ve never seen this place before.”

  Mally let Grandma’s heavy sack slide off her shoulder. It hit the ground with a resounding thump, and she stretched out her arms in relief. She squinted up at the ceiling and could just make out the Sawtooth Star quilt block suspended high above like a giant patchwork chandelier.

  The pink door she’d traveled through swung shut behind her with a faint click. She turned to find a new Open Door and Closed Door stitched side by side into the white rock wall. She was reaching out to touch a thin vein stitched in the rock when Patch twitched in her arms. First his paws moved, opening and stretching and extending his claws. Then he began pressing his paws rhythmically against her arm.

  “Patch! You’re making biscuits!” Mally laughed, setting him gently on the floor. Mama had loved it when their old cat Lucy made biscuits for a good hour before settling down for a nap. “We’re in the cave, Patch, and it’s not dirty or dark at all. I wanted it to be light and clean and perfectly hidden from Menda in every way.”

  “Hmmph…” Patch’s face scrunched in a comical expression and she laughed with relief.

  “Yes, I’m sure that was very funny,” Patch said. He stood and stretched, shaking out each leg and his tail. He
unfurled his wings with a flourish, then he closed his eyes and tripled in size in seconds, back to the size of a small horse which seemed to be his favorite. “I have to commend you on the accommodations, little Maker. You’re right, this is a lot better than the cave I would’ve imagined.”

  They moved to investigate the walls that seemed to stretch on and on forever. Mally touched the rock. It felt just like the marble countertop her dad installed in someone’s kitchen, except it felt warm instead of cold. “Is this fabric or really rock? I honestly can’t tell.”

  “It must be fabric. We’re in Quilst after all.” Patch swung his head around. “Can you hear that?” A faint, high pitched noise sounded behind them. Mally turned to look but couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from.

  She noticed Grandma’s tote bag had flopped over on its side and she went to turn it the right way up. The noise built as she drew near, a growing rumble reminiscent of Menda’s snarls. The bag suddenly swelled and Mally shrank back in alarm. The green fabric stretched, the seams screaming in protest as the sack inflated like a miniature hot air balloon, growing rounder and rounder every second.

  With a sound like a gunshot, the sack exploded in a cloud of fabric and frayed threads. Birds burst out of the bag flying in all directions. Mally threw up her hands to shield her face as scraps of cloth shot across the room. The cavern was suddenly filled with so much color, noise, and movement it was like being back in the middle of the tornado.

  Patch pressed against her side, unfurling his wings to wrap around them both. Mally peeked around the edge of the blue fabric and watched as colorful animals streamed out of the remains of the bag by the dozen. Triangular birds in all shapes and sizes flew as high as they could before swooping down to circle the cave. Mice ran in all directions, followed by cats in coordinating colors. A swarm of turkeys went berserk, rushing one way, then another, gobbling furiously.

  “Looks like part one of our plan worked!” Mally shouted.

  “There goes the neighborhood,” Patch replied.

  “You said we needed an army! I can’t believe the blocks made so many animals.”

  Most of the quilt blocks created several creatures at once. Fluffy hens in every color of the rainbow clucked madly as four matching baby chicks ran in circles around their legs. Mother ducks and ducklings followed, waddling as fast as their webbed feet could manage. Tall roosters flapped their wings and crowed, adding their voices to the cacophony. Foxes, frogs and a single toad leapt out of the way as a huge butterfly shot into the air.

  With a deafening roar, a bear rose on his hind legs and stretched his massive blue arms high overhead. Four more bears emerged, sending the mice, chicks and ducklings scrambling to get out of their way. Mally thought the bears were huge, but then the elephant took shape. Unlike most of the animals in the room, her body was a patchwork of different colors, all except her ears which were pink on one side and purple on the other.

  Mally was awestruck. The cavern which had seemed so vast when she arrived now felt filled to the brim. Hummingbirds raced overhead with a sound like helicopter blades, followed by a swarm of bees which must have sprung from the honeycomb blocks she’d found under Grandma’s sewing table. Finally, the flood of new animals seemed to slow as a band of monkeys emerged one by one.

  They moved a bit slower than the rest so Mally could get a better look at them. Their bodies were pieced from whatever fabrics had been in their blocks, which were mostly two solid colors.

  Each had a Monkey Wrench quilt block pieced to their chest, paws, face, or back like a birth mark. Unlike Sunshine who hadn’t had eyes, feet, or a mouth when she first came alive, all of the animals in the room were fully formed and they were all talking, shouting, and laughing as loud as they could.

  I must have imagined them as real animals this time, Mally thought dazedly.

  Something tickled her bare leg and she let out a little shriek. But it was only a tiny yellow mouse with a white Cat and Mouse quilt block pieced to her back. The mouse was trying to get Mally’s attention, pressing her little paws against her bare feet.

  Mally bent down and held out her hands and the mouse leapt onto her palm. Standing up on her hind legs, the mouse spoke in a surprisingly loud, clear voice. Mally had been expecting a high-pitched squeak.

  “Mally Maker, I’m Goldie, First Mouse. We are assembled and prepared to scout ahead. We plan to find the exit to this cavern, then split into groups to search the mountains for Ms. Bunny and Sunshine and the wider reaches for your grandma.”

  “Oh, okay!” Mally said, slightly taken aback by how fast everything was moving. “Perfect!”

  “Where shall we send our reports?”

  “Um…” Mally looked at Patch and he shrugged. “I guess send information here for now. Just make sure everyone knows to stay out of sight, and don’t rip a single stitch of this world. Menda will immediately know we’re here if anything is broken.”

  Goldie gave a crisp salute and vaulted off Mally’s hands. She landed in the middle of a veritable swarm of mice. They immediately shot for the far end of the cavern. The sound of their tiny paws hitting the floor echoed through the cave, like a steady drumroll and the ground trembled lightly under Mally’s feet.

  “That’s a lot of mice,” Patch said.

  “Yeah, I would hate to see what happens to the cat that chases them.” Mally smiled.

  “Might we beeee of service?” A swarm of honey bees buzzed over, speaking in unison. “Weeee can fly up to the mountain to check the triangle you saw. Single file, weeee will beeee very hard to seeee. Then weeee will send word, one beeeeeee to the next beeeeeee.”

  “Yes, please!” Mally said, and the bees buzzed away immediately, following the mice. The crowd had gone quiet, watching the animals leave. Suddenly the patchwork elephant stepped forward and bowed to Mally. Her ears flapped, stirring the air enough to send several chickens and their matching baby chicks tumbling across the floor. Her regal head rose slowly, her long trunk towering over Mally and she spoke with a soft voice just barely over a whisper.

  “Mally the Maker, I am Thimble, and on behalf of all the animals you’ve created, I offer our sincerest thanks for making us real.”

  “But I didn’t make you,” Mally said, confused. “Grandma stitched the blocks–”

  “But you brought us through the door. You imagined us being real and here we are, able to walk and talk and laugh and play. You are our Maker.”

  Mally’s face flushed as Thimble bowed her head again. With a great rustle of shifting bodies, all the creatures in the cavern followed suit. Bears, monkeys, turkeys, foxes, chickens, ducks and frogs lowered their heads. The birds in the air suddenly swirled into a tight circle. Flying in unison, they nearly blocked out the light from the star in the ceiling.

  “I… I don’t know what to say,” Mally pressed her hands to her mouth, completely awestruck. Then she remembered the words Mama drilled into her head constantly when she was little. “Thank you. Thank you all so much.”

  With a great rustle of wings, the birds broke formation and light flooded the cavern once more. The animals rose silently to their full height. All eyes remained fixed on Mally and she had to clench her hands together behind her back to stop them from shaking.

  “I guess we should start with why you’re here?” Mally asked nervously.

  “We’re here to save Ms. Bunny!” four purple ducklings called from a few feet away, perched on the back of a coordinating pink and purple duck.

  “Sunshine! We’re here to save her too!” the birds in the air chanted.

  “Your grandma is also missing,” Thimble said. “The Maker of Quilst needs to be found.”

  “There’s an evil witch to destroy!” a giant black and white bear roared and several animals broke into applause.

  “And a world to repair.” A small green monkey stepped forward, carrying the yellow bag Mally had pack
ed with supplies.

  “Oh, thank you! Yes, there are lots of seams to mend.” Mally slipped the strap over her shoulder and unzipped the bag. She pulled out several spools of thread and a pack of needles and handed them to the monkey. “Please share the needles and thread and fix any ripped seams you find. I brought a lot of scraps with me and they’re all over the floor so gather them up and use them any way you need to.”

  A murmur ran through the crowd and suddenly Goldie was back. Mally held out her hands and the small mouse easily vaulted off the back of a teal fox and landed with a flourish on her open palm.

  “We have found the exit, Mally Maker. The cave extends fifty feet and narrows into a tunnel. The tunnel continues for approximately one hundred feet, then emerges behind the waterfall.”

  “Oh, that’s perfect! Is the entrance hidden?” Mally asked excitedly.

  “Yes, the opening is concealed completely. One additional note, it is growing dark outside. I personally climbed the cliff to check the sky myself.”

  “Getting dark? How? How could Menda rip off all three Suns already?” Many of the animals shifted nervously and a swarm of baby chicks scurried to hide under a handful of fluffy hens.

  “No, two moons are rising in the east over the original Open Door. The three Suns are setting in the west,” Goldie said, gesturing with her tiny paws to illustrate the change in Quilst.

  “We have nighttime now?” Mally glanced at Patch and he shrugged.

  “It might be that you pieced both blocks in one quilt, or it could be where you placed them in the border. It’s to our advantage, little Maker. I know it will throw the Ripping Witch for a loop and it will be much easier to move undetected while it’s dark.”

  “I guess that means it’s time to go,” Mally said as Goldie jumped back to the ground. “I want to start with the triangle on the mountain first.”