by Sarah Price
So he had heard about Susie’s mean-spirited boasting! He must have suspected that those boasts had reached Priscilla’s ears and wanted to stop any gossip before it grew larger and took on a life of its own.
Tears came to Priscilla’s eyes, despite her fierce determination to fight them. She was glad that it was dark and he couldn’t see. She didn’t want to let him know that she had doubted his intentions.“I see,”she whispered.
He stopped the buggy and looked over at her. It was dark in the buggy but the light from the headlights cast a soft glow so that she could see him staring at her. He had a serious look on his face as he continued.“I meant what I said earlier, Priscilla. And…”He paused again. She waited patiently for him to continue, sensing that what he had to say was very important.“I also know that everyone is talking about winter quilting.”
She caught her breath but didn’t say anything.
“Well, I know it’s soon but…”He cleared his throat. He seemed nervous. That was a first, she thought. Stephen was always so sure of himself.“It might not be a bad idea if you…well, you could certainly start your quilt…if you’d like.”
“Oh...”she said, her throat constricting and the word coming out in a breathless whoosh.
“I mean…well…only if you wanted to,”he stammered nervously.“Or not, I guess.”
“It is rather soon,”she said quietly. In truth, she was stunned that he had mentioned a quilt. Women made them when they were courting. It also usually meant intentions were made between a couple for the future. Was that what Stephen meant? She glanced at him then looked away, the color rising to her cheeks. She could sense that he tensed beside her.“But I…I think that might be a nice idea,”she quickly added.“A quilting bee, I mean.”
She felt his relief. He reached over and touched her hand.“And what about the future, Priscilla? With a finished quilt, perhaps we could put it to good use next December then?”
“December?”Her heart was racing. That was over a year away. But it wasn’t uncommon for the younger women to know that far in advance of the intention of a young man.“If that’s what you’d like,”she whispered.
“What would you like, Priscilla?”he asked, forcing her to look at him.
She hesitated, feeling shy at the prospect that he had indicated his desire to marry her.“I…I suppose I would like that very much.”
He laughed and lifted her hand to his lips again. Pressing a soft kiss against her skin, he said,“I don’t want you to worry about anyone or anything, Priscilla Smucker. I want you to be Stephen’s Priscilla and I don’t care who knows, even if it is a long way away.”He released her hand.“It will give me time to prepare the farm and for us to court more openly, ja?”
She wanted to laugh, to tell him how relieved she was. But the words wouldn’t form on her lips. Instead, she nodded her head, despite the fact that he couldn’t see her.“I won’t worry anymore, Stephen,”she said softly.“And I’d like nothing more than to be Stephen’s Priscilla.”
And, with that, she knew the path of her future. With joy, they rode the rest of the way to the Smucker farm in silence, both thinking about the commitment they had just made to each other and reveling in the knowledge that forever was just beginning for the two of them.
Chapter Five
“So I was thinking,”Priscilla said casually to her Mamm. It was Wednesday, four days after her talk with Stephen about his intentions. They were in the kitchen making cheese. Her mammwas busy slicing the curds into large chunks that would be pressed into big, round wheels later in the afternoon. Priscilla was leaning against the sink, idly drying the dishes from the noon meal.“Mayhaps making that quilt this winter would be a right gut idea.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Priscilla saw her mammstop for a moment. Her back stiffened and she was silent. Then, as if she hadn’t paused, she began sliding the long knife back through the curds.“I see,”she said, glancing over her shoulder at Priscilla.“You know, nowadays many of the young women are opting to put store bought comforters inside their hope chests instead of home-made quilts.”
Even though Mamm couldn’t see, Priscilla shrugged her shoulders. She had heard about this trend and didn’t think much of it.“Well, I think I much prefer a quilt. Means much more to have so many women helping to make it, ja?”
Her mammset the knife on the side of the stove and turned around.“Priscilla,”she said softly. Her eyes were soft and full of love.“I couldn’t agree with you more. I’d be more than happy to have a quilting bee for your wedding quilt.”
Priscilla bit her lip. Wedding quilt. The words echoed in her head. It sounded strange.“Well, mayhaps we could just call it a quilt for my hope chest,”she offered.“I’d feel awfully brazen calling it a wedding quilt.”
“Brazen?”her mammasked. There was a hint of a smile on her face, but she didn’t inquire further than a raised eyebrow.
“Ja vell,”Priscilla responded. A wedding quilt usually meant that the couple had announced their intentions at church or, at least, had both been baptized already, with their eyes looking toward the future. Since Priscilla wouldn’t be taking her baptism until the spring or even autumn of the following year, marriage was definitely not in the near future. He had said December of next year. Plenty of time to get to know each other better without the worry of Susie Byler trying to create waves or drive a wedge between them.“It would be a long while before a wedding, anyway.”
“I see,”her mammsaid again, nodding her head in approval. As if reading her daughter’s mind, Mamm added,“Especially since you haven’t taken your baptism yet, I reckon you’re right.”
It was on Saturday when Priscilla had time to sit down with her Mamm to discuss the quilting bee again. They had to decide about the pattern and the colors before heading to the local fabric store. It would be a hard few weeks as Mamm and Priscilla would have to cut and piece the quilt top. That needed to be completed before they could start the actual quilting. It wouldn’t be until November when the quilting frame would be set up and the women invited on Saturday afternoons for fellowship and time spent together stitching the pattern of the quilt. With the holidays, the quilt wouldn’t be finished until January or February, the perfect time to finish as the spring preparation chores would begin at that time.
“I was thinking of your mamm’spattern,”Priscilla said shyly.“The same one that you had and the one that she had. What is it called? Eureka? It would mean ever so much to me to have the same pattern on my own bed one day.”
Mamm blinked.“That pattern is rather complicated, Priscilla. The more dense the quilting, the longer it will take to quilt it. And the top will take a long time to piece.”
“Just means more time together, ain’t so?”
Mamm smiled and reached out to pat her daughter’s hand.“You are such a gut daughter, Priscilla,”she said.“And you’ll certainly make a gut wife.”
Priscilla blushed. She still hadn’t wrapped her arms around the fact that Stephen Esh had made his intentions known to her. Stephen’s Priscilla, she thought, a warm feeling flowing throughout her body. She quickly changed her thoughts and got back to the quilt.“I was thinking of a white and green quilt…maybe with the accent pieces in blue or a burgundy. What do you think, Mamm?”
Her mother nodded.“Those are good colors, Priscilla. Not too feminine and a good representation of the earthly blessings we are given by the Lord.”
For the rest of the day, they planned out the different fabrics they would need and sketched out a design. After the noon meal, Priscilla helped Jonas hitch up the buggy to the horse so that she and Mamm could ride to the fabric stores to start searching for cloth. It would take weeks to piece the quilt top but Priscilla was looking forward to it. She loved working with fabric and sewing the pieces together would pass the time during the upcoming cold and grey afternoons.
“I reckon it will be a few weeks before we can begin quilting,”Mamm said as they walked through the fabric store.“But I’ll let the wome
n know on Church Sunday. Want to make certain they plan on coming to the farm.”
Priscilla ran her hand over a dark green floral bolt of cloth.“What about this, Mamm?”
“Priscilla Smucker!”someone called out.
She looked up, startled to see one of her friends approach.“Naomi! How are you?”
“Why I’m just fine,”she said. She glanced at the fabric in Priscilla’s hands.“That’s not for a new dress now, is it?”
Mamm smiled.“We’re making a wedding quilt this winter for Priscilla,”she said.
Naomi frowned as she digested the words. Priscilla gave an inward groan. Naomi was one of the young women who straddled the fence when it came to the subject of Susie Byler. Certainly that morsel of information from her mammwould be repeated in no time to Susie. Priscilla could only imagine what Susie’s reaction would be, especially since she had been so open about her claims on Stephen at the volleyball game last weekend.
“A wedding quilt?”
“Lots of young women are making them,”Priscilla was quick to add.
“I see,”Naomi said, her grey eyes flashing.“Well, that’s sure a lovely fabric you have picked out, Priscilla.”
“Danke,”Priscilla said.“We’ll see you at worship tomorrow, ja?”
Mamm added,“And make certain to come to the quilting bee. Won’t be for a few weeks. We’ll hold them on Saturdays on the weekends we don’t have service.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,”Naomi said and smiled before she turned around and hurried back to her own shopping.
Mamm glanced down at the fabric in Priscilla’s hand.“That’s is a nice piece of cloth, isn’t it?”she said.
But Priscilla wasn’t thinking about the cloth anymore. She was envisioning how Susie would react. Naomi was sure to tell her about the“wedding”quilt. She could only imagine how embarrassed Susie would feel after having told people that Stephen had come calling on her. With a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach,Priscilla tried to push away the doom and gloom image of Susie’s reaction. But it lingered there, too close to the surface to be dismissed.
Chapter Six
It was late November and the sky was gloomy and dark. The clouds created a solid cover that hindered the sun from poking through to warm the ground. It looked cold outside and Priscilla was happy that she was going to be indoors for most of the day.
The women had started arriving shortly after ten in the morning. For the past two days, Priscilla had been helping her mamm prepare for the first day of their quilting bee. They had enlisted the help of David and Jonas to move the larger furniture out of the gathering room next to the kitchen. After everything was empty, Priscilla had cleaned the downstairs, making certain that everything was spic and span, no dust hidden in any corners or windowsills.
Mamm had inspected everything with an eagle’s eye.“Won’t do to have anyone think that I can’t keep my house properly,”she mumbled to Priscilla as she examined even the smallest nook and cranny. Finally, she nodded her approval.“That’ll do, Priscilla.”
Despite the lack of praise, Priscilla knew that her mamm was pleased with her hard work.
Next, the men had put together the quilting frame. It took up the larger part of the room. Around it, Priscilla set up chairs and benches. This is where the women would sit to quilt and share stories both before and after the noon meal.
For the next few months, the women would come visiting to contribute to the quilt every other Saturday. They liked to quilt only on the weeks when they didn’t have church service. During the week was too hard for it was the wedding season. Many of the young couples were getting married on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the different communities, which meant that many families were attending weddings on those days. Some of the weddings were local to the church district, which meant that everyone attended the wedding. For those, a Saturday was the perfect quilting day.
The older women usually came earlier in the day and left after the meal while the younger ones would arrive for the meal and stay later, lingering to sing hymns while quilting and to help clean up before leaving to return to their parents’farm in time for evening chores.
Mamm and Priscilla had spent two weeks piecing the quilt top. First they had to cut the pieces of fabric then sew them together. For that, they had used the sewing machine that Mamm kept in the master bedroom. It ran off of a small solar box that Daed had set up for just this purpose.
When they had finally stretched the quilt onto the frame, Priscilla had simply stared at it. The pattern was called Eureka with a large star at the center of the fabric. But each point of the star was made out of two color squares. At the center of the star was another square with a symmetrical flower in two tones of green and two shades of red. Surrounding the star and flower were diamonds. But each diamond had something unique about the pattern. One diamond had a wavy edge while another had red starbursts.
It was such an unusual pattern with very complicated piecing of the material. One of the things about the pattern that Priscilla loved was how it covered the bed. With the pillows neatly tucked under the quilt at the to of the bed, the pattern folded over upon itself and the outer diamonds lined up perfectly with the inner ones. When the bed was made, it was stunning in the symmetry, a true display of sophisticated sewing in constructing the quilt top.
Now, as the women sat around and started quilting, they were all talking about the gorgeous pattern. Priscilla had blushed and quickly diffused the praise.“It’s a pattern from my mamm and her mamm,”she said quietly.“Certainly no prettier than other patterns, I’m sure.”
The older women nodded their head and smiled at each other. Priscilla’s response had been modest enough to gain their approval. Too often, some of the younger women were eager for praise, especially given that they were in a period of their lives when they were uncertain and insecure. But Priscilla had definitely passed that test.
The women were eager to begin the quilting process. They set their thimbles and spools of white thread on top of the quilt as they sat around the frame. One of the women had a pair of small sewing scissors on a pink string tied hanging from her neck. Another woman had set three spools of thread before her as well as a set of spare needles in a plastic bag. The older women were seasoned quilters and knew the small tricks of the trade in order to be most productive.
There was something peaceful about sitting among the quilters, listening to their stories about friends and family, stories that helped bond the women. Priscilla couldn’t imagine why any young woman would prefer a store-bought comforter over the magic of a handmade, love-sewn quilt.
“Look how tiny your stitches are, dear,”Lizzie Miller said. Her brown eyes were sunken in her face, the wrinkles under her eyes speaking of the many years that she had helped her husband tend to the crops in the fields. “So even and small. You must have been practicing.”
Priscilla smiled at the older woman.“I love quilting, ja.”
Lizzie looked up and stared across the quilting frame. Her eyes caught an older woman with white hair pulled into such a tight bun that her part was nearly a whole inch wide.“Lydia, did you hear that Mary Ruth and Jacob announced their intentions last week?”
Lydia clucked her tongue and shook her head.“Let me guess…a store-bought comforter?”she asked disapprovingly, causing laughter to erupt around the room.“What is wrong with these young people anyway? Whoever heard of a store-bought covering for the marriage bed?”She looked up, her dark steely eyes penetrating those who looked at her.“A wedding quilt! That’s what helps start a marriage and keep it strong all along!”
Several gray heads bobbed up and down in agreement. Priscilla smiled to herself, trying not to giggle at their seriousness over the topic.
When her eyes fell on Priscilla, Lydia softened her gaze.“A wise choice, Priscilla,”she said.“You are keeping worldliness out of your home.”
Mamm looked up from her needle and frowned.“Now Lydia,”she chastised.“This is not a wedding quilt.
It’s for her hope chest.”
Pressing her lips together into a tight link, Lydia waved her weathered hand.“Pfff!”she hissed.“We all know that truth. Anyone can see the intention of that young man of hers.”
Color rose to Priscilla’s cheeks and she lowered her eyes.
“This time next year, your daughter will be living at the farm down the lane, you mark my words!”Lydia added emphatically.
Lizzie bumped Priscilla with her arm in a gesture of gentle teasing.“You mark her words!”she laughed and the rest of the women joined her.
It was almost noon when the younger women started to arrive. They greeted the different mamms and grossmammis with handshakes and soft-spoken greetings as they walked around the room. Priscilla stood up and hurried over to welcome her friends.
“Why Priscilla,”Anna gushed.“That is just the most beautiful pattern!”
Polly nodded her head.“I don’t think I’ve even seen that pattern before.”
“It’s a variation of the eureka. See how it looks like a large star inside the diamond? But when you really look, you can see that the quilting pattern is really boxes,”she explained.“It was passed down from my grossmammi to my mamm.”
“Makes me want to think about putting a quilt into my hope chest,”Anna said, her eyes sparkling.“Mayhaps you could help me pick my pattern and colors, ja?”
Priscilla flushed. She wasn’t used to so much attention.“I’d be happy to, Anna,”she responded.
Naomi and Sarah joined them.“I’m probably going to buy a nice comforter for my hope chest,”Naomi said.
Someone snorted from around the quilting frame and Priscilla glanced over her shoulder at Lydia who was shaking her head and frowning. Hiding her amusement, Priscilla turned back to her friends.“We all have our own tastes, ain’t so?”she said pleasantly.
“Girls,”Mamm called.“Mayhaps you could get the table ready. Priscilla can help you with the food.”
