"Who makes that fabric?” Jenny asked.
"It's a Phillip Jacobs print for Rowan,” Mavis replied.
"Well, it's cheating, but I have to admit, we might have a chance with that in our arsenal,” Lauren grumbled.
Robin stood up and removed the quilt that was folded up in her bag, Carla took one corner and stepped aside, opening it to the group's view.
The quilt was composed of multiple-sized star blocks with a fussy-cut realistic dog for the center and a taupe background. The points of the stars were made from prints that coordinated with the center images.
"That came out real cute,” Mavis said.
"How did you find images that were spaced far enough apart to fussy-cut like that?” DeAnn asked, referring to the technique of cutting a quilt piece at any angle or direction that resulted in a particular image being centered in the piece.
"We didn't,” Carla said. “If you look close, you can see where we added solid-colored fabric to the edges of the dog fabric."
DeAnn stood and picked up the corner of the quilt, looking closely at one of the blocks.
"Very clever,” she said and went back to her seat.
"What about Harriet's quilt?” Sarah asked. “Do you need me to finish it?"
Harriet blanched at the thought of Sarah touching her quilt. Even knowing Aunt Beth and Mavis had already finished it, the idea of Sarah, who never met an instruction she couldn't disregard, even coming close to her design was frightening.
"Thank you, honey,” Mavis said, “Beth and I finished the quilt for Harriet when she got hurt."
Beth stood up and went to Harriet's work table to pick up the folded quilt. She handed two corners to Mavis and stepped to the side with the other two, allowing the quilt to unfurl.
"Whoa,” DeAnn said when the image was revealed.
Blocks appeared to cascade from the center of the quilt. The three dimensional cubes each appeared to have a dog inside it, due to Harriet's clever instruction to everyone to fussy-cut a diamond-shaped dog image to form one side of each block.
Harriet had chosen deep reds and brown tones that ranged from a light caramel to a brown so dark it was almost black. The overall effect was striking. The pile of blocks were appliquéd onto a black background.
"Wow,” said Robin. “You sure couldn't tell how dramatic that was going to come out just from doing a single block."
"I think we have a contender for raffle quilt,” Jenny announced then looked around the group, silently daring Lauren or Sarah to challenge her assessment, but they remained silent.
"Let's see the dog-bone quilt,” Harriet said.
"We made a change after the last meeting,” Jenny said and got up to take the quilt from Aunt Beth's work table. “The original plan was to have a different breed of dog in each bone wreath, but when I drew up the diagrams, it looked too disjointed, so I changed the plan and made each dog face different colors and expressions, but all based on a Yorkshire terrier.” She unfolded the result and held it up for the group to see. “Beth just finished it, so of course, it isn't bound yet, but here it is."
The dog faces were appliquéd in tan, white and black with touches of gray. Pink had been used for the dogs’ tongues and some of the bows in their topknots. They were set in two rows of three on a medium rose-pink background. Dark-green vines and dark-pink and white flowers twined around the outside of the dog blocks, framing them, and the final border was cut in deep scallops. The scallop area had been quilted in a closely set crosshatch pattern. Jenny explained that the binding would be the same dark green as the flower vines.
"We may be competing against ourselves for the raffle quilt,” Robin said. “This one is definitely a contender, too."
Jenny blushed a becoming shade of pink. “I don't know about that, but at least they should be able to sell it at auction."
She picked up Connie's plate of butterscotch chocolate bars and handed them around the group again before sitting back down.
Connie was explaining that grated carrots were the secret ingredient in her bars, but she stopped when someone knocked on the door. Harriet looked around. Most of the people she knew were already in the room, and Aiden was at the vet clinic-and he wouldn't have knocked, in any case. She mentally reviewed her quilting schedule, trying to think of any customer she might have a forgotten.
Aunt Beth went to the door to let Detective Morse in.
"What's she doing here?” Harriet blurted.
"Mind your manners, child,” Aunt Beth said. “I called Detective Morse and told her about Sarah's story of seeing Joseph. She wants to question her, and I told her to come on over.” She ushered Detective Morse into the center of the circle of chairs.
"Ladies,” she said. “I'd like you all to meet Jane Morse. She's a detective, and she's investigating the murders."
She didn't need to say which murders-they all knew. No one moved or said anything.
"She's also a quilter,” Beth added.
"What kind of quilts do you make?” Lauren asked.
"Mostly machine piecing,” Jane replied. “I'm learning to appliqué, but I'm not very good on inside curves yet."
Carla smiled at the last comment.
"I'd love to look at the quilts you have here, but first I need to ask…” She glanced at a small notebook in her hand. “…Sarah Ness a few questions."
Everyone turned to look at Sarah.
"I'm Sarah. But if you think I'm going to rat out Joseph, you're mistaken. I'm no one's snitch."
"Sarah!” Aunt Beth and Mavis said at the same time.
"This isn't some B-grade gangster movie, Sarah,” Harriet said. “People are dead. You could be endangering Joseph by not telling the detective what you know."
"She's right,” Lauren seconded. “We're just assuming Joseph killed those two people and attacked Harriet, but it could be his only crime is running."
"Why would he run if he didn't do anything?” Sarah asked.
"Geez, Sarah,” Lauren said. “Make up your mind whose side you're on."
"Is there somewhere I can talk to Ms. Ness alone?” Detective Morse asked.
"Sure,” Aunt Beth said. “Come on, Sarah,” she prompted and led the two women into the kitchen.
The Loose Threads used the half-hour while Detective Morse was questioning Sarah to discuss the details of the pre-auction meeting where the raffle quilt would be selected. The contenders would be judged by a committee made up of local city council members as well as representatives from several animal-related businesses and nonprofit employers. Each guild would present their quilts along with the all-important narrative about the design and construction of each entry.
"Have any of the rest of you seen or talked to Joseph Marston in the last week?” Detective Morse asked when she and Sarah returned to the studio.
"Aiden and I saw him at the Steaming Cup last weekend,” Harriet offered.
"Did you talk to him?"
"We did-or at least, we tried to."
"What do you mean?"
"He was acting kind of jittery, and when I asked him a couple of questions, he was sharp with me-he raised his voice. Said things like ‘What difference does it make?’ Normally, he's kind of quiet and patient, but that night he wasn't."
"Has anyone else heard from him?” Morse looked at DeAnn.
"Not in the last week,” DeAnn told her. “We've tried to get hold of him, but he hasn't returned any of our calls."
"Well, thank you, ladies,” Morse said. “Beth told me you're making quilts for the pet adoption benefit. Do you mind if I look?"
"You don't belong to the Small Stitches, do you?” Connie asked.
"No, I haven't found a quilt group since I moved to Foggy Point."
Connie glanced at Mavis then Beth and Jenny. Each in turn gave an almost imperceptible affirmative nod.
"Let's start with the doghouses,” Mavis said, and Carla and Lauren held that quilt up for the detective. They displayed each of the others then refolded them and piled them on the work table.