Shona loved the sound of everyone talking and moving around the kitchen. After Nate went back to college, her home would fall silent.
All she could do was enjoy tonight and try not to think about tomorrow.
* * *
After they’d finished dessert,Joseph stepped into Shona’s sewing room and stared at shelves filled with a rainbow of colored fabric.
Adele turned in a slow circle. “Wow. This is amazing.”
Shona smiled. “It’s my favorite room in the house.”
Joseph could see why. For anyone who enjoyed quilting, it would be like an Aladdin’s cave of treasure. As well as floor-to-ceiling shelves dedicated to color-matched fabric, there were containers of glittery thread, ribbons, sequins, and beads.
Adele ran her fingers along a wooden table. “Do you make all your quilts in this room?”
“I sew all the quilts in this room, but sometimes I use the kitchen table to cut the fabric and design the patterns.”
Nate stood in the doorway. “Mom has customers all around the States.”
Shona smiled. “One of the reasons my quilts are so popular is because of Nate. He built a website for my business and showed me how to use Facebook and Instagram. We post photos and videos of the quilts as I’m sewing them. People see them and order either that quilt or something similar.”
“You should like Shona’s Facebook page, Dad,” Adele said excitedly.
Joseph raised his eyebrows.
She patted his hand. “It’s okay. I don’t have an account, but plenty of my friends do. They showed me how to use Facebook.”
Shona unfolded a quilt. “A lady in Amsterdam saw a video of this quilt being made. She liked it so much that she bought it for her grandson.”
“It's beautiful,” Adele said. “I like the buttons.”
Inside each square of fabric was an animal-shaped button. Lions, frogs, fish, and dogs decorated the blue and green quilt. “Where did you find the buttons?”
“One of my friends is an artist. She made them for me when I told her I couldn’t find any that suited the fabric. Would you like to see the flower bouquet quilt?”
Adele didn't need to be asked twice, and neither did Joseph. “Do you sell many quilts to people who live in Sapphire Bay?” he asked.
“More than you’d think.” Shona opened a drawer and pulled out a large quilt. “Quite a few people buy them as gifts for their family and friends. But most of my sales come from tourists who are visiting Montana. They buy them as a reminder of their vacation.”
As soon as Shona opened the quilt, Joseph knew it was special. Somehow, she'd created a collage of tiny fabric squares that looked like a bouquet of apricot, pink, and cream roses.
Adele sighed. “It’s so pretty.”
He looked closely at the stitching. It dipped and swirled across the fabric, giving the quilt a depth that wouldn’t be possible with anything else. “It’s beautiful. How do you even start a project like this?”
Shona laughed. “With a lot of planning. It’s similar to what you do with the tiny homes. I need to imagine what it will look like when it’s finished before I start. Otherwise, I could run out of fabric or end up with something completely different.”
“And planning helps you know how much time to allocate to each project,” Nate said seriously. “The more orders Mom gets for her quilts, the harder it is to finish everything.”
Joseph frowned. “And you think opening a store will free up your time?”
Shona shook her head. “Possibly not, but other people have offered to help me make quilts for the store.” She pointed to another set of shelves. “I have ten quilts I can sell. The members of the church’s craft group have quilts they want to sell, too. Between us, I’ll have more than enough for when the store opens.”
Adele touched a flower on the bouquet quilt. “When will you finish this one?”
“I’ll add a little more stitching to the right-hand side tonight, and then it’s done.”
Joseph had made some furniture for the boutique Bed and Breakfast on the shore of Flathead Lake. The quilt would look perfect with the French farmhouse feel Penny and her sisters had created. “All I can say is that the Terry sisters are lucky to have this quilt. If you’d advertised it online, it would have been snapped up in seconds.”
