Dakota Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

repairing. Some just can’t be restored, but yours is in pretty good condition.” She pointed to the blocks’ seams. “This quilt was hand sewn and used, maybe not by your mother, but someone. The stress of being used and laundered pulled at the seams until the thread broke. Cotton thread was used back then and didn’t stretch like the nylon type made today.”
    “You got all that from looking at a block? What else can you tell me?”
    “Well, the quilt was tied together versus quilted.” Caroline pointed to knotted string in the corner of one block. “That will make it easier to repair. The cotton batting in between the top and back needs to be replaced. It’s separated in spots from use. That’s why the quilt is bumpy.”
    Caroline grabbed the quilt with both hands, held it firm, and tugged. “The fabric shows no signs of rot or it would’ve pulled apart. This”—Caroline ran her fingers down the ragged hem fold of the quilt—“is not rot; it’s wear.”
    “What about that block in the corner of the top? The way the cloth looks, an animal chewed it.”
    “Well,” Caroline said, fingering the block, “it looks more like it got caught in something with gears, maybe the wringer of a washer? See these small black marks?”
    Taking reading glasses out of his flannel shirt pocket and slipping them on, Rodney took a closer look at the quilt block Caroline held up. “Grease stains?”
    “That’s my guess. And that block is the problem if you want the quilt restored. The block will need to be replaced. There’s a quilt shop in Sioux Falls that carries replica feed sack material, so I may be able to match the fabric. If you want it repaired, I can work around it, but the quilt will be smaller because I’ll have to take blocks out.”
    Rodney removed his glasses and returned them to his pocket. “Okay.”
    Caroline knitted her brows. “Okay to which option?”
    “I don’t know.” Rodney shrugged his shoulders. “I thought you’d just tell me what needed to be done and I could say do it.”
    “Don’t you want an estimate of the price for each?”
    “No, that doesn’t matter.”
    “Wow, I should have gone into lawn care and snow removal instead of quilt repair.” The words were out before Caroline realized how it sounded. She could never be that casual about money, especially now. She lived on a tight budget, but that didn’t give her the right to be rude.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. It’s just since Ted died, I keep a close watch on my finances.”
    Rodney finished his tea. “Don’t worry about it. Another lifetime ago, I excelled as an ad exec and made good investments.”
    “Impressive and exciting. A boomer with good career planning in your youth, so you were able to retire”—Caroline made air quotes with her fingers—“at a young age.”
    “It wasn’t quite like that.”
    “Nothing goes as planned, I guess. I dreamed of an exciting career in clothes design but played it safe and got a teaching degree in home economics.” She shrugged.
    “You traded it for another dream, a home and family?”
    “You might say that a heart attack stole that dream away from me, too.” Caroline sighed. What was wrong with her? She seemed to spill out personal information around Rodney.
    “Health issues can do that, but maybe that’s God’s plan.”
    At one time Caroline would have agreed with that statement, but not anymore. God wasn’t a topic that she wanted to discuss. She’d respected her parents and husband’s wishes as instructed in His commandments, and what did it get her? A life filled with uncertainty. Not that it was any of Rodney’s business. Before she blurted out any more of her personal life, she steered the conversation back to business. “Are you interested in the name of your quilt block?”
    “Quilts have names?”
    Caroline grinned. “The blocks do. Mildred’s was the Fisher Boy. I think yours is a lily of some sort. I can try a search