The morning of the raffle brought blue skies and a spring-like temperature of 9° C—a perfect day for bringing folks into town with home renovating plans on their minds.
Janice Bethune and Freddie Hollis had just walked in the door of Emmy Lou Custer’s Nimble Thimble Quilt Shop when they spotted Bess and Charlie Walters in the process of setting up the table for the selling of raffle tickets.
“Hi you two,” greeted Bess. “I guess you’ve come to buy a raffle ticket?”
“You bet!” Freddie replied, but not only a ticket; Janice and I have also signed up for the Handi Quilter Longarm machine course which begins today.”
“My goodness, quilting sure has become technical since I started out. I remember how we used to use the empty cardboard cereal boxes to make templates for quilt patterns and although we did machine piece the patterns, we never did machine quilting. It was all done by hand.”
Janice smiled. “I remember starting out the same way, too. We sure have a long quilting history, don’t we.”
Freddie turned to Charlie. “Don’t tell me Bessie finally talked you into coming to the quilt shop?”
Charlie smiled mischievously. “Well, I figured it was about time I came down to see what Bess had found so interesting that would cause her to spend so much time at quilt shops all these years.”
“Humph!” Bess reported as she playfully poked him with her elbow,
“About as many years as you spent prowling about hardware stores and building supply centers.”
“Yup, we were both busy with our separate hobbies: Bess liked making quilts for relatives and grandkids and I enjoyed making rocking horses and wooden children’s toys.”
“Charlie also designed and constructed me a wonderful quilt room,”
Bess added as she smiled fondly at her husband of 59 years.
“Yes, but I also told her that I wouldn’t add any more cupboards for fabric storage.”
“And I reminded Charlie of a well-known quilter’s saying: The one who dies with the most fabric, wins.”
This last comment caused laughter from everyone.
Just then, the door chimes tinkled.
“Looks like you’ve got some potential ticket buyers,” said Janice. She turned to Freddie. “Guess we’d better buy our raffle tickets before the line-up starts.”
At the end of the first day of the raffle sale, the volunteers gathered in the Oak Crest lounge to enjoy a much deserved cup of tea and some warm scones.
Everyone felt that the first day of sales had been fairly steady, but not yet, brisk.
“It’s early days yet,” said Tony philosophically.
“Whew, am I tired,” exclaimed one resident.
“I’ll second that,” responded another. “I never thought that three hours of selling raffle tickets would wear me out.”
“Well, I for one, wasn’t all that busy that I couldn’t chat with the customers at The Birder’s Nest shop. I also got a chance to have a quick look at the new binoculars,” said Frank Zimmerman. “As a matter of fact, I might just get my raffle partner, Freda interested in birding.”
“Actually, Frank at present I’m more interested in the design of some of those birdhouses,” Freda replied firmly.
After the tea and scones, the volunteers drifted back to their bungalows to catch a little nap before dinner.
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