Elm Creek Quilts [06] The Master Quilter Read Online Free Page B

and you know better than anyone how busy your mom is.”
    Summer snorted in grudging acceptance.
    “Besides, if anyone’s inaccessible, it’s you,” remarked Sarah. “You rarely answer your email anymore and never answer your phone. All anyone can ever get is your machine. By the way, I think it might be broken. There’s no outgoing message anymore, just a beep.”
    “Oh. Thanks. I’ll look into it.”
    “You should. Last week I called three times in a row just to make sure I had the right number.” Sarah leafed through a pile of registration forms and sighed. “How does Agnes feel about canceling her appliqué class?”
    “She’d rather not. She doesn’t care if there are only four students. If they want to learn to appliqué, she’s willing to teach them.”
    “I guess we should keep it on the schedule, then.” Better that than writing apologetic letters to the four campers and trying to squeeze them into their second-choice classes.
    “Did you know Agnes started piecing the top for Sylvia’s bridal quilt?”
    Sarah set down the forms, instantly attentive. “No. Does that mean we have enough blocks?”
    “Not quite. She’s adding an elaborate pieced border to compensate.”
    Sarah smiled ruefully. “I had hoped to receive a better response.”
    “We still might. There’s a whole month before the deadline. Agnes just wanted to work ahead since camp starts in almost three weeks.” Summer studied the unlit fireplace. “Have you decided what block you’re going to make?”
    “I have no idea.” Sarah had been so preoccupied with the other blocks that she had never given her own a thought. She had not even checked her fabric stash to see if she had the right colors. “What pattern did you choose?”
    “I was hoping to steal some ideas from you.” Summer rose and stretched. “Back to work. Maybe my mom’s in her office by now.”
    Sarah nodded, lost in thought.
    What block could possibly convey all that Sylvia meant to her?

    Either Summer was unable to reach her mother or she forgot that she was supposed to contact Sarah with Gwen’s response, because Sarah did not hear from either woman until their business meeting the following Thursday evening. In the past Gwen had protested any cuts in her teaching schedule, insisting that holding a class with only one student was far preferable to disappointing the one camper who had registered. Sarah and Gwen had gone through the same debate so often that this time Sarah came prepared with documented evidence proving that one-student classes, while good enough in theory, could be a financial disaster. But when she took Gwen aside before the meeting and recommended that they cancel her dyeing workshops for the first two weeks of camp, Gwen merely shrugged. She added something vague about possibly directing a seminar on the sociopolitical implications of quilt contests instead, but she drifted off to the parlor before waiting for Sarah’s response.
    Throughout the meeting, Sarah gradually realized that Gwen was not the only one who seemed inordinately distracted. Bonnie looked tired and pale, as if she had not slept in days. Agnes, too, must have noticed, for she watched Bonnie all evening with a look of carefully muted concern. Summer paid more attention to her watch than to Sarah’s updates about enrollment, and twice Judy left the room to take calls on her cell phone. Their behavior was puzzling, but Diane’s was downright irritating; she stormed in twenty minutes late muttering about admissions counselors and tuition payments, then spent the rest of the meeting tapping her pen against her notebook and scowling.
    Finally Sarah had had enough. “While we’re on the subject of guest lecturers, Jane Smith has agreed to speak to our campers in August. That’s perfect timing because, as you know, Jane is the world-famous Naked Quilter, and she requires that all of her lectures be conducted entirely in the nude. Students included. I decided we should make