Highly Commended - Trudy Graham/Julie Lewis Award for Prose 2017
Step
1: First choose your fabrics. Thought should be put into the colour and design of your creation before beginning. What may appear to relate well in your mind mightn’t result in something you’re happy with.
Lynn shivers! She’s asked a few times to have the heating in her office fixed, but after the exasperated sigh the facilities manager made the last time she mentioned it, she thought it’s best not to ask again. She instead walks out to the kitchen for another cup of something hot.
Sonia is standing in the middle of the room. She has been ringed, and is holding out her left hand displaying her prize. She reminded Lynn of the statue of the Winged Victory, she remembers seeing in the Louvre.
Go forward to congratulate her, Lynn tells herself, but before she can move she feels a sharp in in her back, causing her to stumble. Sally from HR knocks Lynn in her eagerness. It was an accident;
she didn’t notice she’d done it did she? When Lynn finally manages to get
through the crowd and finds herself face to face with Sonia, She blurts out the first thing that comes into her head.
‘I’ll make you a quilt.’
Sonia tilts her beautiful head and smiles back. ‘That would be so sweet.’
Sonia turns to Grace and begins chatting in an alternating high pitch.
‘On the roof top restaurant at the Hyatt, he pulled out the ring during
desert. It’s not exactly what I want, we’re going back to the jeweller on
Saturday but...’ Sonia breaks off as Sylvia from Finance tackles her with a
large bear hug.
Step 2:
Next; your material needs to be pressed, laid out on a flat surface and measured.
At the editorial meeting Lynn comes prepared with charts and layouts, but Cynthia skims pretty quickly over Craft Corner, ‘but that’s only because she knows I will have everything together as I always do,’
Lynn says to herself..
At the end Cynthia hushes the room. ‘I want to give my personal congratulations to Sonia.’
Sonia is glowing. Notes are compared. Designers, venues, and flowers are rated; some offer to dig out photos from past issues. Lynn is happy for her of course, but something new is present. It’s like suddenly facing high beams, she’s beginning to be a little blinded. The chatter is still going nonstop. Like a child jumping to try and see what is going on over a crowd of taller people, Lynn searches for a gap. She starts a few
sentences, but no one hears her. Then, ‘Maybe I could help with any sewing you need done?’ a little louder than she meant.
Lynn hears a giggle from prospective bridesmaid Grace, ‘What, are you suggesting creating a patchwork dress and a crochet veil?’
Lynne stays quiet after that.
The tide of talk drifts back and forth and the usual rating of people begins. Lynn wants to leave, but absent co-workers is a tempting subject to study.
Brenda from the gossip page treats her work as a vocation rather than a job, ‘I mean Tanya hasn’t said a word, not even sent an email congratulating you, has she Sonia?’
Sonia just shakes her head gently. ‘Tanya’s just a jealous person. You know, bitching behind backs …’ Grace doesn’t finish, but just rolls her eyes. ‘Tanya…?’ Lynn says, ‘I mean…’
Everyone turns to the bride who merely nods and says, ‘Yes.’
This time, unusually, Lynn feels the urge to argue the point. A rare collective breath gives her a gap,
‘She’s always been nice to me. Has she been saying anything about me behind my back?’
Lynn looks around the table and sees smiles pass between some of the other women, although most are suddenly busy toying with their pastries and dessert forks. Sonia turns to her with a mixed smile and decides to pick up the ball.
Step 3: Next comes the cutting.
‘Well it’s a different with you Lynn. Jealousy is not an issue, you don’t …’
Sonia screws up her lovely face, searching. It was as though she was trying to explain something to someone who’s a bit slow.
Lynn finds the words for her. ‘So you’re saying she’s not threatened by me?’
Sonia exhales, grateful that the penny has dropped and smiles kindly, ‘I don’t mean this in a bad way, but no she isn’t.’
Collective silence. Lynn lets her response and everything associated with it sink in. She mentally travels around the table, seeing herself as the others see her, from their varying angles.
Cynthia moves things on to upcoming Fashion Week, which doesn’t concern Lynn. Gratefully, all eyes turn away from the accident scene. Lynn’s stay focused on the table.
It’s funny that a moment of greatest clarity can occur while you stare for
ten minutes at cold coffee and the scraps left from the apricot Danishes. There is suddenly enough emptiness in Lynn that she wants to wolf up the remnants.
Step 3 (note): A cutting board should be used so you don’t risk leaving marks. The pieces have to be cut to the nearest millimetre, an incorrect measurement can jeopardise the whole.
Lynn’s walks back to her office casually, but stumbles for a second when she tries to open the connecting doors. No one notices.
On her desk, in a perfectly straight row, are photos of a kaleidoscope of fabrics. Her eyes go back and forth but she doesn’t select any. If any passer-by looks in her office, (although there normally aren’t any passers-by), they will see a lone figure sitting, unmoving, for two hours.
In her bathroom that night, Lynn stares at the mirror without avoiding her reflection this time. She then turns, goes to her computer, does a Google search, writing notes on a pad, the words leaving an indent that can be read several papers below.
Step 4: Sew the fabric shapes together making blocks. Place them on a flat
surface. Piece by piece, build the picture you wish to create.
A few weeks later Lynn stands stirring her sugarless coffee in the office kitchen, eyeing, but not touching, the biscuit jar. Sonia enters chatting with her entourage. Grace’s eyes are darting up and down every inch of Sonia. Sonia spies Lynn and murmurs to a minion, ‘Dear old Lynn will do it.’
She glides up to her. ‘So many things to organise,’ she sighs, ‘I have to review CUE’s Spring collection tomorrow, so will you be a doll and go to the tailor with Paul to guarantee he makes the correct choice. Paul has no idea and lets tradespeople walk all over him, you should have seen him with the plumber.’ Sprinkles of sweet condescension fall, as she giggles and hands a card to Lynn.
‘You know so much more about cloth than the others,’ a brief pause then, ‘and they are all so busy at the moment.’
As she thanks her, Sonia sizes Lynn up with her professional eye, ‘Did you do something with your hair?’
She nods. Sonia walks away. Lynn hasn’t spoken a word.
Step 5: Join the blocks together in a row. Then sew the rows together until the top layer patchwork scene is complete.
‘The black with the pinstripe may be good; it’s a light wool and a wrinkle-resistant fabric. It is the most sensible choice.’
Lynn stifles her anxieties. She concentrates on the store’s fabrics, but manages to look Paul briefly in the eye as she talks to him. Paul touches the material she holds out to him. He has a bewildered, but willing-to-be-lead expression. Then suddenly Lynn recognises a roll in the corner, buried under other samples. Pulling it out she smiles as she strokes its cool surface. She turns to Paul, offering it to him with both her hands.
‘Nothing else feels like linen, but it creases very easily, and is not very practical. So often it’s overlooked.’
He touches the roll, tentatively. ‘The choice of material can affect everything. Jersey is a very useful fabric, it doesn’t crease easily, see…’ Lynn leans forward, as she has previously practised, and offers the sleeve of her new jersey dress for Paul to touch. She forces a small smile, at his hesitant but curious fingers. She leans forward some more.
Step 6: A border of a single colour should be used to help frame the work.
Sonia can’t make some of the dancing lessons.
‘I’m not the one who really needs the practice. You can step in, can’t you Lynn? Ta. You do know how to dance, don’t you?’
Lynn has shown her photos from her Ballroom Dancing competitions, but Sonia has forgotten.
Circle, turn, and step. Lynn’s new dress itches and new shoes chaff her ankles. She focuses on her partner. She only has to pry loose a few stones and a dam bursts. Paul talks a great deal. She listens, letting him take his time, adding a word or two and a few sympathetic noises. I’m considerate, aren’t I, Lynn smiles.
Step7: Measure the top patchwork layer and then cut a piece for the backing. A darker material with a small print is normally a good choice, as it hides any little problems that might occur.
‘…so I shovel money around, all legal of course, but travelling close to the edge. In my office there’s a real pride in managing to screw the Government,’ his laughs contains a sharp edge. ‘The truth is I think I’d be happier going home and taking over my Dad’s firm.’ He corrects himself, ‘but of course that’s a bit defeatist.’
‘Defeatist?’ She can see the word is not his own. ‘Yes, not striving for success.’
Lynn displays a thoughtful look. ‘I suppose it depends on what you think makes a successful life.’ It has taken a great deal of practice, but she
can look him in the eye and not break her gaze.
Step 8: A single, encompassing piece of wadding should be placed on top of the backing fabric. The patchwork layer should then be laid on top and attached by many small but evenly scattered safety pins that pierce all three layers.
Lynn reads over her resignation letter. Her mobile phone rings.
His name appears. She breathes deeply and picks it up.
Step 9: The machine’s needle penetrates each layer joining them by tiny neat rows of stiches that creates its own pattern. This action is quilting.
The outfit Lynn bought for the wedding is packed away into a plastic airtight bag along with the obsolete invitation. They’ve printed her name with one ‘n’. What other events are good to wear a hat to, she wonders? She can’t ask Sonia.
Her mobile phone rings. His name is displayed. Lynn disconnects.
Step 10: Our last action is to bind. Fold a narrow strip of the binding material in half, sew on to the edge of top layer. Then fold it over to the under edge of the quilt. This final stitching must be done by hand, with a small, sharp needle.
Paul is bewildered. ‘I’m sorry,’ Lynn says, ‘but I can’t continue. I just can’t handle the guilt,’ a convenient and socially acceptable ending.
At home she plunges her needle in one last time, hiding the last knot perfectly under the material fold. It is done.
Step 11: When the quilt is finished, lay it out to display and air.
It has turned out exactly as she had planned. She should congratulate herself, yet she’s back to sitting still in silence. ‘Are you happy with it?’ her little voice asks. She should turn on the light, but can’t be bothered and there is no real reason anyway. The light from the TV is enough, and she keeps it on as she falls asleep.
Step 12? Begin considering your next project.
Her mobile is ringing again.