She showed Jenny a stack of flower sample blocks, and Jenny chose two she liked. She agreed that Harriet would do a flower that incorporated elements from both samples.

Satisfied that they had a plan, Jenny left the quilt on the table and took her leave. Harriet went back to work on Avanell's.

It took her about two to three hours to do an average job after it had been loaded onto the frame of the long arm machine. She had allotted twice that amount of time for the show quilts-she didn't want to risk a misplaced stitch.

Aunt Beth had suggested she limit the time she ran the machine to about twenty hours a week because of all the bending and reaching the operator had to do. That might be reasonable during normal times, but for the next two weeks, Harriet expected to be working eight or more hours a day, especially if she were going to be stitching who-knew-what at the last minute for Sarah Ness. Besides, she could always get a massage for her aching back after the rush.

She grasped the controls of her machine, pressed the blue go-button and began stitching.

Chapter Six

The first week of business flew by. Harriet finished Avanell's and Jenny's quilts and stitched projects for Connie Escorcia and DeAnn DeGault. She had just finished loading Robin McLeod's yellow-and-blue log cabin quilt onto the machine frame when her phone rang.

She crossed the room and picked up the receiver. “Hello."

"You're coming to Loose Threads this morning, aren't you?” Avanell asked her.

"I think so.” Harriet mentally ticked off the work on her schedule. She could probably afford to take a couple of hours off. “Yes, I'll come."

"I'll be coming from work, so how about if I drive to your place and leave my car and we can walk into town?"

Harriet decided a walk would be the perfect antidote to a week spent hunched over the long-arm machine. She agreed, and Avanell said she'd be there in a half-hour.