"There has to be some way to make them work,” Harriet's aunt Beth insisted.

"Don't waste your time,” Lauren Sawyer said as she entered from the hallway. She went to an empty place at the table and set her canvas quilting bag and stainless steel travel mug down before pulling out the chair and sitting.

"Would you like to explain?” Aunt Beth asked.

"The rival gang is meeting at the senior living center right now, and they have this same quilt on their wall, only theirs looks good,” Lauren reported. “Sarah asked me to help-by that, I mean she sat at her desk and I did the work-install a software upgrade on the center computers. When I walked by the cafeteria, I noticed they had a design wall up, so I made an excuse to go in, and the Small Stitches were there working on their raffle quilt. I'm telling you, theirs looks good."

Connie collapsed into her chair. “Dios mio."

"I thought they were doing a Maggie Walker appliqué pattern,” said Jenny Logan, one of the group's more mature members.

"I'm telling you, they've changed their plan,” Lauren insisted. “They have twelve appliquéd blocks, each one with the face of a dog-our Rottweiler.” She pointed to one of the blocks on the wall. “Only they all used the same six shades of brown and black, and they used the same background for all the blocks."

"Using the same background would have helped us,” Jenny mused.

"Help me understand the rules again,” Harriet said. “I thought this was a benefit, not a competition."

"It is a benefit-for the Foggy Point Animal Shelter,” Mavis Willis replied. At seventy, she was currently the group's most senior quilter. “In the old days, the Clallum County Quilt Guild was the only quilt group in town. They provided one raffle quilt plus a stack of functional doggie quilts every year at the shelter fundraiser.