Mattie married the General when she was just eighteen. Of course, he wasn't known as 'The General' then. But something about the young army officer caught Mattie's eye. Most people considered John Edwards too regimented. He was a stickler for details, and in his opinion, adherence to the rules was non-negotiable. Quiet and soft-spoken, Mattie was a gentler soul.
They say opposites attract, and in this case, it was true.
John's military career allowed the couple to see the world, and Mattie filled scrapbooks with mementoes of their travels. At some point, she began to collect fabrics from the different countries they called home. Exotic batiks, hand-painted silks, plain and pretty prints...all were added to Mattie's fabric stash. John bellowed about moving the boxes of fabric each time they were relocated, but Mattie knew he really didn't mind her 'fabric fetish'. The General was fascinated by the quiltmaking process; it appealed to his structured side. Mattie just liked making quilts.
They were both ready to settle down by the time John retired. Globe-trotting was tiring, and when Mattie saw the red brick house in the sleepy little village, she knew it was the perfect place to put down a few roots and rest. She claimed a space on the second floor as her "stitching spot", and spent countless hours there, quietly cutting and piecing, content to sit and stitch in the pool of warm sunlight that streamed in the round window.
The General was anything but content. After so many years in the military, he didn't know what to do with his newfound free time. At first, he busied himself with the usual chores of moving. He painted walls and puttered around, fixing leaky faucets, silencing squeaky floorboards, and replacing worn out whatnots. He tried gardening, woodworking and hanging out for morning coffee at the Meeting House with the other old men in town, but nothing occupied his mind. He started nosing around Mattie's quilting room just because he was bored. At first, Mattie enjoyed his company and encouraged his opinions. But then he started focusing on flaws--seams that weren't quite straight, corners not quite matched. Constructive criticism can be good, but you can also get too much of a good thing.
Sadie knew something was wrong within minutes of entering Mattie's quilting room. They had planned to meet and piece together a few quick quilt tops for a local shelter. The pattern was simple--just three rectangles strip-pieced, trimmed, then set in alternating blocks. Mattie had rotary cut the fabric, and was stitching the strips together when the General popped in to say hello. A frown immediately replaced Mattie's usual sunny smile when he started to peer over her shoulder as she fed two strips under the needle.
"Pretty fat quarter-inch, wouldn't ya say?"
Mattie didn't reply, but Sadie saw a tension in her face that wasn't there before. The General was oblivious. He had picked up some finished strips and was aligning the seam up on a see-through ruler. He had seen Mattie check her own work that way.
"You know," Sadie said absently, cutting the sewn strips into blocks, "we could sure use some help piecing these together, General. We've got a lot to finish here before Monday's meeting." Mattie raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Hmmpf!" It was a non-committal sound that came out of the General, but Sadie saw him watching Mattie feeding the strips through the machine.
Mattie took her foot off the machine pedal, and the needle stopped moving. She thought for a moment, then smiled broadly at Sadie. "That's a good idea, Sadie," she said, and got up from the machine. She picked up two strips of fabric and placed them right sides together, then handed them to John.
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