Chapter 4 - Beth – Black and Red
Anthony started the quilt for Katie as Tali and Ziva chose a pattern and fabrics for Beth's quilt. LJ worked with his Abba to make appliques for Grandpa's quilt design. LJ drew the designs free-hand and Tony helped him transform them into appliques. Beth helped with the selection of fabrics but had little interest in learning to sew. Riv was ambivalent.
"I would rather do the woodworking with Grandpa," Beth declared to anyone who would listen. The ten-year-old twins were learning how to use the power tools and the safety rules for the tools. Beth liked cutting shapes with the scroll saw to make intricate designs with the wood. So far, she had only been allowed to cut pine, but she was looking forward to the day Grandpa let her use maple or oak.
LJ, the artistic soul of the family, loved anything that he could do to be creative. He had no preferences among the water-color painting, acrylic painting, quilting, woodworking, and sewing. His mind was always looking at the world with the eye of an artist.
Asher usually laid down under the large table where Ziva or one of the others placed the fabric pieces to create a design before sewing it all together. Daisy stuck by Anthony, often curling up under the sewing machine he preferred when he was stitching seams. Callie would watch from the bed, almost always stretched out over Tony's pillow. Occasionally she would sit on his shoulders if he was working at the cutting table for a length of time. She would also wrap around his neck and shoulders when he was at the sewing machine.
On a rainy Saturday when Ziva declared it to be a quilting day for the family, Riv and Beth went over to Grandpa's house to work on their Mothers' Day surprises for Ziva. With Gibbs' help, the girls were making wooden tools for quilting for their mother in addition to several quilt racks to hold the lap quilts. They hoped the racks would be put in the family room.
Anthony laid out the pinks, sky blues, and light purples he'd chosen for Katie's quilt on the cutting table, getting the design the way he liked it. LJ and Tony were sewing the appliques for Gibb's quilt in place on the squares of fabric. Ziva and Tali were sewing the half-square triangle blocks together for Beth's quilt.
"Ima, have you ever noticed that Beth likes red and Riv likes blue? Beth's favorite flower is roses, and Riv loves black-eyed Susans. It's like they should have swapped names so their favorites match with first letters," Tali commented as she was sewing a string of squares.
"I had not thought about that, but it does make it easy to remember," Ziva finished her string of squares and cut the threads. She carried the pile of squares to one of the ironing boards to be pressed open. "I have always found it easy to tell them apart, even when they were newborns."
Tony looked up from his sewing machine, "Do tell… I couldn't tell them apart for the first few weeks. Of course, after Riv had the stitches in her head from whacking the coffee table, the scar made it easy until her hair got thick enough to cover it."
Ziva chuckled, "Aside from the distinct personalities that emerged in their first two years, the way I have always told them apart is their eyes. Riv has the flecks of gold in her irises. They were there from about the first week. Beth has that dimple on her lower back that has been there from birth. THAT was how I could tell them apart as newborns."
"After Beth had that fever, she was always behind Riv by a few weeks developmentally," Tony commented.
Tali spoke up, "What was that fever? Did you ever find out why she was so sick?"
Ziva shook her head, "No. It went away as mysteriously as it came."
"I remember that," Anthony chimed in. "I was so scared because she was so sick. She was like a rag doll. Aunt Ellie and Jared stayed with us while you were at the hospital."
LJ listened to the conversation; the mystery fever had been before he was born. He'd heard the others mention it a few times though. He was glad no one in his family had been that sick in his lifetime.
He moved over near his father; Tony was working on one of the more detailed blocks for Gibbs' quilt. It had a hand saw with the jagged blade and the intricately shaped handle.
"I want to watch you applique this one, Abba," LJ moved closer but still out of the way so he could observe how his father sewed, lifted the presser foot, turned the piece, lowered the foot, and sewed again for the zigzag of the saw teeth.
"You have to work it very carefully and patiently, LJ. I've had to learn not to try to rush when there are lots of turns and corners for an applique design. The good thing is that we used the fusible webbing to set it in place first. That way the applique pieces don't slip out of place. When there are curves, like with your lions, it's a bit easier," Tony pointed to the curved part of the saw handle. "If you mess up with the stitch that I like to use for appliqueing, it's a bear to rip out…"
LJ grinned at his Abba, "So you're saying, 'don't mess it up'?"
Ziva smirked as Tony nodded, "You should have heard him when he had to undo one of the lions on your quilt. On second thought, I am glad you did not hear…"
Tony shot Ziva a look, "Hey, I swore in Hebrew and Italian."
"As if that somehow makes it better?"
Anthony and Tali shared a look as the almost teen quipped, "But we all know the curse words in Hebrew and most of them in Italian just from listening to you two."
Tali held up the just-finished section of the quilt top for her younger sister and sighed. "La'azazel," she muttered under her breath hoping no one else heard.
Anthony smirked at his big sister, "See what I mean?"
"I realized that I put the pinwheels in a different pattern that what I had originally laid out; I made a mistake and now I have to rip it out…"
Ziva held up the piece, "I like it the way you have it, Tali. And, as Mrs. Fielding told me, there are no mistakes in quilting, just creative variations. I think you should leave it as it is." She turned the section so the others could see.
"Beth will like it," LJ commented. "It has her favorite colors of red and black. I think the pattern is interesting the way you sewed it together. What did you have originally?"
Tali pointed to a row of four pinwheel blocks, "I had this row the other direction in relation to the rows it is between. Light to dark consistent from row to row and in the same direction."
"I like it with the alternating direction," Anthony pointed to the variation in color. "You could keep the same alternating pattern throughout… I think that works even better than what you have with the remaining three rows." He pointed to the table where the rest of the rows were laid out.
Tony glanced between the two sets of three rows of blocks, "I like what you've sewn. As Anthony said, it looks good with the alternation of light and dark." He quickly rearranged the rows on the table and had Ziva place the sewn section above the unsewn blocks. "What do you think?"
"I don't know…" Tali hesitated. When LJ laid a strip of black as a border though, she grinned. "Yes! Thanks, LJ. You really have an eye for the color arrangements. I seem to stink at that."
LJ grinned at his big sister, "Nah. You see things differently from me; that's all. That's what makes this hobby fun. We can each start with the same basic shapes and colors and create something completely different from the other."
~Quilts~
The twins wound up spending the night at their grandfather's house so they could finish the wood projects while at the DiNozzo house, Tali and Ziva completed Beth's quilt and started on Rivka's greens and lilac-colored square within a square patterned quilt. Anthony got the top finished for Katie's quilt and had the batting laid on top of it. He just had to choose a backing fabric and then pin the layers together to quilt. LJ and Tony had the quilt for Gibbs mostly done; it needed binding and finishing, but they ran out of time that weekend.