Chapter 5 - Rivka – Green Square in Square

The quilt racks and wooden tools for pushing out corners of turned seamed pieces were a hit as Mothers' Day gifts. LJ presented his Grandpa's quilt to the old man who was quite surprised. Katie loved her quilt from Anthony; he'd found a pink and purple cheetah print for the backing which he knew she would love. Beth hugged Tali and Ima as thanks for her lap quilt; she liked the pattern of alternating light and dark squares by rows. When the others explained that the arrangement of the pinwheel blocks had turned into a family project, she hugged her Abba, Anthony, and LJ also.

"Ima, when are you going to make me a quilt?" Riv asked at dinner. She was the only one without a special quilt other than her parents. All of the siblings had received a quilt each from Ima and Abba, and some had helped make their own.

Ziva side hugged her middle child, "Very soon, yaldati. Would you like to help me choose fabrics for your quilt tomorrow?"

The child nodded and grinned, "Blue and green and maybe some purple and all my favorites?"

"We shall see what is in the stashes and what you like," her father replied.

"Cool, Abba!"

The next morning after breakfast was over and Saturday chores started for the weekend, Rivka and Ziva dug through the totes of fabric. Riv found a pine green print with a small blue and yellow floral pattern, a light purple, green, and baby blue floral print on cream-colored fabric, and a maroon and green floral print that she liked.

"Would you like to help with the cutting and sewing?" Ziva asked her daughter.

"Not really, Ima. It's kinda boring to me… but I can help choose a pattern or design if you want me to," the ten-year-old answered. "I want something different from the others."

Tony showed Riv a set of designs with squares as the primary shapes. Several had overall squares, some had squares within squares, and others formed squares from various repeated shapes. He watched as she thumbed through the booklet with a frown. Seemed that nothing appealed to the child.

Ziva pulled another book of quilt designs off the shelf in the sewing area. She flipped to some pages about a third of the way into the book, "See if you would like any of these."

Rivka thumbed the pages half-heartedly. Tony exchanged a look with his wife and was about to suggest that they search online when the girl stopped leafing through the pages and flipped back several. She grinned at her parents.

"This one! That's the one I want," she pointed to a square within a square repetitive design where the successive squares were set slightly atilt to each other. "Start with the green in the middle and work out to the maroon…" She watched as her Ima and Abba skimmed the pattern, "Please?"

Tony nodded, "We can do that. What do you think, Zi?"

"Very do-able if you and I work together… this one seems to need a bit more attention to precision and exact placement of pieces, plus the seams have to be exact. With our combined experience so far, I do believe we can make this quilt." Ziva high-fived her middle child and winked. "I will keep Abba from making a mistake."

"HEY!" Tony pouted and pretended to shed a tear. "It's not mistakes, it's creative differences…"

From the sewing area in the master bedroom, the sound of the dryer buzzing the completed cycle drew the attention from the fabric and quilt design. Rivka followed her Abba to the laundry room for the pile of towels from the kids' bathrooms. It was her turn to fold them and put them away this week. Beth was lugging the vacuum back to the storage closet in the laundry room as she completed her chore.

"What time is your practice for the gymnastics meet?" Ziva popped her head into the laundry room.

"Two o'clock," both girls answered as one. "Abba said he set an alert in his phone to get us there on time."

Tony looked up from loading the washer; he'd already transferred the new load to the dryer as Riv lifted the basket of towels and wash cloths to take to the other side of the house. "Probably should be getting lunch soon," he noted after glancing at his watch. "What time is Anthony's practice over?"

"I think it is finished at 1330," Ziva replied. She turned to the younger twin, "Has Tali finished cleaning the bathrooms yet?"

Beth nodded, "She finished about fifteen minutes ago and Uncle Clay just picked her up to babysit Savannah and Jason when I was finishing the front hallway. She said to tell you that she will eat lunch with the Reeves family. Uncle Clay said that he would bring Tali home tonight after the concert that he and Aunt Ellie are going to see after the rodeo event."

"Okay then, with LJ at Grandpa's house for the weekend and Tali babysitting, that's only five of us for dinner tonight," Tony observed out loud.

"No Abba, remember that Anthony is spending the night with John tonight. Uncle Tim said he would take Anthony home from practice with them when he picks up John. Remember Anthony took his overnight bag with him this morning?" Beth grinned at her Abba.

Ziva patted her husband's arm with a smirk, "That old brain forgetting again?"

"You just wait until you are almost sixty-two. So, four for dinner then. Hmmm… maybe I will make spaghetti or maybe we will have something from Aunt Isabella's cookbook." He turned to Ziva as the twins headed to the kitchen to get some lunch, "When the girls are at practice, we will have the house to ourselves… if you get my drift."

She pecked his lips with hers, "That seems to be perfectly fine in your 'old age.' We have three hours to do what we want… We can get started on Riv's quilt and…"

He pulled his wife to him, fusing his lips on hers. They broke for air and he quipped, "I may have some other things in mind besides…" He was cut off by the reappearance of Beth to ask what kind of jelly her parents wanted on their sandwiches.

~Quilts~

Three weeks later, Ziva handed her middle child the finished quilt. The skewed squares design was the challenge they expected, but Tony was quite proud that only one seam needed to be ripped out and resewn in the whole process of completing the quilt top. He found a blue batik print to use as the backing and the binding for the project.

Rivka was pleased with the final product, showing it off to family when the DiNozzos hosted the weekly get-together of the extended family the following weekend from when her parents presented the quilt to her.

Tim was impressed with the level of detail and the amount of work each quilt required, "I don't know that I would have the patience to make one of these. But, since you are making them for everyone else, you two really need to each make a quilt for the other."

Ziva and Tony shared a look and nodded at each other. Their silent conversation with their eyes started the challenge to make each other a quilt that was 'perfect.'

The many lap quilts completed thus far inspired Delilah to make some herself. She preferred to start with a fabric panel and add borders and backings to complement the main image. Little had her mother known a year earlier when she offered the sewing machines, books, and fabric to Ziva and Delilah, that the single gesture would result in a family hobby for the DiNozzo clan and a side interest for Dee.