Magic Quilt - part 1

The Magic Quilt

PART 1

	It was Tuesday. It was school holidays. It was raining. It was boring. Sam and Lee had nothing to do. Both their mums were in Sam’s kitchen, drinking coffee and catching up on the latest gossip. Sam’s little brother and Lee’s little sister were in the front room – being awful. Sam’s little brother was torturing the cat. Lee’s little sister was smacking her dolls. Sam and Lee were in the shed, looking out at the drizzle and feeling sorry for themselves. Sam and Lee were neighbours. They lived at number 6 and number 8, Canal Terrace and they were the only kids of their age in the whole terrace. There were some bigger kids who lived in the main street but they did not let Sam and Lee join in with any of their games. It was just as well, because the big kids usually got into trouble. Big trouble! The big kids had broken down part of the fence at the end of the next terrace so that they could get through on to the railway track. Sam and Lee had been told strictly – very strictly – not to play with the big kids. “There’s bound to be trouble,” moaned Lee’s Mum. “It’s far too dangerous!” agreed Sam’s Mum. “Play together nicely in the garden,” they both advised. So Sam and Lee had played nicely in the garden. For about five minutes - until it started raining. Now they were sheltering in the shed, alongside Sam’s Dad’s garden tools and a load of other junk.
	Lee	What’s that?
	Sam	What’s what?
	Lee	That dirty, furry thing hanging in the corner.
	Sam	That used to belong to my Great Aunt Emma. She died when I was little. It’s a kind of scarf made out of a dead fox.
	Lee	Ugh! It looks like it’s full of fleas!
	Sam	It might be. My Mum won’t have it in the house.
	Lee	Why was she called your ‘Great Aunt’? Was she famous?
	Sam	I don’t think so. But she was ever so old! And she used to live in a big, spooky, old house. When she died, my Mum inherited some of her things. Most of them were really old-fashioned and I don’t think my Mum really wanted them. Quite a few of them ended up here, in the shed.
	Lee	Like that curly, old, metal thing in the corner?
	Sam	That’s one of Great Aunt Emma’s lamps. It doesn’t work, though. I tried it. We could take it apart and try to mend it.
	Lee	No, that would be rather boring, actually.
	Sam	I don’t think so.
	Lee	Is that one of your Great Aunt Emma’s things?
	Sam	That scruffy rug? Yeah, I think it is. Why don’t we take it outside and make a tent with it? Then we could shelter from the rain.
	Lee	Alright. It’s only drizzling a bit so we won’t get too wet.
	Sam	Bring some of that rope in the corner!
	Lee	See if you can get that old lamp out. We could use it to hold the tent up.
	Sam	Right. Let’s spread it out and see how big it is.
	Lee	Wow! It’s nearly as big as your Dad’s shed. It will make a fantastic tent.
	Sam	Grab those two corners and we’ll give it a good shake to get the dust off.
	Lee	It’s certainly dusty. Look! Now you can see that it’s got a kind of pattern on it.
	Sam	It’s not a rug at all. It looks more like one of those covers you put on a bed.
	Lee	You’re right! It’s a quilt! A patchwork quilt.
	Sam	It’s made up of hundreds of different bits of material.
	Lee	That’s what patchwork means, Dumbo!
	Sam	I know that! Look! Most of the patches are little pictures and some of them have got writing on them. Writing made out of stitches.
	Lee	That’s called embroidery.
	Sam	I knew that as well!
	Lee	What does that bit say?
	Sam	Let me have a closer look.
	Sam and Lee were both kneeling on the quilt as they leaned over to read the patch.
	Click the patch to read it
		Click here for PART TWO of the story
		Click here for main MAGIC QUILT page