I went shopping . . .

Isn't this cute?  My niece, April, made this quilt top. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was in her sewing room admiring her fabric stash.  She showed me this quilt top that she had just finished sewing. I loved it. After all, I had loaned her the pattern.

I bought it.  I needed a baby quilt for a baby shower coming up soon, and frankly, was wondering how I was going to piece, quilt and bind a personal quilt with everything else I had to do this month.

She had just finished ironing on this funky little flower appliqué but didn't have it stitched down yet.  I brought it home and stitched the appliqué in lime green thread.

When I got it quilted, realized I didn't have any fabric for the binding.  After searching through my fabric stash--which is not nearly as evolved as her fabric stash--I called and asked her if she had anything left I could use for binding? 

Yesterday, I was once again shopping in her stash.  My husband and I recently built a custom ironing table for her sewing room and we delivered it to her yesterday.  It looks just like mine.  See all the potential storage?  She now has room for 6 more chapters in the saga: Anthology of Modern Textiles--a more sophisticated phrase than "fabric stash."

Back to the quilt--she brought out her meager scraps left from the quilt top fabric and I could see that I would have to piece the binding from 2-3 different colors.  Now, I have done that many times, but this quilt did not scream SCRAPPY BINDING!

As we were standing there debating, my husband was doing a 360⁰ in the room looking at everything.  He teases her about her fabric stash but after 35 years of marriage knows better than to tease me about my fabric stash.  Besides, after he sees her fabric in all it's glory he feels better about mine.

Bless his heart!  He said, "What's that up there in that box on top of that shelf?  All I could see in a plastic storage box was some tan fabric with black circles. WHAT?  She brought the box down.  Lo and behold--nestled among layers of other carefully folded fabrics was this wonderful and perfect stripe with all the colors I needed.  Somehow, he had zeroed in on the only yard of fabric in the whole room that would work. 

I guess I need to take him fabric shopping with me more often.

Every baby deserves some Minky!