On a February afternoon, I found myself in a typical location – at my computer. I was browsing from website to website, searching for nothing in peticular. Soon I was moving from one webpage to another filled with fabric swatches. Why is it that whenever I was online, the click of my mouse always seemed to take me to fabric related places?!

I reminded myself that my shelves and other secret places I dare not mention are full of fabric. Just as I left another collection of fabrics, my eye caught a glimpse of a beautiful cotton print! A blue and pink background with angelic, ivory doves called out my name.

Right then and there, I knew a bolt of that fabric would find its way into my collection. My hand reached for my credit card. Soon I would be able to see and feel the fabric as visualized on my computer screen. A couple weeks later a Fed-Ex truck delivered a box holding the treasured bolt. Eagerly, I took the fabric out of the box and observed that the look was just as I had pictured.

My thoughts drifted to the soft colors of that fabric over the next few days. I finally decided that this bolt needed to join my other fabrics in the aging process. In non-quilter’s terminology this meant, “I don’t know where I can use this fabric, but I love it. I’ll save it for future use.”

It sat on the shelf for a few months, waiting for the perfect opportunity to be picked. Soon, the time was right – the fabric was ripe! As I pulled the bolt off the shelf, I began to browse through quilt patterns, embroidery designs and various colors in my mind. Gradually, I had the perfect combination – a quilt featuring the doves flying in clouds, swirled with colors of blue and pink.

A blue flecked fabric served well as a background for the machine embroidered doves. Behind the intricate detailed dove wings, little stars sparkled, adding to the wispy sky. Blue and pink were woven together in a simple nine patch block. Alternating these two blocks with sashing and borders completed the quilt design.

My fabric has found a home. The fabric I started with found a few friends lying on the shelf and made them part of the family. Every yard, foot and even inch of fabric has a home. Perhaps it needs to wait until it ripens or hasn’t found the complementing friends it requires. For now, you may fold it on the shelf, hide it away in a closet or stuff it in a drawer, but sooner or later, you will bring it out and give it permanent residence.

Seamstresses and quilters – don’t gaze at your stash of fabric and wonder why? Wait for the right season and each and every piece will find its home with its own unique family!