A Quilting Story

If you give a girl a friend who is an accomplished quilter and an inspirational artist then that friend might suggest one day that the two of them make a quilt together. The girl might think that is a good idea and head straight for the nearest fabric store with her artist friend. If they go to the Quilt Crossing on Fairview (where women have been known to have seizures upon entering through the front doors from the amount of overwhelmingly beautiful fabrics and quilts there), they might throw their intention to 'look for ideas' out the window and each walk away with about $75 worth of gorgeous fabric.

If the girl gets her fabric home and realizes that there isn't a single room in her house that the completed quilt would match, she might start looking at her kitchen and thinking that it is high time it was redone. She would have to keep this a little bit of a secret from her husband, who does not share the same opinion that five years in the same house is plenty reason enough to remodel a room. She would have to quietly start bringing paint samples home and saying things like, "Oh, nothing" and "just thinking".

If she starts bringing paint samples home, she will become more and more convinced that the old 'Avocado' just isn't right for her house. She will realize that either 'Spanish Olive' or 'Grass Cloth' is more like it. She will go to Home Depot and purchase a gallon of 'Grass Cloth'. If she buys a gallon of paint, it will have to sit in the basement until just the right day. When the girl finally has a day where nobody needs anything from her for a period of at least four hours, she will get out the paint, change into old clothes and lay down a paint tarp. If the girl is crazy enough to think that there was a day where she had no commitments for four hours or more she will soon realize that she forgot her daughter's orthodontist appointment, but by then it will be too late because she is elbow deep in 'Grass Cloth'.

If the girl is going to be in the kitchen, elbow deep in paint for half the day, she will need to turn her favorite Patsy Cline CD up very loud. When it gets to the fourth track and starts skipping, she will have to download a new one from iTunes. If she sits in front of the computer while the album downloads, she might get distracted and start looking for 80s songs to download as well. But pretty soon she will remember that she only has two hours left until her children come home from school and her piano students start showing up. She will have to get her rear back in gear.

If she gets her rear back in gear, she can get a whole room painted, including pulling out the fridge and oven and cleaning behind them before her husband comes home. When her husband comes home and gushes over the new paint, they stand admiring the work. If they stand and admire too long the girl will realize that the cabinets that were painted with the old 'Avocado' don't match the new walls at all, and she will have to go to Home Depot and buy a quart of 'Nantucket White'.

When the cabinets are Nantucket White the room looks almost perfect. If the room looks almost perfect, then the only thing it is missing is the new quilt.

If she hangs up a fabulous quilt in a nicely redone kitchen she is going to have to have her quilter/artist friend over for lunch to check it all out. And if she invites her friend over for lunch, chances are, they will make plans for a new quilt.