Mister: How about we drive to Utah for your Mother's birthday? We could stay a few days and see the family and have a few laughs, whaddya think?
Me: Really? YOU want to drive to Utah to see my mother??!
Mister: Sure, it will be fun!
And with that, my antennae were on full alert...the mister never wants to drive to Utah let alone spend time with my family...so what exactly was he up to?!?
Me: Great, sounds good to me!
So the mister went about his work, whistling a little tune that sounded vaguely familiar...which I couldn't put my finger on until later that night when the mister turned on ESPN and I heard the March Madness "theme music" (duh!) and the announcer said, "The Salt Lake City Regionals will be the games to watch..."
I took a quick looksy at our bank statement and there it was, an entry for $$$$$ for tickets to the SLC NCAA Regional Basketball Tournament! So the mister thought he was pulling a fast one on me...
Me: So, when were you going to tell me? On the drive to Utah? Or on the first morning of the all-day games?
Mister: What?!? What are you talking about, I'm watching a game here, what's for dinner, do you have any of that excellent chicken stuff from last night, man, that was so good, I really, really liked it!
Me: Nice try...do you want me to just go and pick out my next piece of jewelry or do you want to surprise me?
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, no?
This one was a long-time in the making...or at least it seems so. About 15 years ago a friend told me of someone who was going to Paris and she was going to ask them to bring her some fabric...so I asked if they could bring me some, too...something "Frenchy." The yellow border triangles and the small yellow border is from the fabric my friend got me. And that fabric sat in my stash for 13 years.
About 5 years ago our quilt group held a fund-raiser and a lot of people donated fabric to our group to sell at our event...someone donated drapes, which were faded in spots from the sun and not really what quilters would want to buy. I brought the drapes home, and salvaged what I could - it's the red fabric in the outer borders and in the center...and those drapes sat in my stash for about 3 years.
The rest of the fabric, the squares in the center, were from a package/charm pack of "French Fabric" that I purchased about 4 years ago...I don't know why I only bought one package - that's not enough to do anything with so that package also sat in my stash...
Then three years ago, I was digging through my stash looking for something, I found all of these random fabrics and decided they would make a great quilt...see? My brain works, and if I didn't have a 3 to 4 year delay, it would work perfectly!
Voila! After sitting unfinished in my "to finish" pile for about 3 years, it is done!! I love this quilt...it reminds me of my three trips to France...the amazing food, the incredible sights, the fashionable people with scarfs flying about their necks! I would so love to go back to France...if only I didn't have to get on an airplane to get there! For now, this is my very favorite quilt...it's sewn together with memories and because I machine-quilted it with a big, random stipple, it's super soft. 13 years in the making...and this one is for me!
