Hunting and Gathering.

Like most quilters I have a stash of fabrics and other supplies that never seems to get any smaller no matter how many scrap or so called "stash buster" quilts I might make. I probably made my first serious quilt about 1980, so my stash of contemporary and vintage fabrics is fairly large. I have always loved cottons made by Liberty of London, occasionally I might buy a special piece, but for many years I have also hunted for shirts and dresses made from these fine cottons in any Op Shop or Thrift Store I can find. Although both my daughter and I can spot a Liberty fabric from metres away, they are getting more difficult to find. Sometimes one can be lucky - a recent Saturday morning trip to a local charity shop resulted in two lovely long-sleeved shirts in a smallish size and fabric design no longer available. The sad part for me was that I think they were probably from someone's estate - they had been carefully labled with a woven name tag, a sure sign that the owner had been living in some sort of residential facility, and now no longer needed them at all. Whatever the story, I imagined her looking silver haired and lovely in her pale blue shirts, wished her well, and knew I would think of her whenever I used some of the fabric. Some bits went into this simple quilt made entirely from Liberty fabrics, made a little while ago for close friends as a birthday and thank-you gift.