Pull up a folding chair, grab a cookie and find a spot in the circle. The Happy Stash is the Chic Quilter collection for anyone who has ever tucked a fabric store receipt into the bottom of her purse, and tonight nobody here is quitting anything. We are here to celebrate. The meeting runs after dark, naturally, because the best stash stories always come out once the porch light is on.
Old business: the armoire
None Of Your Business sets the tone. A witch in a long black coat stands guard before a towering wooden cabinet crammed with folded fabric, a sign reading Fabric Stash, None of Your Business pinned up top, and a small skeleton waiting patiently at her side, most likely the last person who asked how much of it there really is. Mine takes the matter underground: a skeleton hand bursts up out of the dirt clutching a bundle of fabric while a second bony hand reaches in, and the single word Mine settles the argument. Fabric to the Bone finishes the thought with a rib cage packed with rolled fabric in every color, a tiny pumpkin tucked in among them. Quilter all the way through.
New business: the next fabric run
Fabric Run shows how the committee gets things done. A cackling witch rides a yardstick instead of a broom through a swirl of rainbow color, bats trailing behind and a bag of fabric slung over her shoulder. I See Fabric In Your Future goes to the source: a fortune teller in a turban leans over her glowing crystal ball, a friendly ghost drifts past the patchwork curtains, and the vision inside is exactly the one every quilter hopes for.
Testimonials from the circle
Then the members stand up to share. Fabric Addict in Recovery speaks first, in soft rainbow letters, and the recovery is going about as well as you would expect. Master of the Stash follows in teal fading to pink, and Fabric Hoarder wears a little pink crown for the occasion. After that comes a run of plain-spoken confessions, each one a bold heading with a small line of fine print underneath: Bought More Fabric, Feel Amazing. Fabric More Organized Than My Life. My Definition of Rest Is Fabric. Wrapped In Fabric. The room nods along. Everyone has said at least one of them out loud.
Sponsor wanted
Every member needs a sponsor, somebody who will drive her to the quilt shop and hold the bolts while she decides. You know the one. Her stash has its own closet, maybe its own room, and she keeps telling everyone she is cutting back. Pick the design that is SO her and bring it to the next meeting. Refreshments are served at the end, and the only rule of the circle still stands: nobody, under any circumstances, opens the armoire.
Written by Judy. Thanks for reading.
