Every now and then I get to play the Fabric Fairy. With just a wave of my virtual wand, I can make a quilter very happy. How, you ask? Well, every week or two I visit a website called missingfabrics.com. It was started sometime in the 1990s by Tricia Knox of Escondido, California, who had the brilliant idea of using the power of the Internet to help people locate fabric they need for a quilt or sewing project. Fabric seekers post images and descriptions in the Gallery of Missing Fabric (one of the links on the home page) and people from all over the world respond if they can help. Isn’t that wonderful?

I discovered the website about three years ago when searching myself for a particular fabric. Seeing that a quilter was looking for two blue and white Timeless Treasures prints that I happened to have in my stash, I dashed off a reply. Thus started a lovely email correspondence with Janke from the Netherlands, who was so very happy to get the fabric she needed for a quilt she was working on with her daughter, Liselotte.

Imagine my pleasure when Janke sent me a photo the following year of the finished quilt top:

Isn’t that stunning? Liselotte used the leftover fabric to piece the back:

Liselotte is hand-quilting this beauty. She has a baby on the way, so it may be some time before we see the finished quilt. When we do, though, it will be spectacular!

Since my first experience as the Fabric Fairy, I have sent fabric to several other quilters. It’s a great way to do a bit of de-stashing, and the recipients are overjoyed that their searches yielded results. Just last week I checked the Gallery of Missing Fabric and saw that someone was looking for this fabric:

Isn’t it pretty? It’s from the Surrey Footpaths line by Sue Beevers for RJR Fabrics. I remember buying this fabric at a quilt show about five years ago. Turns out that a quilter named Josslyn in Texas needs a yard of it, so it’s on its way to her now.