Thank God for eBay

My worst fear was realized today. After weeks of not touching the Double Wedding Ring quilt, today I committed to cutting out all of the background fabric. The 180 melon-pieces were cut, as were 40 of the 81 centers. With just 41 centers left to cut, I started to judge how much fabric I had left, and it looked like I was coming up short. I got out my ruler and calculator and tried to figure out how to get 40 pieces out of the remaining fabric. Any way I sliced it, I came up with just 32. I searched for scraps. I could squeeze 6 out of one scrap (which is probably from a different dye lot, but who cares at this point). Finally, I faced the truth. I was 3 pieces short.

Shit.

You see, this is a BIG deal. The fabric has been discontinued. We knew this when we purchased the fabric, so we bought extra. But, between the bed growing and a critical error I made when I cut a batch of melons early on without the centers before I realized that the melon pieces can be cut out of the extra fabric around the center pieces, (Can you tell I'm beating myself up here?) as it turns out, extra wasn't enough. (Of course, I have PLENTY of the eight other fabrics in this quilt. Isn't that always the way?)

Fending off tears, I turned to the computer. I Googled the name of the fabric. I linked to several listed online fabric shops only to see "SOLD OUT" printed across the graphic of the fabric I needed. I searched everywhere...Canada, Australia. Nothing.

As a last result, I went to eBay. Click, click. It was there, at a little(?) eBay shop called Be Creative Quilt Fabrics. Click, click, click. I bought a yard, and said a prayer to the patron saint of discontinued fabrics.

Now, I wait. I'm hopeful that the dye lots will be close enough -- again, at this point, who cares?

Just another chapter in the story of the making of a family heirloom in the 21st century. Our foremothers would've found a substitute, or made the quilt smaller. Today, we can find whatever we need on eBay.