Miles of Muslin

It seems like I'm always running out of muslin. The nice white muslin, not the tea dyed that I need to save for the sashing of the cat quilt, or the heavy craft stuff that a cousin gave my grandma who gave my mom who gave to me, or the cheap stuff I bought a bunch of because I wasn't paying enough attention and thought it was the same as the last stuff I bought.

I didn't know about Kona muslin until my best friend bought it for her glorified nine patch. It's much nicer than the cheap stuff I had been using, and I bought a bunch for my Birds in the Air quilt. Since then, I've decided that if a quilt uses that much muslin, I should probably splurge for something decent.

There should be enough left from the bird quilt to make the buzz saws, but I can't find it. And even if it does turn up, I need more for the curved blocks. So I bought five yards this morning when I went to the Memorial Day sale at Joann's. Even with a coupon, I have a hard time spending that much on muslin, but I wanted to make those quilts and I wanted to use that fabric and and that was what it cost.

Then we detoured to an estate sale because I'm still on the prowl for cheap cotton shirts. Fifteen dollars for an old iron seems kinda high -- especially when I paid less than ten for an identical one at Walmart fifteen years ago. I was headed toward the door when Alex asked if she could look in the cabinet with the sign that said "open -- more stuff inside."

The "stuff" turned out to be a stack of very nice white cotton sheets -- nicer than the muslin I'd just spent twelve bucks on. I've been watching garage sales for sheets to use as backing, but they always seem to want more than I'd be willing to pay for new sheets for my own bed. These were a dollar each. And did I mention that they were thick and soft and in perfect condition?

I bought four. In hindsight, I should have bought all five, but I was sulking over the money I'd just spent on the muslin and not thinking about how many yards of fabric are in a full flat sheet and how many future projects that'll make.

I like muslin. Almost as much as I like sheets that are going to pretend to be muslin.