Eleanor had been home all day and hadn’t noticed anyone coming or going but when she went outside she discovered a shoebox outside her door. Inside she found the makings of a baby quilt – our “It’s a Mystery, Baby” preemie quilt mystery from 2010.
I was called in to consult on the case. I picked up the box and my friend Donna and I spread out the contents – there was all the fabric including flannel for the backing, the fabric placement page with samples attached, strips already cut, a few 4-patches made, even the receipt from the fabric store at which the items were purchased.
We went into detective mode. We studied the list of guild members for the appropriate year narrowing in on a couple of possible suspects, but both have denied any knowledge of the affair. Clues:
- The shoebox has a picture and the size of the quilter’s shoes.
- We know where the quilter shopped – and we even have her store membership number!
- From the markings on the box it is possible that she might have had a child graduating from high school in the past few years.
- She has good taste in fabric!
I left the box with Donna. It turned up at my door a few days later. This time it contained a completed quilt top and the backing fabric prepared for quilting.
I did some quilting on my longarm then found an opportunity to drop off the box at Donna’s door.
It showed up at my door again one day when I returned home from shopping – there had been enough fabric to make a second top, this one a Disappearing Nine-Patch.
More quilting. Back it went to Donna.
When it arrived here the other day it was bulging and tape had been used to hold it shut.
Inside were the two preemie quilts, complete with binding.
There was also a “memory quilt” made from the last scraps (these small quilts are given by the hospital to mothers whose babies do not survive).
Not a bad result from one box. But now we are obsessed with studying people’s feet looking for that elusive pair of size 8 ½ Dr. Scholl’s!
