This week I met up with a quilter 20 years my senior. She's got some health issues that are making it harder for her to quilt, so she's passing on a lot of her fabric, but keeping enough to do some projects when she feels up to it. Normally when someone gives me fabric, they pack up what they don't want, and I just take it home and sort it out. Usually, anything I won't use, my sister will, so we can put a lot of sewing supplies to work, whether it's quilting fabric or any other sewing supplies. This was a bit different, in that she wanted me to choose what I wanted from her stash.
I have known this woman's husband for several years, because he rides with DH's scooter club. I had never met her until this week. I don't know about you, but going into someone's house whom you have never met, and just asking for stuff had me quite nervous. Add to that, I've recently helped my mom with downsizing her stash, and I know how emotional that can be. I really didn't know what to expect.
As it turned out, she and I hit it off pretty well. Since I make a ton of scrap quilts, I asked it she had scraps hanging around. I know that most people do not use their scraps as quickly as they make them, so I figured that was a safe thing to ask about. She had two medium sized totes full of them, so I took them all. She had me look through her drawers of fabric, and I tried to pull out the smaller pieces. In my fabric drawers, I don't have anything smaller than a fat quarter, because once I cut into a fat quarter, I cut any leftovers into my scrap user system sizes. Once they are in scrap user sizes, they are stored with my scrap user system. I know all too well, that what works for me, is not necessarily what works for someone else, so in her fabric drawers I found leftover border pieces, squares of fabric up to maybe 10", plus fat quarters and larger pieces. She does sort her fabric by color like I do, and even has her repro fabrics stored separately just like I do! She keeps her solids separately too, and I don't, but it was fun to see how we were similar and how we were different. I have a lot more space for quilting than she does, so I have a lot more options.
I did take a lot of her novelty fabrics, because I make a lot of I Spy quilts for kids, and then we got into her larger pieces of fabric. She didn't really have a good storage option for her larger pieces, so I told her I'd take whatever she didn't want. She kept out a few pieces she really loved and I took a lot of what was left. She also had a black track bag full of fleece, that was stored on a shelf so high you needed a big ladder to get it down. After thinking about it, I said I'd take the whole bag. I figured it if was being stored in that inconvenient of a location, it wasn't likely to be used, and fleece is a great backing for kids quilts.
I tried to be aware about how she was feeling about things as we went through her fabric. I had asked early on about what she most liked to work with, and she immediately answered batiks. I didn't even look in her drawers of batiks, because I want her to keep what she loves working with. I mentioned that I work with strips a lot, and she dug out all the jelly roll strips she had, some of which hadn't been opened. She said she doesn't like working with strips very much. I chimed in with the fact that my least favorite pre-cut is charm squares. I'll use them if I have them, but I prefer other precuts over those.
I haven't had time to go through all the fabrics I brought home and sort them, but here's an idea of how much I brought home.
This is pretty big box. the bottom half is all scraps, and the top is larger pieces.
This box is a lot smaller but massively overflowing, so it likely has the same amount as the larger box. I also have the black trash bag of fleece.
This is one of my favorite fabrics I got, and there is enough for me to make myself an iPad sleeve which I've been wanting for quite a while.
Did I take too much fabric? Did I not take as much as she had hoped? I can't tell. I can tell you I am looking forward to incorporating her fabrics into my projects, and I'd be happy to meet up with her again just to talk, no fabric gifting required.
I'm still working on luggage tags, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I think by mid- week next week I will be finished. Of course didn't I find a few more scooters I had cut out this morning, But I had enough of the main parts of the luggage tags leftover to use those extra scooters too. Once I finish the current batch of luggage tags, I'll dig out my poly threads to applique the found scooters and then I can finish up the last of this project. I'm not sure how long the luggage tags will last DH, but it should buy me some time at any rate.
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