Bloated

Well, my fabric diet is over.  You remember I wrote about our local fabric shop closing down a year ago? Did I mention the other one closed down also? Seems when she moved, she downsized, and it was never a very large shop anyway, so business just spiraled downward after that. The next closest quilt shop is in Asheville, if you don't count the all-purpose Foam and Fabric shop that's just this side of Asheville. So I stocked up then, and just haven't bought any more fabric since the shop closed. Of course, I have done very little sewing since then, too.

About 4 weeks ago I got an email from someone in my quilt guild. One of our long-time members had died, and there was going to be a "quilters only" estate sale. I was off the night before, so I decided to check it out.

O.M.G.

All the fabric was $1/yd. Books were 50 cents to a dollar, and magazines were 3 for a quarter. This is the room of fabric:

These were the only two pictures I took. There was more fabric on shelves to the left of the chest, and more in the closet. And this is 5 hours after the sale started! It opened to the smaller of the two local guilds at 9am, and to my guild at 11am. There were two other rooms with books, magazines, and supplies. Everything was picked over, of course, but STILL! I passed on the magazines, as I have too many myself, and will be mercilessly going through them soon, but I did buy a few books. One of them was Quilts! Quilts! Quilts!, the book I had to buy for my first quilting class. I lent my copy to a co-worker at my last job 3 years ago and, despite numerous reminders, she never brought it back. I was so happy to get another copy, as this book is now out of print.

Okay, so you want to see the booty?

The back stack is knits, and I'm planning to make some butterfly pillows and neck rolls for my hospice patients. The front three fabrics have quite a bit of yardage, and I figure they'll make good gowns and drawstring pants.

 

Oh, and the rose fabric on the right is knit, too. Everything else is cotton.

 

Books, hoops, ribbons, thread, needles, needle case, and ironing "ham".

 

More books (non-quilting), patterns, more ribbons, fusible webbing, drawstring cords.

 

Two boxes of laces and eyelets! MightyMom, are you up for some more eyelet?

This precious wall hanging/table topper. I love how she used plaids. There is no hanging sleeve on it, but I think I'm going to add one, because this will look so cheerful hanging in my sewing room!

 

 

Two beautiful  complete stockings, and a sweet little Sunbonnet Sue wall hanging that just needs quilting in the borders and binding. 

I'm thinking of adding some beading to it.

 

Then there was this..., um,... I don't know quite what to call it. I thought it was a quilt top. 

 

 

It was cheery and all put together.  

There were a couple of places that need patching.

But the top was sewn to a muslin back, which looked like maybe it had been pieced?

 

There was no batting at all, and a couple of small tears in the backing. 

 

There's no binding, just a kind of envelope closure, and no quilting. I don't know if she was finished with it or not, and if not, what did she plan to do with it? More to the point, what am I going to do with it? Do you think I can add another backing to it, quilt it, then bind it? There won't be the softness you get from batting, but maybe it'll make a good summer quilt.  What do you all think? Have you ever run into this before?

 

 

So everything's been washed and ironed and ready to stack on my shelves.

 

 

Um, what shelves? They're all full! Guess it's clearing out time.

 

 

Speaking of which, the road our new quilt shop ("Beginnings"), decided to have a yard sale Fri. and Sat. of this past week. A bunch of the little businesses all got together and this 3-mile section had a yard sale. Not everyone participated, and our LQS owner said her stuff was too new to discount, but what she DID do was invite all her customers to set up outside the store and get rid of any of THEIR wares.  There were ruler holders, books, threads, placemats, candle mats, knitted items, a vintage quilt top loaded onto a PVC quilting frame and ready to sell, and of course, fabric.  

This is all I came home with. I promise.

 

 

 

And even though part 2 of the estate sale was Fri. and Sat., I refrained from going over there. Actually, I would have gone, but a broken water main and the neighborhood repair work kept me at home yesterday morning.

 

 

All of that is now washed and dried and waiting to be ironed.

 

 

It occurred to me that if I don't sew something soon, my daughter is going to wind up in the same boat, and there will be another "quilters only" estate sale. 

 

She'll kill me.