"It takes ages to finish a quilt you're not working on!"

Friday, March 30, 2012

Truckload of fabric - FREE!

When people decide they have had enough of a hobby, there is usually a pile of un-used stash or half finished projects to be disposed of. Particularly so with those who sew or knit - fabric, cottons, wool are out the door! I have been the lucky recipient of several such destashing events, but yesterday topped the lot.

One of the blogs I post comments on is the Melbourne Op shop blog, where I and others write about what we find at opshops, and where those shops are in case the blog readers want to go there. One of the other opshop blog girls emailed me last week to say that her mother used to sew a lot of clothes, furnishings, etc. but has had enough, and there was a heap of material to be thrown out - did I want it? What a silly question! But I didn't say that; instead I replied that I would be delighted to take it off her hands.

So, yesterday afternoon a car pulled up outside our house, and a young woman removed several bags from her car and dragged them up our driveway. I rushed down to help her, as they were obviously heavy. We got them inside, and sat down with a cuppa to talk about opshops and crafts. Jess isn't into crafty stuff at all, otherwise she probably would have kept her Mum's stash. But she didn't want it, so here is what I ended up with:
Tartans, some brushed cotton.
Soft furnishing fabrics
Variety of dress materials, batik, and patchwork fabric.  Below are the smaller pieces.  Everything else is yardage, mostly 3 metres or more. 

I am so excited with all those tartans/plaids!  I know exactly what I am going to do with them - some will be used to make quilt tops for Jan's Oz Comfort Quilts, as she said once that they don't get enough to suit boys and men.  These plaids should keep the blokes happy!
I've been itching to have a go at this cute chooks quilt made with plaids, now I have the fabric to do it...when time allows, lol!



There was actually more fabric - another bag full, but I gave it to a friend today after showing her the whole lot.  K. has a small son and is expecting another baby soon.  She makes clothes, dolls, and a lot of the furnishings for their home, curtains, cushions, etc. so she greatly appreciated the bag of mostly furnishing fabric that I didn't want for myself.  I'd rather give it to someone who will definitely use it, than to the opshop or someone who might just add it to their stash and it never sees the light of day again.  Of course I have way too much in my own stash, but I have plans for most of it, and I periodically cull it to keep the pile under control.






6 comments:

Jane said...

You'll have to be busy now, to use it all up. It must have been exciting looking through it all

Annie said...

You could practically open your own fabric store with all of that! It's an incredibly generous gift. Have fun with it.

FrolickingFroggy said...

Ha! "Young woman"? At 35, I'm flattered by that description! Glad you and your friend can make use of the fabric, and that it won't be sitting in drawers for another 10/20/30 years! Ha, I didn't realise there was any chook fabric in there. How appropriate that it ended up with a chook lover! xx

Liz in Kansas said...

Wow! What a haul! You should certainly be able to stay out of trouble for awhile with all those yummy fabrics. We'll be waiting to see what you do with it.

Gina E. said...

Well Froggy, at 35 you are nearly half my age - that's young to me!

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