A very special gift

A fellow quilter here in my area recently passed away. She had belonged to my local group for a time until she became too ill to participate. I didn’t think I’d made a big impression on her, but I had a phone call from a good friend of hers last week to say that I was one of ten quilters (the other nine were all her close friends) who’d been invited to come to her home and pick out 20 yards of fabric from her stash. Oh my! What an honor to be included in this memorial to her quilting life!

Today was the day, and all ten of us arrived to go through what had to be at least three dozen (maybe more) large tubs of fabric. There was much more than enough for each of us to take our 20 yards; in fact, we were encouraged to take everything there. I think I’ve mentioned that I have a very small sewing room, so I limited myself to a lot less than what some of the others were able to take, and I do hope you’re sitting down as you see the fabrics I ended up with! I’ll be forever grateful to Cecilia for including me.

First, here are a few tools I picked out:

There’s a 24″ ruler, an OmniArc Circle Cutter, some flat-head pins (good for paper piecing), and a hemostat.

Now for the fabrics. Oh my goodness! The first photo shows some miscellaneous fabrics: a couple of Christmas prints and a few fat quarters.

Then there were some groups (FQs) of florals.

Next, a Fusions print and two Moda Marbles, which are probably about a yard each:

Here’s something called a Gold Dust Medley, which isn’t really washable, though it will be fun to use. There are seven FQs.

There was a whole tub full of Oriental prints, so I picked out a few of those, too. These range from FQs to a yard or more.

This is a set of 30 FQs, called a Hand Spray Medley, and the colors range from brights through neutrals and everything in between.

The pieces I liked the best, though, were the batiks! Of course, I wasn’t the only one, but I think everyone who wanted them got some. Here are the half-yard pieces I selected, each “bundle” containing six FQs:

And here are twelve more of those half-yard pieces, in all shades of blue:

 

Going there today and participating in this sharing of fabric and tools made me think a bit about what would happen to my quilting supplies if I were to die, and I have to admit that I haven’t made any provision for them at all. It’s something I suspect most of us need to consider. Unfortunately, my two daughters show no interest in quilting, though I can always hope that will change. But if it doesn’t, who will get my sewing machines? Who will get my other tools and my fabrics? I think letting a trusted friend supervise a distribution similar to the one I attended today is a wonderful idea and ensures that everything goes to someone who will value it.