Let it go...................

An interesting thing happened a couple of weeks ago. I was trolling the internet.

I know - that isn't interesting at all. I do it every day, many times a day. However, I found something interesting. We have all given quilts away - right? And some of us have found that the recipient has kept the quilt in plastic in the closet - the excuse is that the quilt is too precious to be used. You may have found the quilt being used as a dog bed. Well, better a dog bed than in the closet. Let's just hope that it wasn't a Baltimore Album that took thousands of hours to make. Never give away a quilt that took thousands of hours. There isn't anyone (unless they are a quilter themselves) that would appreciate the work.

But what happens when the quilt you gave (more details in a second) ends up SOLD on Etsy. So technically I didn't give this person a quilt, but I gave them a kit from my stash including the backing and I quilted it on the long arm. Oh - this quilt is pretty unique, I would recognize it in a heartbeat. Can you believe that they sold it??? A number of us made them as part of a fun workshop day.

I mean it's one thing to regift a quilt, but to sell it???  When I did most of the work?? Provided the fabric? Cut the kit? Made the scrappy border???  Quilted it for free???? 

That's why we must let things like this go!!  It's not my quilt and I guess she had every right to sell it. It had become hers after all. The moral part of me would have been fine to give it away, but to sell it? Oh well. Let's just say that I severed the friendship with this person a number of years ago. I was sad at the time, but there were some very bad vibes in the air. I think I made the right choice!

Anyway - that's the second time that this has happened. The first time was with a group quilt. There were four of us in the group and we each worked on a section for each other's quilt. They were wall hangings. One of the participants was moving and decided she didn't do wall hangings and gave the quilt to Goodwill. SERIOUSLY?????  She didn't ask any of us if we wanted the quilt. I'd have bought the damn thing from her.

To this day, when I check the thrift stores, I have visions of coming across that quilt. Interestingly, the same person who sold the quilt that I gave her the fabrics for was in this same group and was totally appalled at what had happened to this quilt that went to Goodwill.  So?????

Anyway - I've moved on from both, but I thought it was funny. There is NOTHING private in this world any more!!!!

Yesterday was a GLORIOUS day. I had to get out on my bike. I know - the first time this year. That's bad, but the weather has been so crappy and I've had deadlines. I need to get my priorities straight. I was a bit worried about how I would feel today after my 40K, but NOTHING. It's like I didn't ride. No tight muscles, no sore bum. Yeah!!!  There were tons of other riders out - why do I seem to be the only female who rides solo? Everyone else rides in groups (or mostly). Can people not enjoy riding by themselves??  I sometimes think it's safer. Some of those groups took up a lot of space on the road. At least drivers seemed to be very aware and that's all that counts.

I'm madly trying to get some paperwork finished. Oh boy - I have to write some instructions for a project and the formatting is so finicky. It's going to take me a take to wrap my head around the formatting, let alone do the writing.

And I have to get ready for the retreat tomorrow. Yeah!!!  But before I go, I've got to find some missing things. One is a small project that I need to complete for my Mom. Hmm - that might already be in the retreat box. I must look. But I'm also missing some fabrics and a piece of paper that I need and I need it today. I knew where it has resided for months, but what did I do with it lately? I need to stop moving things around!

Today, I'm going to share with you what the stash room looks like.

So this was the preview that I gave you yesterday of the stacks of quilt backings that Ronda and I measured, folded, and labeled.

Labeled quilt backings

This is the shelf that is behind the door in the stash room. The top two shelves are my scrap bins. I was hoping to sort them before they went back on the shelf, but there was NO time for that as I had to move them out of the way quickly so they could start to build the bookcase. I'm going to try and go through them today.

The next shelf is kits. Lots and lots of kits. I did remove a couple of them and they have been cut up and moved into the retreat bag. BTW - I just checked the retreat bag and YES - the quilt for my Mom is already there.

On the fourth shelf from the top is more kits. Half of the shelf is kits. Don't ask! And there are three piles of quilt backings on the right-hand side.

The bottom shelf is all quilt backings. This is essentially where these things were before, but there were piles of backings NOT on this shelf. So now all the backings are together. And all the fabric bolts are together.

One of the shelves in the stash room

The problem in the past is that it was hard to see what was on this shelf as there was a rolling cart in front of it. That rolling cart is going to have to find a new home.

I did remove about 5 backings that would be perfect for Quilts of Valor quilts. Those are measured and sitting aside from this mess. I need one as soon as the long arm gets back up and running. The others will be used once we get the Quilts of Valor quilts made. Then hopefully, I will use up some of those backings and the fabric on the bolts. I NEVER need to buy quilt backing again.

So that's the good news, but here's the bad news. There's another bag of kits. I'm not ready to cull yet. The idea is to get those backings used up to make room for these kits to sit on the shelf. Don't judge me - that's what I want. I have two tubs of quilts that need backings so if I tackle those tubs, it shouldn't be hard to clear some room fairly quickly.

A bag of kits

And there's one more kit that's hanging from the shelf.

One more kit hanging from the shelf

We did bring in most of the baskets of fabric and put them on the shelf. But wait - there seems to be a lot of stuff missing here. And look at that mess in the front of the shelves???

Most of the fabric is back

Here's my plan (I write this out mostly for me - not for you!). I'm going to empty the room of all the stuff on the floor. Then I'm going to make sure that I'm good with that shelf behind the door. Which I am, except I want to tidy up those scrap bins. Then I'll take the fabric shelf and get that sorted. I mean put the baskets in some logical order? That doesn't need to happen, but I maybe I could put all the neutrals beside each other and then the rest of the colors in some order?

Once that is done, then I'll start filling in the holes with the stuff that needs to come into the room.

I just didn't have the luxury of doing that with the way the construction happened in the other room.

I've got Sit and Sew days booked so now I have a goal - that big room has to be useable by the middle of July. Once the bookcase goes back up, that'll help enormously to start clearing up the rest of the space. I won't have time today, but once I'm back from the retreat, I can hit that room with a vengeance.

And there's going to be stuff that I'm going to cull.

I also have a charity quilt day booked. I'm going to take my baskets of flannel - there are about ten of them. I'm cutting them up into squares and making quilts. Could be children's quilts with the bright stuff and adult quilts with the duller colors. There are more huge pieces of flannel that can be used for the backings. My goal is to get ALL my flannel used up. While I love flannel, it's not my go-to fabric when I need something. So it's time to get it used up!!!  I would bet that we have enough fabric to make 40 quilts. Forty?????  Well - I'm guessing. Maybe less. Once that gets used up - that will be a huge weight off my shoulders. We're going to use up the bits of flannel to make scrappy flannel quilts, but there isn't going to be any flannel left! NONE!!!! 

I do have a couple of spots open on that charity quilt day. If you don't want to sew, you can press. The date is July 19th (Friday). Let me know if you're interested. You just need to bring your lunch and a sewing machine.

On that note, I'm out of here to get the day rolling.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!