Mystery Solved (Sorta)

I haven't been able to identify the source for my four yards of fringed decorator fabric from the $6.99 Goodwill bonanza bag, but Kravet Designs has a very similar upholstery/drapery fabric that currently retails (on sale) for $49.95 per yard.

What I can't figure out is why anyone would want to use this kind of fabric for a piece of furniture. Those little tasselled fringe bits would be a complete pain to keep flat. I could see it as drapery, maybe, if someone likes an ethnic look. Anyway, I had fun hunting around the internet for something to compare it to. So my total value for the entire bag is somewhere around $761.00 now.

I don't feel guilty over paying just $6.99 for the bag, either. The fabric it contains was stored for a long time before it was donated, and does have a strong closeted smell to it. I'll have to launder everything before I use it. The nine yards of Robert Allen upholstery fabric is cotton, and teflon-treated, so I'm pretty sure it can be washed. If I want to use the fringed striped fabric I'd have to have it dry cleaned (I might handwash it to save $$$.) Finally, four of the Spoonflower yards have some rectangles cut out of them, as you can see here.

I expect the original owner either gave up quilting or passed away, and that's how this stash ended up at Goodwill. If it were my fabric and that were the case, I'd want it to go to someone who would appreciate it. Which I will. :)

Comments

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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