Surprise Art Quilt, Part 2

When I unpacked the third and final quilt from the $9.99 lot of three I thrifted, I knew immediately that someone had put a lot of love and work into it. I've seen art quilts like this at shows, but never at a thrift store. Talented makers like the one who designed and stitched at this level sell the work for big bucks. Since it didn't have a label, however, the name of the maker will remain a mystery.

There's a theme here, too, although I'm too dense to guess what it is. Maybe something Darwinian. Anyway, each element like big game hunter Sunbonnet Sue here is utterly charming.

The Picasssoesque cow and pig made me laugh out loud.

All the beads attached to the quilt are high quality glass, and the piecing is expert. The hand embroidery, while simple, adds so much to the piece, too.

The applique work is also expert level. I should feel guilty for what I paid for it, and I do (just a little. This quilt is worth twenty times what I paid for the lot) but that is part of the fun of thrifting. You never know what you're going to find.

I hung the quilt in my office where I can see it when I'm working, so it can inspire me. I'll treasure it forever, too.

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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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