The last week I've been going through my fabric/craft stash/wardrobe.
Particularly one big box mostly containing fabrics not suitable for quilting. The box once contained a 21" bulky television, was filled to the brim with stuff! I don't remember how many years it has taken up space at the bottom of the wardrobe. Every time it annoyed me, I postponed doing anything to it, until beginning this week!
(forgot to take photo of that box)
Most of the fabrics were cotton mix, pieces from curtains and other things I've made, old jeans, flannel etc.
Most of it will be donated. I still have three heaps to go through; jeans, flannel and fabrics suitable for grocery bags.
My intention was to make a denim quilt from old jeans... Well, not anymore! I may make a floor rug, or grocery bags.... I shall see...
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and we always need grocery bags.
Not the most interesting fabrics, but suitable for bags.
A small heap with cotton quilting fabrics I can use.
The greenish/white fabric to the right is furniture fabric, I may use on a chair where the seat badly needs a new cover.
To my surprise, I discovered these two boxes!
I had totally forgotten about them!
They date back to 2006!! I had many pen pals and I got the idea to ask each of them to send me two 5-1/2" fabric squares. Some were very generous and sent me even more. As you can see from the labels on top of the boxes, there are fabric pieces from Brunei, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand as well as from my DF Kari in Norway. Most pals have stopped writing, but Waltraud in Germany is still a very dear pen friend to me.
I have yet to go through these boxes. I even have the envelopes! What a treasure!
After all the years stored away, I notice some pins have rusted (always high humidity here), I hope the fabrics are not too damaged. I will definitely make a quilt using these treasured squares!
Linking up with:
Angela at So Scrappy
Melva at MelvaLovesScraps
17 comments:
This is so cool, Astrid. It's like going through Grandma's attic and finding treasures. Denim and flannel are great to make a rag quilt. Just saying, if ever you are interested in trying that kind of craft. The sparkling stars on the blue swirls fabric is also in my stash. It was the curtains in the boys' bedrooms some 28 years ago. It's so cool that you pinned the names to the fabric so you don't forget. If the pin rusted and damaged the fabric, you can still use it in a quilt. Once all is done, you can draw a pin (where the pin used to be) with a silver Sharpie or permanent fabric marker. It just adds a whimsical touch to the quilt. Just thinking out loud here. I'm sure you will have fun rediscovering these fabric. ;^)
What a fun discovery! You will have so much fun working on a new quilt from the fabric you found!
We can surprise ourselves with what we keep hidden away. I am pleased you discovered all your treasures again.
Making something fun with those squares from friends will bring up some lovely memories of the friends. I have a big container of old jeans to deal with too, and I had forgotten about that.
It's always amazing to find things long forgotten and tucked away;))) I need to check out my top shelf in the stash closet--who knows what's up there???
Have fun hugs, Julierose
How good it must have felt to have opened up that space in your wardrobe and what a treasure you rediscovered with the fabrics from your pen pals! I've been weaving a rag rug out of old sheets. It's my first try at weaving. I have some jeans and wool fabrics that I hope to weave into rugs so I get where you are coming from with the jeans!
It can be fun to go through a long forgotten stash of fabric! I need to do that, too. The 5 inch squares from friends around are really neat - they could become a very meaningful quilt!
that is a lot of organizing - I found more the other day that I had forgotten about when I was looking for a empty project box and found fabric stored in it!!
What a find those 5.5" squares are from all over the world. Perhaps you could use them to make a Trip Around the World quilt. Seems appropriate.
What fun to find treasures like fabric from long ago friends. I’m on a mission to find donation fabrics. If I set my mind to it, I should be successful.
Kudos for tackling the box in your wardrobe, Astrid! I understand your hesitation. There's still one big box (from what had been a stack of two) that still needs to be gone through here. What luck on finding those treasured swap boxes!
What fun finding those fabrics from penfriends. I too used to have several quilty penfridnds years ago, and got to meet a couple of them in England and one in Alaska, on our travels overseas. Some have passed away, and a couple more just faded away. I'm sure you will enjoy working out what to make from those long forgotten fabrics.
It sounds like your wardrobe was a treasure trove of fabrics. Making grocery bags would be a great idea. The denim ones would be heavy duty. Will you weave the seating for the chair? I have always wanted to try that with fabric, but have yet to do so. Have a lovely weekend, Astrid.
The teddy bear prints are so cute! Maybe they're flannel? Wonderful box of memories from your pen pals, and a future quilt from them, also.
Dear Astrid, what a treasure to have found. Beautiful fabrics. ❤️ I love to declutter as well. It's so much fun 😁 to do, and it feels great to donate things I no longer use or need.
Thank you so much for sharing. 😊
You discovered some fun opportunities and even some treasures during your cleaning out / organizing. It is nice to hear you are still in touch with one of your pen pals.
It's so fun to find fabric you didn't even know you had! What a treasure! Have fun making more of your gorgeous projects.
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