Good Will Bounty!

Friday afternoon, I was wishing that some of you could be with me in my local Good Will store. The last few times I have been there, there has been no 100% cotton fabric. I figured that the word was out and the local quilters had discovered what I had and were getting there before me. First, I check out the rack labeled "Material". That always gives me a chuckle because you don't hear fabric called "material" much anymore. There were several really nice big pieces of cotton but I thought it was priced rather high. I picked out about four that I really liked, went and got a basket and headed to the back for the bagged things.

On this wall, they have all kinds of things that are in bags. I have bought several bags and used the scraps in them for the rag rug. Every so often though, you will find folded pieces in bags that are as big as the ones on the rack. Friday the rack was full and one section was nothing but bags of folded fabric. I immediately threw then ALL in my basket. Then when I noticed that the basket was full, realization came to me that, no way could I justify buying all that fabric, even if it was a great deal. For one thing........where would I put it? For another, the budget just allows so much and we have a new Hobby Lobby store opening today close by and I planned a shopping trip there this week.

About this time was when I was wishing that I could "beam" several of you down in my Good Will store! I pushed all the bags to one end of the cart and looked at them one by one to see what the assortment was. They were bagged by color and you could tell which ones had good sized pieces, even though you could not tell how big. I knew I would use blue and pinks, red and purple..........and brights. At that point I had what I felt was my limit. I put the rest of the bags back on the shelf and took a couple of the large pieces back to the "Material" rack because at $3.99 a bag, these were a much better deal. This was good quality fabric, some of it was Joann's but there were several pieces, especially the fat quarters that were quilt shop quality.

So, when I got home, I sorted by size. One pile was "over a yard", then, "at least a yard", then, "good sized pieces" and "fat quarter size". In the end, I had over 45 yards of fabric, a pile of great sized pieces and 16 fat quarters..........and it cost $36. There were two, three yard lengths of the sky blue, enough for a backing. Sat. was their 50% off day and it would have been even better but I figured it would not be there by the time I got there and I had a good choice.

I was thinking how this was clearly someones stash. Several of the smaller pieces were clearly bought for applique.........rocks, bricks, sky fabric. It was sorted by color and there was a good selection of color although no yellows or gold. (Maybe some one beat me to that package?) Why would anyone get rid of their stash? Then it dawned on me, you would get rid of your stash if you no longer could sew. So either the owner was either ill or no longer with us. That made me feel bad but then again, I was giving it a good, loving home!

Here is it, washed but not pressed...........and that is going to take a while!

This pile is the "at least a yard" and "good sized pieces".




Here are the 16 fat quarters.




And the great "over a yard" pile.




Last but not least, these are new at my house. For years and years, I hung my clothes out on the clothes line. I love the smell of clothes dried in the sun. Then I got a job and then I got.........LAZY! I have a lovely place to hang clothes and have decided to use it. Now we like our towels, t shirts and jeans dried in the machine but, everything else is going outside. If I time my laundry loads right, I can do two loads and just use the dryer once. Not going to save the world or make a huge difference in the electric bill but if we all make that one effort, it would add up. So, off to take the dried clothes off the clothes line.