Aladdin's Treasure Cave for a Quilter!!!

Oh MY GOSH!!! Yesterday my neighbor and good friend, Nancy, called to say that she had a treat for me! A lady that Nancy teaches with asked if anyone knew any quilters, of course Nancy said yes because she knows me! The co-worker explained that her grandmother had passed, she had been an avid quilter and there were boxes and boxes of fabric that needed a new home as they did not know what to do with them. Plans were made and after school, Nancy is a third grade teacher, she headed off to pick up the treasure trove!  On another note, today is Nancy's last day of school, not just for the year, but for ever, she is retiring after 41 years of teaching!!! We have been counting down for weeks and the last day is finally here, this puts a whole new spin on Schools Out for Summer!

Yesterday evening Nancy arrived in our driveway in her pickup truck, the back was full of boxes and bags, and a few more items were up on the front seat, thankfully our son Matt had stopped over for a bit and he and Dave made quick work emptying the truck and putting the stash into the front foyer.

This morning I started going through the boxes and bags, it was so exciting!!!  An entire tray of thread in an array of color, some have been lurking around for a long time as they were marked at .10 cents/spool - have you purchased thread lately?  It is around $2/spool.

Another box was full of notions, packet after packet of bias binding, and quilt binding, lace, and bits and bops, a fun box to dig around in.

Two boxes were my most exciting finds, one contained Crazy Quilt squares, in fabulous retro fabrics, I am so excited to put the squares together and finish the quilt. And the other box was filled with 5" patchwork squares, again more than enough to make a great quilt top and all in awesome retro fabrics.

I now have a box of denim and some corduroy, plenty enough to do something with, another box with colorful fabric for future projects, and a box full of odds and ends for macrame.  Do you remember macrame?  Very popular hobby in the seventies and early eighties.  Nancy and I want to try out some macrame, so I am going to the downtown library today to find a "how to" book

About half of the stuff I don't need so today I will take it over to the Dove's Nest Thrift Store. I know several ladies who  volunteer there who do a lot of quilting for MCC, all quilts they make throughout the year are auctioned off in September to raise money for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) who use it to provide aid to the impoverished around the world.(Proceeds from the thrift store also go to MCC). The ladies jokingly call themselves a "quilt rescue" as many of the quilts they work on are donated by families of deceased quilters. Isn't it wonderful that someones work gets to live on and go to such a good cause.