Last week, I got a call from my friend Mariella who is an avid Freecycler like me. She had just gone to a Freecycle garage sale from one of the local members of our group and told me I just HAD to contact this woman... she had fabric!
So I email this woman about the fabric and she writes back, almost apologetically, that all she has are scraps. Bits and end pieces only, not yards or bolts... pieces that usually end up in the garbage.
I race to this woman's house! Being a crafter, a recycler, a reuser and a mommy... scraps are just what a budgeted gal like me covets. When Mariella told me she had fabric, I didn't realize she meant she had three leaf sized bags full-to-bursting with fabric. And nice fabric... I mean fabric I couldn't afford to get. Amy Butler, Japanese, Minky, Michael Miller, Heather Bailey, Moda, Heather Ross... wow!
After three days of sorting through everything, my office floor was overflowing with fabric goodness! I set aside about 10% for me, then Mariella came for 10% and I am giving away the other 80% to crafters I've met online. This "garbage" is now going to various ports in Maine, New Zealand, Arizona, Texas, California, Massachusetts and Ireland. And these crafters are just as excited as I am!
Yesterday, I finally finished the front of a blanket made from some of the scraps (using just 1% of my 10% to give you an idea of volume). This is my first real quilting experience and I was just experimenting and having fun while making a toddler-bed-sized blanket for Ro. I'll do the edges and the back with other fabric I have in my stash. The piece you see is 38 inches by 54 inches and I'll add 6 inches to the top/bottom and left/right.
I have gobs of ideas for all the other great fabric as well and will share them with you when I get to the point where I can see my floor again! A good deal of the minky fabric will go towards my 25 Things for Charity. The cotton will mostly be used on projects from different books I have on plushie-monster creation, ragworking and simple sewing.
Isn't Freecycling the greatest!!!??!!