IT FEELS LIKE MY BIRTHDAY CAME EARLY !!!!

Today feels like my birthday!  It isn't.  Not yet, anyway.  My birthday IS this week, but it feels like my gifts arrived a few days early!  As anyone who sews or quilts can tell you....fabric is your lifeblood, and there isn't much else that can give you quite the same happy high!  Especially when it is FREE!

A while back I met a LOVELY woman on Freecycle.  I had put a "WANTED" out for some cotton fabric when I first began sewing again.  This woman contacted me and offered me a TON of free fabric, free batting, etc.  Over the past year she has contacted me a few more times when she has had a lot to get rid of.  

Yesterday I received an email that she once again had tons of FREE fabric and FREE patterns.  I immediately emailed her back and said I would be over today at 10:00.  I arrived to find her two car garage FILLED to overflowing with tons and tons and TONS of fabric, along with 9 or 10 "xerox" boxes FILLED chock full of patterns.  

I made a real quick sweep through and grabbed an armful of fabric and placed it in a box.  Although she told me everything was completely free and she wanted it "GONE", I hesitate to take too much.  I don't want to see like a "grabber", lol.  She asked me, "You make quilts, right?  So you need cotton, right?"  I confirmed that cotton was my favorite material for quilting, lol.  She quilts ALOT, so she knew what I needed, lol.  With that she grabbed the box and started filling it with everything cotton she could get her hands on.  I also picked up a few poly/knit materials that I thought I may want to use to try to make some clothing...although I don't know if I am THAT good with a sewing machine yet, lol.  I even found 3 heavy placemats and placed them into the box. 

She then asked, "Could you use white?"  Yes, definitely.  At which point she picked up two big boxes FULL of white cottons and put them in my car.  Next came a big shopping bag filled with pieces of woolen fabric.  Oh. My. Gosh!!!  

Finally I told her I thought I had enough material.  As much as I would have LOVED to have taken a whole lot more, I have to find a place to STORE it all, lol.  If it was up to her I could have taken all eight 6 foot tables filled to overflowing with material, and the rows of boxed material on the ground underneath the tables!  But, like I said, I sure don't want to appear greedy and I don't have all THAT much room in my house, lol.  She has a full 2200 square feet of sewing studio, so I am sure the amount she piled into my car seemed miniscule, lol.  

She then led me over to 9 or 10 xerox boxes stuffed completely full with patterns.  She asked my size.  Ummmm....fat?  She immediately began pulling out every large pattern she came across.  She had gone through one or two boxes and I finally had to stop her...once again I need to store them, AND I'm just starting with sewing clothing and am not all that sure how proficient I will be.  She told me to call her if I had any problems at all.  Oh, if only I could sew one quarter as well as she does and had one quarter the space she does!  While we "caught up" on what was new in our lives, I had told her that J was now engaged... so she immediately threw in every wedding related pattern she could find.  From what I hear K's mom sews so maybe it would be something she would want?  I told her I didn't know if I needed all of the material and patterns she loaded into my car.  Would she mind terribly if I Freecycled what I couldn't use?  Of course she didn't mind!

When I got home I carried the patterns up to my Expanded Sewing Room and put them away.  Then I carried the first box of fabric into the house.  Barely.  I was completely bent over with the box balanced up against my lower legs.  I dropped it the split second I reached the kitchen floor.  I don't think I could have made it six inches further!  I carried a few handfuls of fabric at a time up the stairs as there was NO way I would be able to heft the box to the second floor!  The other two boxes and bag of woolens...well, they are still in my car waiting for Dear Hubby to come home and move them!  This girl knows when things are beyond her abilities!  

So, I now have 2 more boxes and one more bag of material to sort through.  I'm sure it will take me at least the next few days.  As I was leaving her husband told me to feel free to come back later this evening if I find I have more storage space.  She and her husband are amazing.  Everything is offered totally free to anyone who wants it.  Not many people would be that generous!

After I had finished "playing" with the fabric and patterns that had made it upstairs, I cut a pile of embroidery cards with my Sizzix.  These were the skeins I had purchased at the thrift store for $.25 a piece.  I had only wound a few when my tremor got really bad and I was unable to cut the slits to hold the beginning and the end of the thread.

I put the completed embroidery thread cards in one of the drawers of my button cubbies.  I still have a LOT of room for more thread!

Speaking of my cubbies, I have finished the containers for five of my button colors.  The cubbie next to each container holds button cards of like buttons...making searching even easier!

The next Collapsible Craft Container I need to make is orange.  It will have to wait though, as my hands are in no condition to pick up a needle today, lol.

My mail today included 3 crafting catalogs and a Martha Stewart Living magazine (I don't like it much and am VERY glad I got it free!), so I am going to head downstairs and relax and read for a while.

Hope you are all having a wonderful, sunshine-y day!