I just had to open my mouth and mention my abundant stash of crafts and cloth to my sister. She heard abundant and thought excess, “Our church gathers up unused crafts and sends them to a warehouse in Canada where they sort and ship them as needed to outreach ministries. If you have extra fabric, quilt blocks or yarn, our church women make and prepare baby layettes and quilts to send to new mothers in third world countries. So I’ll take whatever you don’t want. You write down the details of the donation and we will send you a receipt.”
So during her visit a few years ago, we sorted through my overflowing cupboards until she could barely pull the zippers closed on a large duffle bag. Weeks later, I received a letter detailing how the group had used every single thing I had released to them.
My sister came again last week. I knew she was coming. I know she preaches “clean up, clear out and quit hoarding more than you can use.” So I looked at my excess and called to tell her I had some extra crafts for her to take home. I even pulled out an extra suitcase. “I think it’s too big for what I have to donate,” I said, “but I have a smaller suitcase if that works better.”
Then I plunged preparing for company and forgot to sort through my stash of fabric — and pile of projects including the promised quilt for my youngest granddaughter.
But neither my sister, nor my daughter — who both came to visit last week – forgot.
Before I knew it, my daughter talked her aunt into a day of quilting. We pulled out rotary cutters, cutting mats, graph paper for designing, the already reserved fabric plus more. With my daughter dictating the design and working as a quilting apprentice, the three of us cut, ironed seams, laid out quilt blocks and sewed up the quilt.
Originally, I had planned to make a baby quilt. My daughter asked that I make it a twin-sized quilt to use on the child’s future big-girl bed. My sister suggested a border of strip quilting. With the three of us working Friday night to Sunday afternoon, it took 15 hours to finish either a full-sized quilt or an over-sized twin quilt that draped to the floor.
“I never knew how much work was involved. I appreciate a lot more what it takes to make a quilt,” my daughter said as she sat admiring the finished quilt top. “I think it would be fun to have a quilting party with some friends,” she mused and began planning one.
After she left with the quilt top and her two children, quiet settled over the house. I gathered up the needles, shears, left-over fabric and toys. My donate-the-clutter sister turned her radar on just one spot: My overflowing stack of Christmas fabric.
“When I changed bedrooms this year, I made myself donate half of my fabric to the quilting guild. I think you should get rid of half of your Christmas fabric.”
Like an obedient child, I sat down on the floor and began pulling out bright red and green fabrics. She urged me to keep looking, keep thinking about whether I really liked fabric, would use it or could let it go.
She snagged pre-printed pillow fabrics for her guild and folded up the rest to donate to the sewing group at West Side Baptist. Any excess the church seamstresses have will travel to a mission outreach program in Texas, according to Pud McDade, who assured me nothing goes to waste. McDade said that the women in Texas use even the tiniest scraps for stuffing toys.
Once I finished sorting through the heap of Christmas fabric, I realized I needed to tidy and sort through my stacks of fabrics in red, blue, green, orange, purple and brown tones. As I admired stacks printed with hearts, Shamrocks and fall designs, Sis mumbled her cleaning mantra. “Do you really need this? Do you like it? Will you use it? Should you keep it?”
She even maintained a very neutral face as I pulled out my cards of rick-rack and seam binding. After I eliminated half of them she slid them into her pile and gloated, “We use these on the layettes. We had run out of them. This will keep us busy for a while.”
My sister hauled 50 pounds of fun and work home in that extra suitcase (she bought at least a third of the contents at a garage sale) and we took three boxes of fabric and notions to West Side Baptist. Others gained fabric and crafts which will eventually become finished items. I gained space and the joy of letting go and sharing my abundance with folks who can put it to good use right now.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at joanh@everybody.org)