Has anyone thought about this?
 

Has anyone thought about what would happen to all you quilt "stuff" if you died? I was talking to my husband yesterday and told him that if I died, to call my quilting friend, Nettie, and have her come over and go through all my quilting items and price them and then to advertise a sell as "Quilter's Estate Sale". I found that I had 56 FQ of asian fabric plus yardage of it also. And that was just the beginning. I have so many FQ, kits, jelly rolls, charms, layer cakes, yards and yards of fabric, every notion you can imagine, tons of thread, two sewing machines, all kinds of containers for my FQ and fabric, pins, needles, rulers, ruler holders, patterns, quilting books, buttons, embroidery thread, batting, mats, all kinds of different containers to hold all my little gadgets, gadgets, irons, ironing boards, fusible web, spray starch not even opened, glue, binding machine, storage units, bookcases, dressers, cutting tables, lights, serge protectors, safety pins for quilting, tons of stash, etc. Lots of things my husband would have no use for but quilters would want. I have so much as I'm sure all of us quilters do and I don't want it to be boxed up and given to Salvation Army or sold at a yard sale. I want quilters to have first pick. So my husband knows now what to do "if" I die tomorrow. I'm only 57 but you never know.

I don't have nearly as much as you do, but I told my DH to call my friend Deb, a member of this board, and llet her take whatever she wants. Then maybe she could sell or donate the rest here on the board. If you read this Deb, I don't plan on this happening any time soon!!

My sister has so much quilty stuff when she lost her battle with colon cancer that it became a nitemare & unfortunately much of it got trashed. I was 300 miles away & still working/teaching when she passed. I tried mainly to deal with the over 2,500 quilt books & have been sending them all over the world. Because of this experience & not having any family or relatives interested in quilting, I try to keep my quilt items under control by finding good homes for things I don't think I will use in my lifetime.

Well...I'm slightly younger than you (very slightly) but my DH would treat my things properly and dispose of them in a way that would ensure they're loved. But if DH and I were to go at the same time, DS would probably just dump everything. So I plan on living a long time. :)

As for the rest of our belongings, we're in the process of cleaning things out so 1) we can plan for future relocation and 2) nobody else has to clean up after us. After my father died and my mother had to move into assisted living, I was left with the task of cleaning out their condo. (My only local sibling declined to help - other than to help himself to some "stuff". Thankfully, I had DH helping me.) But it was agonizing making decisions about their things. So agonizing that we have lots of boxes in OUR basement.

I will soon be 73 and my family has no idea how much what I have is worth. You are so right, I need to tell my DD what to do with it.

I told my husband, because I know he will out live me, that to contact the quilt guild and have a sale. He has family members that are 100 yrs old! He will be surprized when he finds "stuff"

I am in the same boat no family member intersted in sewing at all and I do have alot of things also. I am trying to use up all that I can and get rid of the stuff I know I will never use. But it is hard parting with things for me.

DH has a pretty good idea what needs to be done. He helps me with building it..... I do need to let my daughters know what goes where. I have thought about putting stickers on the bottom of my machines with what attachments go with them so the girls can get everything together. I am also going to put a list together for the girls of what goes where and who to contact if they doesn't want the stuff. Being in the medical field and in an area that has lots of 'estate' sales we see what others leave behind for a company to price. It is great for us when we are buying, but bad for the family....

One of my daughters quilts, so she will get all my quilting stuff. She knows this and will keep what she wants and sell/donate the rest. She will probably use a lot of the fabric for Project Linus quilts. Our tastes are somewhat different, so she would use what she wouldn't use in her own quilts for Linus quilts.

I, too, am trying to downsize. It's overwhelming--I have so much "stuff". I've been selling some on eBay and donating. My town has a town-wide garage sale in June. I'm putting together things to (hopefully) sell then. If not, it will be donated.

When my parents and in-laws died, I had to do a lot, but thankfully I had a lot of help.

it is definitely important to let family/friends know how you want your things dispersed when you are gone. even though you may have it in your will, explanations of where to go for the right pricing or dispersion should be clear, as the executor may not know for our specialized hobbies.