So sorry for the your loss. I have gone through this very thing with my BFF - she had an entire room full of fabric, in bookcases on bolts, etc. She had a major stroke and then passed away. After several months of us visiting her DH (my husbands best friend) we went to see him one day and he said that he had spent the past two days burning all of her fabric, etc. I almost fainted - no kidding. I raced into her "room" and sure enough it was empty. But, he hadn't gotten around to emptying the big closet - it had her plactic totes full of fabric - maybe a dozen or so totes. I was able to "rescue" them - DH and I carrying them out to our car in a hurry - before he changed his mind and burned them too. I asked where her paper patterns and thread was and he said "gone". I did find her quilt books in a bookcase in another bedroom so took them home too. But the worst thing is that she had a sister who had three daughters and then she had a daughter in-law who had a young daughter. I am sure that one of them might have wanted some of the things in her sewing room. I offerred to have her sister to come to my house to go through what I brought home and he told me that he did not want the sister to have anything. I am still in shock about all of this. Besides that, the floor in my sewing room collapsed - due partly to the weight of all of my fabric - old floor though. So, I had to put all of her fabric in a storage room in my garage.