A death and an oppertunity
 

Hi All,

I am, as my avatar suggest, the son of a quilter - Anne Foeman (Kalcevic).

Unfortunately, she died last Sunday.

While I enjoyed the occasional quilt (1), I couldn't be more impressed with my mom's long career at making hundreds of quilts - giving them to all her friends and selling the bulk to a select few who kept her fully busy up to about a year ago.

Here are a couple of them that are hanging up around her house here in Atlanta:

Wait, you guys don't host your own photos - in order for me to upload pictures, I have to use a hosting service?!? Please tell me that's not the case and I simply can't find the correct button for placing an image.

Let me know so I can post some images and get on with why I'm here.

Thanks - Patrick

Hello and welcome, Patrick. Very sorry you have so recently lost your mother. No, you don't need a picture hosting service here. But the process is rather counter-intuitive, and your pics have to be pretty small to upload. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to explain the process to you. Good luck.

Thank you and thanks, I'll stand by.

- Patrick

Patrick,
I am so sorry for the loss of your mother. What a wonderful tribute to her to post photos of her passion. I look forward to seeing them. Sorry, I haven't figured out how to post a pic yet so I cannot help with that issue. Just know you haven't lost your mom, you carry her with you where ever you go. You are a piece of her heart.

Another so sorry for the loss of your mother and a warm welcome.

Posting pictures here is a bit convoluted but once you get the hang of it and your particular set up, it is doable.

One of our administrators has a pretty good PDF in the help section:
https://www.quiltingboard.com/qb-hel...a-t309399.html

Some people who post from phones have settings and things they have to do.

Poster Ourworkbench has a nice concise explanation of the process, here is one copy of that:
https://www.quiltingboard.com/8599743-post2.html

I've never been able to get the paperclip icon to work myself, I think it has to do with my browser protections. I go into the "Go Advanced" tab -- but I'm using and old school digital camera and one thing I know is my initial file size is way too large and I have to reduce the file size. Not the picture itself, it comes as a thumbnail you have to click on to enlarge,but the file size. You can load several images per post that add up to somewhere close to 5 MB,but each picture seems to have a 2 MB limit. I use this free, fast and easy website to download the photos on my computer so I can upload them on site.
https://www.reduceimages.com/

Sorry for your loss. I cannot find a user by that name on Quilting Board.
This is rather long, but put the simple instructions at the end.
We like pictures. In order to post pictures on Quilting Board, you will probably need to reduce or compress the picture to a file size that is smaller than 2MB. How to post images can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...020-01-17-.pdf
Don't forget to scroll over to the far right to find and click on the "Upload" button. As shown at https://www.quiltingboard.com/8565676-post4.html

I have found that only the big red "Reply" button or "Quote" work to give me the paper clip icon to work for adding pictures.
https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...p-location.jpg

Some additional info regarding reducing images at post #4 and images for the scroll and upload button can be found at #5 of https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...d-t312607.html

Another way to post pictures can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/showpo...postcount=1143
And how to use an ipad to post pictures can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/qb-hel...s-t318147.html

Or simply -

• Make sure pictures are smaller than 2MB
• Click on red "Reply" button
• Click on the paper clip icon
• Click browse - choose picture/s. (only 5 allowed per post)
• Once they show up as being loaded, Scroll over to the right side and click on "Upload"
• After the pictures show up as being attached, you can close that window and go back to the screen to finish posting your post.

Some additional notes -
The photos generally need to be reduced to less than 2MB in size. I have heard of people sending an email to themselves as it will ask if you want to reduce the size.

I have an android phone and when I tried to reply on Quilting Board while in mobile view None of the options for adding pictures was available. However, there is an option down at the bottom left of the page that is for Full Site when I tapped on "Full Site" It then looked like the way it looks on my lap top. So it would have the Red Reply and the Go Advanced options.

Do Not Preview post.

ETA - I've added some notes to the instructions that Iceblossom linked to.

Thanks for your wonderful instructions OurWorkBench -- I haven't been posting pictures since my moving hiatus and recent return to the boards. Has it been fixed yet where the attachment windows are still in the old board format? I see you have bolded the part about scroll over to the right side -- that is a tricky one, there you think you have everything done but nothing happens...

Another thing to watch for is timing out, being wordy I often take longer to write my posts than the board allows so have learned to copy the text before I post reply.

Again, Quiltersson, my sympathy on the loss of your mother. I hope it is not too frustrating for you at this difficult time to figure out the pictures.

That used to happen to me a lot. Now when I sign in, I click on the "Remember Me" check box. Sometimes if it timed out and haven't closed that tab, when I signed back in there was a 'link' at the bottom left corner of the message box that would allow you click on it to something to the wording "Restore stored or saved reply" I don't remember the correct wording.

Thanks All for the kind condolences and all the help with posting images.

BUT, I don't have a paperclip button - usually called Attachment button right next to the Smiley Face.

I'm guessing, your mods might have a restriction on that till a person has posted X amount of posts - does that sound right to anybody?

If so, any idea how many 'hello's' I need to send before I can attach a photo to a reply?

Thanks

Oh, wait, I see, you have to hit Reply REGARDLESS of your intention, hitting Reply is the key to seeing the paper clip (Attachment button).

So, you can't attached an image for anything but an original reply to the thread. I'll try that...

Image follow up from original post
 

Attempting to post an image. I've followed the instructions. I can't see the image or a place holder for it in this Reply AND you guys said don't hit Preview so, flying a bit blind here. Apologies to all if this has to be deleted.

Sorry for your loss. I cannot find a user by that name on Quilting Board.

I could not find the name Kalcevic on the Member's List and that list has everyone from day one who has registered. Are you sure that is the member's name she used?

Thanks for sharing! The butterfly wall hanging is beautiful.

QuiltersSon, I too am so sorry about your mom.
It looks like she is an incredible quilter! I absolutely love those butterflies
I hope you come back and visit us often, and post more pictures of her quilts.

Starting over. Here are a couple of my mom's quilts and a shot of her quilting room:
https://i.postimg.cc/W15Zsjdb/2023-0...906-094302.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/8zYCyCFW/2023-0...906-094321.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/0yzkJqtN/20230906-094713.jpg

And the reason I'm saying 'Hi' is to ask what the best way to dispose of my mom's favorite thing in the world - her sawing room?

I can send a list of all the equipment, sawing machines, serger, big-ass quilting machine thingy, etc.

It's a lot, like, a WHOLE LOT.

What do you guys think, list it as parts of try to just sell the entire room to people who can and will use it?

She may not have found this site, her loss for sure. I've been poking around here, WOW, what an amazing site!

She made a ton of quilts BUT she wasn't super good with technology so this site and the entire forum thingy might have gone past her, again, a real shame.

please note that you can't sell any of it here.
we have strict rules about who is and isn't eligible to sell in the QB thrift shop.

that said, i am sure members will offer you lots of good suggestions about where and how you can sell successfully.

i am sad to hear that your mother has passed.
i wish you the best of luck sharing her passion with others.

I was thinking you must mean sewing, not sawing, but then - isn't that a chain saw in the lower right corner? And a circular saw in a drawer?

I would advertise on craigslist and other local sites for the longarm and other big items. See if there's a guild in your area, and let them know what's for sale. They may be willing to help with the sale for a share in the profits. Yard sales for fabric and quilting tools are great if you make sure that quilters in the area know about them. Selling the whole thing at once is probably not realistic.

I'm sorry that you lost your mother. Her quilts are beautiful.

That is exactly what I'm looking for - advice on how best to deal with the room - either break it up or try to sell it all at once or some other idea AND where I should post it for sale.

I didn't notice if your site has a Classifieds section or not.

Anyway, yes, just looking for advice on best practice to take care of this mountain of quilting bits and pieces.

I'm a really good furniture maker and have an equally cool and deep shop back in LA (my mom's quilting shop is in GA), I wish I knew anything about quilting but at 59 years-old, I'm not all that interested in taking up a new high-level skill like quilting.

She used to also take other people's quilts (sorry, don't know if there's a name for un-assembled quilts) and, 'quilt' them (hope I'm saying that right).

OMG, can anyone say 'dyslexia' - I swear, in my mind, 'sawing' and 'sewing' are exactly the same - how funny - THANK YOU for correcting me!!!

And yes, you did notice the Husqvarna chainsaw - matches the sewing machine:
https://i.postimg.cc/FKJz6CBD/20230906-173122.jpg

You know, gotta' keep your Swedes close together in case you get invaded and need a save haven.... right?!?

No, all that is my youngest Brother's - and, get the hankies out, he died July 8th.

So, now I have two entire humans lives-worth of crap to break down and sell, give away, keep or donate - good times.

GOOD EYE spotting all that!

Most quilters call them tops, unquilted tops, or flimsies. Your mom was a longarm quilter. The longarm is the "big-ass quilting machine thingy", and depending on age, condition, and accessories, may be worth a decent chunk of change.

As others have stated, it is highly unlikely you will be able to sell all of it at once. Most people either cannot afford to purchase all of it, or would want to pick through for only the items they want.

Use local resources. Contact the local quilting guild, quilt shops, and even her longarm dealer. Sometimes longarm dealers will sell used machines on commission. You could hire an estate sales company to deal with it, but be careful and get someone who knows what they're doing with regards to sewing and quilting items. I have been to many estate sales where the estate sale people had significantly underestimated pricing (you lose money) or overestimated pricing (nothing sells).

Quilter’s Son,

I have no words for your double loss. It is nice to see you are handling it as well as you are.

is there someone that your mom quilted with that could help you figure out what you have? If not perhaps you can find a list of her customers and contact one or two for guidance on where to find the quilters in the area?

I have found that you will be overrun by people that quilt if you do decide to go the estate sale/ yard sale route. Not a bad thing but it can be overwhelming.

The advice you have been given in regards to a guild nearby and all the rest are great if you have the time. An estate sale would probably be the most efficient option for you but as others have said, they really should be knowledgeable about quilting, have a friend or customer of your mom’s meet them with you.

I wish you the best and please post more pictures of her wonderful quilts.

So sorry for your loss. Moms and Quilters are those special people in our lives. Those are beautiful quilts.

Is there a quilt shop in your area? Did you Mom belong to local guild?

How did you find this site? There are any Facebook groups for selling sewing items. You can list on those groups. Many high end machines are listed and sold. Aslo Marketplace would be the best route to sell the big items fast. I doubt any posters here will buy from a seller with no history on the board. I wish you good luck and comfort.

Thanks.

I'm sure there are, where else would me mom take her machines when the broke, I think she taught also so, yes, I'll hunt around for my local quilt shop, good idea.

I think I typed into the google machine something like 'quilting forums' and you're not going to believe this, up you guys came - like a miracle sent straight from heaven. God loves the interweb (probably..)!

Nope, not a FB person, I think I'm the only person on the planet that didn't take that dive.

What 'no history'?? - I'll have you know I have 10 posts (11 now) and I'm a good person and rarely kick dogs or slap children!

No, kidding - I get it. Sites like this have their own vibe and community, everyone protecting everyone else. I had a girlfriend with really long hair, she belonged to a Long Hair forum that was extremally protective of it's members. I also belong to a Jeep Forum and in their own way, just as crazy about protecting the tribe from outsiders.

The advice I've gotten so far has been fantastic, I'm going try all of it. While I generally thought of most of those ideas plus maybe taking an ad out in a couple of the Quilt magazines, my primary reason to come to a site like this was to see, if by chance the consensus might be to hold out and sell it all as a package. I secretly wanted someone to take what my mom made into a well oiled quilting making machine and incorporate it into their studio or for someone to take it all and just magically plug in and go crazy with making (and finishing) quilts.

Pure fantasy, I know. And now that I've heard it from you guys, now I really know.

If you would post the state and city where your mom's "collection" is there may be some members on here that would give more local advice. Just a thought.

Where are you located. There maybe some members who would travel to view what you have to sell.

A 'collection' - so fancy...

For sure, I thought I did that, sorry:

Lawrenceville, GA

I'm glad you figured out the picture posting -- and you can even embed them in the text which is something I haven't gotten down yet.

I would also second the suggestion to look at maybe getting an estate sale/auction company involved -- looking at the general map around Lawrenceville, I see several options including "A Perfect Piece". Just as you introduced yourself to us, a similar introduction or mention of "a quilter's house, complete with long arm set-up, sewing machines, lots of fabric, etc." It can seem like a lot of money to go for a professional, but they know the market and going rate and can do most of the work for you, most operate on a flat fee + percent of proceeds so they want to sell high too. There are also more work for you options -- I used to get a lot of stuff from MaxSold, which is sort of a hybrid between ebay and garage sales. Sadly, they don't operate in my new area. Finally, there are places that specialize in Long Arms, like Long Arm University. Looking at their Machines for Sale page can give you an idea of some of the things you will need to know about your set-up:
https://longarmuniversity.com/MachinesForSale.html

I recently moved from a house I was in for some 30 years... it is a lot of work to clear out a quilters house! Wish I was a thousand or so miles closer, I am in the market for a long arm.

Okay, so, first things first - it's easy to upload inline photos - it's just very old school - at least in technology terms. This forum is running on a very old forum software version - I'm sure the mods here work their collective asses off to keep up with all the daily work that goes into holding this community AND they probably (absolutory sure they have) know about updates to make it work in a modern way - including 3 clicks to upload any image or video in seconds BUT, and this is a big 'BUT', the transitions are never easy or without problems especialy if there's custom work that's been done that might or might not be updateable.

Whatever, not my job and full applause to the mods for the work they do.

That being said, here's how you upload inline / body images:
Go to Postimages, it's one of many photo holding sites, I like it mostly because they haven't gone out of business OR, worse, they hold your images hostage unless the poster pays them - AND if you don't pay them, you end up with blurry images on your site instead of the image the person originally uploaded. Feels a lot like hostage taking....

Basicly, you go on that page, pick your size, I default it to 800x600, pick your image then is processes it and offers you a bunch of options to copy or link to your image, the URL part.

I use the Direct Link option (second down on the list), hit the 'copy' symbol at the end of that line and paste that the in the URL box you get once you hit the Image button on this site. Hit Tab to see that the image is in the box below (ignore any cropping, doesn't matter).

Hit Ok button and in seconds, your image is uploaded.

From start to finish, it took me more time to lay this quilt out an take the picture then to upload it here:
https://i.postimg.cc/qqGN4Z2K/2023-0...907-132817.jpg

Easy.

Secondly, GREAT advice, I'll take every bit of that and call all of them.

Yes, I wish you lived closer to my mom's house also. I can't imaging how expensive the shipping on one of these long-arm machines is - can't be worth it I assume.

Anyway, back to the work of dealing with cleaning and sorting out all the rest of her stuff, I'll deal with the sewing / quilting room another day as I get smarter about my options.

THANKS again!

- Patrick

So sorry about your mom. I agree with all the suggestions regarding guilds, quilt shops, estate sales, etc. And your mom's friends if I missed that one. I am tempted to come look since I am about an hour away. But, also in that place of not accumulating more at this stage in my life. Hoping everything finds a good home!

If not previously suggested, another place you would find interested buyers would be local quilt guilds. Either google to find them or contact local quilt shops.

The quilts you've shown are lovely. I hope that you will keep a few and remember her hands lovingly working on them. May you find comfort in them and in your memories.

Come on now, don't be hasty, me and the Girls think you need more stuff, like a LOT more stuff.

Here's another of her quilts:
https://i.postimg.cc/brhLXzMy/2023-0...907-193455.jpg
I don't think this quilt has even been washed yet.

Anyway, thanks.

QuiltersSon -- I am very sorry for the loss of your mom and brother. That is rough. Your mother's work is beautiful! When you start to organize the fabric piles try to keep projects together with their patterns if there are any left undone. Keep yardage separate from scraps. It is just easier to organize and keep track of things that way for selling. Rulers with rulers, thread with thread... you get the feeling right? You work with wood so keeping like materials together should be instinctive for you. As you box or bag things up, make sure you label it so you don't have to reopen it to remember what it is. That long arm is HUGE! I am sure someone may have mentioned contacting the manufacturer to find out if they have someone you should contact to resell it. I think Iceblossom's link to long arm University will get you the biggest bang for your buck but I don't know how quickly things sell on that site.

Some of the quilt stores in the area may be interested in purchasing some of her yardage or might even allow you to consign some items with them to sell. There is no fast or easy without an estate sale person taking care of it for you. Keep getting the word out. I hope you get some help soon. Thank you for sharing your mom's talent!!

Thank you, I don't think the entirety of the loss has set in yet - it feels like I'm on a spinning top and something keeps winding me up to go and go and go, Very strange feeling, can't put my finger on it, feels like the edge of sadness with just enough depression sprinkled on top to let me know more is coming. Like that.

My mom seemed to be very organized - I think. Here's a couple in a LONG row of shelves of, well, I don't know what you call it, umm, cut fabric??
https://i.postimg.cc/Hx7tn1tF/20230907-192457.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/7P3gWVt1/20230907-192502.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/N02X77rH/20230907-192512.jpg
About 15 more of these [said the man banging his head on the table over and over again...]

And of course, rulers:
https://i.postimg.cc/qM7zxXPv/20230907-192410.jpg

Right, feels like she was organized - yes, no??

The estate sale seems stupid at this point. I just found out today that I don't have to sell her house for maybe as long as 6 months so that should give me a decent amount of time to reach out to all the different places you guys have suggested.

I can't start calling anybody till next week, I'm zipping back to LA tomorrow then I've got a trade show in MI (The Battery Show, in case any of you guys are going to find yourself in MI this coming week, you know, we could get together and talk about batteries and thread and bobbins and quilts and EVs and stuff...).

Ugh

Instead of selling it all...why don't you start using it all? Learn to quilt...it is a lovely hobby...until the bug bites 😁

If you decide to sell the fabric yourself, I would suggest selling it by the pound. My guild did that, charging $5/pound. You might need to adjust the price for your area. You do need to have a reliable scale, but it would be much easier to sell it that way than to measure and charge by the yard.