Originally Posted by jcrow

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.

Originally Posted by jcrow

Since I started this thread, I've learned a lot about us quilters. We are generous. So many of you want to donate your quilting items. How wonderful. And many of you want to pass it all down to whomever wants it. The only one in my family who would want some of it would be my daughter. But, she lives in a small one bedroom so my husband would have to put it all in one of our storage shed for years until she was ready for it and by that time, it would be out of date and maybe moth bitten. I have so much and my husband paid for so much of it, I'd have to have an estate sale. From what I've read, I think I should downsize now and just keep what I really want (which is everything) and donate the rest or have a yard sale this summer with the words "Quilter's dream yard sale" in my ad. I would have to put up flyers in the quilt shops within 75 miles of my home so quilters could get a good deal. I guess I'd sell my FQ for 75 cents and yards for $2.00. I have so many kits that cost so much, but I'd have to sell them for $20 or less. I would have to just "give away" all my quilting magazines and books. I don't think anyone would pay for them. I would sell my scissors for a couple of bucks each and my thread for 50 cents each. I'm not selling all my things. Just the ones I don't have to have. I have duplicate rulers I could sell for $2. I don't know. It has to be cheap enough for people to buy it, but I would want to make money on it also. But I'm afraid I'll spend the money I make on the yard sale onmore quilting items. Maybe I should go to a quilting guild (never been to one) and tell the women there that I'm down sizing and tell them they could have whatever they want as long as they really want it and will use it. That's probably the way to go. But to hear how our precious quilting rooms end up being a pain to our relatives, I don't want that. My sister died and her best friend and I went through all her stuff and took what we wanted and made piles to give to her friends. All the quilt blocks she made went to her daughter, who hasn't even opened the boxes and it's been 9 years. And her blocks were unbelievable. Hand quilting. Embroidered. We should have kept those for ourselves. We would have put the blocks together and made quilts. I thought her daughter would treasure her mom's handmade blocks, but I was wrong. I've offered to come down and go through the boxes with her so she could "see" what she has. But really, we never know what is going to happen to our stuff unless, like lots of you, make plans ahead of time. I think I need to do that. Keep the good stuff and have the yardsale and put a tag on everything left saying who it goes to. Thanks everyone.