When my mom died in 2020, I couldn't really do anything with her stuff because at that time int he pandemic, we didn't have vaccines, and I didn't want to inadvertently make my dad sick. So last year, my sister decided that that room should be transformed into a guest room so she'd have a space upstairs to sleep, since my brother has pretty much taken over the basement these days. She lives in Japan, so of course,she can't do the job. It was up to me ... since I quilt and knew what to do with everything.
So beginning in May of last year (2021), I started going up to my Dad's house once a month to go through all the stuff in my mom's sewing room, with the idea of making enough room to turn it into a guest room. It was nice to check in on him, and to walk in the woods ... It's a lovely drive through the Menomonee Indian Reservation to get there and back.
Little by little, I waded through a lot of that stuff she had collected through the years. Bringing back carloads of fabric to donate to the Lake Side Quilt Guild for charity quilts. Giving away boxes of patterns and kits, threads, embroidery designs, and other quilting and sewing items. 12 car loads so far. I kept a minimum of fabric for myself -- I simply don't have space for much of it at my house--I have my own collections! I set aside other things for my Dad to take into his favorite charity shop in Antigo -- her clothes, shoes, etc. not quilting-related items like tins, baskets and knick-knacks. She had chocolate and candy hidden away in just about every corner and drawer.
There 's still a good share of sewing and quilting items left in the corner of the sewing room. I moved her sewing machine over by the closet to be the sewing nook, while the other side of the room now has a bed in it. Yes! I no longer have to sleep on the couch when I go there. I can shut the door and block out my Dad's westerns and CSI, and the dog's barking. It's a little piece of heaven in there now! There is still 1 rack of bins with fabric, and the closet is chock full of stuff still. There's still a bunch of stuff I should go through (stabilizers, batting, etc.) and cull out, but I've hit a wall for now. I'll leave that for another day. My sister might want some of it too, though there's a limit to what she could ever take back to Japan--although she has started taking quilting lessons since my mom died, as her way to commune with her, I guess.
It's been a lot of work to sort and go through things. My mom was a great shopper! She had just about every gadget for quilting and embroidery imaginable. Did she need all that stuff? No - but it kept her off the streets, and out of the casinos, I guess. It was her money to spend, so how can you blame her?
1 comment:
Goodness, that was a serious quilter . . . or at least a serious collector of all things quilting. A tremendous job to whittle it down to what you have. I know what you mean about hitting a wall. I didn't have quilting things to clear out when my mother died but she'd saved so much sentimental stuff, sacks and sacks of newspaper clippings meant to go in scrapbooks because they were about us kids, and things from our childhoods and her mother's things and I could go on, but I couldn't blame dad for not wanting to deal with it so I too made trips home over time to slowly sort it out. A tremendous and emotional job too. I have no idea who will take on the task when I'm gone, since I don't have children. Maybe a niece will tackle it or I'll try to hone it down myself at some time. Good job, daughter.
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