Garage Sale for Quilters

The last few days have been packed with activities - line dancing, teaching quilting, a Central Florida MQG executive committee meeting and general meeting, more line dancing, and a social media presentation given to Big Cypress Quilter... so much that I haven't had a moment to post about the quilter's garage sale I was part of last Saturday. 

The Garage Sale is an annual event hosted by Quilting Guild of The Villages. Only unfinished quilting and sewing related items such as fabric, patterns, books, kits, notions and the like, may be sold. The four hour sale was at a regional rec center where each of the 19 chapters of Quilting Guild of The Villages was permitted three tables. So, for a bargain price of $5, I got a table.

Initially, I thought I'd share a table with someone. Ha! After a couple evenings spent digging through the closet, shelves and containers in my sewing room, I realized I had more than one table's worth! It took hours to price everything. Batik, normally $12 a yard, began at $6 a yard; quilting cottons, normally $10 a yard, began at $5 a yard. I say "began" because most often each piece wasn't entirely intact, so I measured and priced only the complete parts. Any fabric beyond that was included at no extra charge. Even a $1 fat quarter was sometimes more than 18" X 21".

I put every batik I own into the sale. I just don't like them anymore. Pretty much any fabric that I haven't touch in the three and a half years I've lived in The Villages, is what went into bins and boxes to take to the garage sale.

This is my table full - and more! I brought along a portable table and set it at the end of the provided table!

Let me tell you... those batiks were a hot ticket! Only three small pieces and six fat quarters (dark colors) remained at the end of the sale.

The room got pretty crazy.

And at one point, my own table was several people deep. 

Sadly, among those visitors was at least one thief. I had only six patterns to sell (all marked half price), and one of them was the "Tuffet" pattern. I had decided that if it didn't sell, I would offer it here as a blog giveaway. Well, I waited on every customer and I'm sure it wasn't sold, nor was it among what was left at the end of the sale. Someone liked the pattern enough to just take it.

Still, I was thrilled with outcome of all this. Remember? My 2016 word of the year is "lighten." I'm accomplishing my goal, returning home with less than half of what I'd taken along. If I can find a place to store the large bin of fabric that remains, I might just do this again next year. Linda