You Can't Throw That Out!

Having lived in our home for almost 39 years, Helen and I have accumulated quite a bit of what would be considered by some to be junk. Now granted, it's all good junk but occasionally we get the urge to free up some space by passing on some of this excellent material to others. Of course, when that decision is made then comes the problem of deciding what we really, really need to keep and what we can gift to our friends, relatives, neighbours or whomever. Needless to say, as this task proceeds the keep pile always stays larger than the give pile.

However, the one area that is sacrosanct is Helen's stash. Anytime I look towards any of it, her immediate response is, "You can't throw that out!". Now when I was 40 years younger stash meant a whole different thing to me than it does now. Today's stash doesn't cause shivers down your back every time you see a police car cruise down the street. Of course, I'm talking about the fabric stash, that continually increasing collection of fabrics used for quilting. Helen is one of those quilters who keeps every little remnant of fabric just in case there might be a need for it. All of this material is stored in see-through plastic bins somewhat sorted by type of material and colour.

Part of the Stash

Now I thought it was getting a bit much awhile ago when I came across a bag of fabric scraps that were at least 40 years old. She said her mother had given them to her a few years ago and some of them were left-overs from quilts an aunt, long deceased, had made. My immediate response was, "What in Hell do you need 40 year old scraps for?". But being a well trained husband I didn't touch that bag.

Typical condition of frayed logs.

Well I've been put in my place. A few days ago, Helen started restoring a 50 year old Log Cabin quilt that belongs to one of her sisters. The quilt had been a gift from the same aunt whose scraps are in that bag in the basement. And guess what - some of that material is the same as was used in the quilt! So as part of the restoration, some of the original fabric will be used. A nice touch!

Original green fabric used in restoration.

So this old quilting-widower knows that when She Who Must Be Obeyed says, "You can't throw that out!", then I don't touch it no matter what it is, because her intuition is telling her that it will be needed in the future.

At least that's the way I see it from Between Keyboard and Chair.

Have a good one,

Don