Fabric Lover's Dream

Today I had the opportunity to visit my new friend Bev at the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake City for our local church. Bev does volunteer work there every Monday and invited me to join her. Bev's responsibility? To sort all the incoming fabric donations, which amounts to several HUGE bins every week. But first, let me digress..........

The work of the Humanitarian Center is to prepare kits or "modules" of various items to be sent for relief and aid worldwide. The Center gives tours several times per day, where the public can see what work is being accomplished. These are some of the display cases in the front reception area that show some of these modules.Shown here are (from L-R): the Newborn module/kit (basic onesie, diapers, cap, booties, soap and specialized babycare items; the Classroom module - a bookbag full of pencils, folders, paper, basic classroom items; and the Childcare Relief Module (boy or girl); towels, soap, toothbrush & paste, etc.). There are also Children's Toy modules (in a toybag), Medical Relief modules, clothing, quilts and more that I can't even remember....

So, getting back to the fabrics, they are sorted into areas that they can be used. Cottons (by yardage or by pieces) can go for quilts or children's clothing, as appropriate. Heavier fabrics can be used for bookbags, toybags, or pants or jumpers. Fleece and flannel have their own bins, too, as does felt, fake fur, and fancies (dubbed "costume fabrics"). Even they old grandma-style polyester doubleknits are sorted (OUT!!, LOL).... In this area, we also see yarn, threads, buttons, lace, sewing miscellany, trims, etc. Here are two boxes into which materials suitable for bookbags go.So, first (the initial reason for my visit) was that I went through the five boxes (like the ones above) of the costume fabric, which are for the general public to take as they would like. I spent two hours doing just that. Imagine, after I couldn't reach in any more, we just brought a chair over and I climbed in. It was PURE HEAVEN sitting in fabric up to my eyeballs!

At noon, all the workers filed into the cafeteria where we were fed a delicious, well-balanced meal. And then............ back to sorting. Once the big incoming bins were sorted into their respective boxes, the finer sorting and filing away of the materials for use was done. For example, the threads were put in bins by color so that the seamstresses making quilts and children's clothing could use them.

So, here is my friend Bev (on the right) with her friend and neighbor (and my new friend) Carol on the left.
And this is me and Bev. Try not to laugh at my ridiculous sweatshirt - it was purely for work purposes, and I don't usually wear it out in public. (But it belonged to my mom and I keep it for sentimental reasons, LOL). Can you see how large this work area is? There are OTHER work areas adjacent to our room.

I can't wait to go back next Monday. I told Bev and Carol that I'd love to work with them on Mondays until I go back to work full time. From here on out, I won't go through the costume fabric bins; I'll just check fabric out as it comes in, and if it can be used for CQ, I'll cut some off.

The coolest thing about this is that Bev and I met through Sharon Boggon's blog. When Sharon invited new bloggers to announce their blog last week, I did. Almost immediately, I got an email from Bev, who lives about 40 minutes north of me. Bev was telling everyone today that "We met in Australia!". Bev has converted the top floor of their barn into her studio. And she wants to learn Crazy Quilting, so I get to teach her!!! We're going to set up a play date in the very near future!

And finally, this is my "haul" when I unloaded it at home.
Tomorrow: a job interview in the morning (I have mixed feelings about that, LOL!) and then must catch up on my emails, blog reading and then stitching!!!!!!!!!! Life is good!