green strips and buttonhole stitch

I've been cutting green strips for Quinn's quilt. And working on the center for the mouse quilt. And spending just a little money on fabric.

There was an ad on craigslist. Four paper grocery bags full of fabric for $20. No picture, no real details. But I thought it was worth calling to ask for more details. And now I'm the happy owner of 120 new-to-me yards of cotton. That's after I went through and pulled out everything that wasn't suitable for quilting.

I'm trying to decide what to do with the dresses. One of the fabric's previous owners, probably not the woman I bought it from, since the size and era don't seem right, had carefully pinned and cut out at least half a dozen dresses. I find lots of unfinished clothing in my scrap bags, but these made me a little sad.

She, whoever she was, invested a lot in these dresses. The fabric. The patterns. The time to carefully cut out every piece. It doesn't look like she started to assemble any of it, which makes me wonder what happened. I've given up on clothing when I realized that I was in over my head, but never at that early stage of the project.

I wanted the pins. Turns out they might just be these, but they look like the ones my great grandmother used and I couldn't bring myself to toss them with the dress pieces. I felt guilty separating the patterns from the fabric, even though I know those dresses are never going to be finished. The instructions are long gone. I don't even know if all of the pieces are there.

Do you feel this weird sense of responsibility for other people's abandoned projects?

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 2 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 54 yards
Added this Week: 120 yards
Added Year to Date: 981 yards
Net Added for 2011: 927 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6640 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 14075 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7435 yards

For more weekly stash reports, visit Patchwork Times