Mariposa

Sweet cousin! Congrats on your fun score!

jmoore

Whew! That’s a lot of notions...lucky you. I would be a little overwhelmed too.

WMUTeach

Blessed beyond measure!

maviskw

I would have a "Quilting tool sale".

meanmom

So many fun new toys to play with! Someone in my guild was given someones stash to keep, give away or whatever. She brought it to one of our sewing days. It was 14 copy paper boxes of gorgeous fabric. They were all folded neatly and standing up in the boxes. Someone had it all perfectly organized. One box of orientals, batiks, Christmas etc. Most pieces were either 1 or 2 yards. 2 boxes were all FQ. If my stash wasn't already too big I could have gone nuts.
We first pulled out anything we thought the guild could use to make our QOV or our other guild projects.

trolleystation

Great haul...……………………..

luvstoquilt

I bet you are having fun! Take your time and enjoy your windfall! What a sweet cousin.😀

Innov8R

Sometimes good things just fall into place and we don't understand it. Enjoy your wonderful bounty and be grateful that it was your time to be amazed by the generosity of your cousin. It could take years to use all those rulers and books, but think of how much fun it will be.

mac

Wow! That is like inheriting your own store. How very generous of your cousin. I get way overwhelmed when I have too much. Fortunately I have been quilting for so long that I accumulated my things a little at a time and mostly on sale. But the time is coming that I will have to share my things that I have gathered over the last 40 years.

My suggestions would be to get some boxes or bins and start sorting into things big catagories. Like put all things that are sharp or cut into one box; all rulers into another bin; threads into another bin, etc. Then you can go through each box and after you have seen everything, you can determine what you want to keep and what you can pass along to another quilter that you may know. Then when it is thinned out you can better organize what you have.

For the books, I like to alphabetize my books. I made up a chart on Exel and after each book title, I said what the book was about: patchwork, gifts, applique, circle designs, etc. I then alphabetized them on the shelf and that way I can find the book when I need it. The reason I put it in Exel, is that I can now sort by catagories and instantly find what books have applique patterns, or patchwork, or anything that I am looking for. It saves time not having to look at each book individually. You can do something similar in Word, too.

Have fun going through your new store. You don't have to keep everything and as I said you can pass some to other quilters and let them enjoy some of the bounty you just inherited. This way it won't be so overwhelming for you to keep and you will feel good sharing.

Jules51

Wow, overwhelmed is right! Enjoy your treasures!