Road trip: In search of fabric goodies!

A while ago - actually back in March or April, I had seen a “lot'“ of some fabric on an auction site we have here in Poland. However, it wasn’t that long before we were going to go to the states and I didn’t want to go get anything like this then.

I figured if it was “for me” then it would have to stay available. I actually checked to see if it is was still there one time while I was in Florida. It was.

Then I checked when I came back. it was still available. I remembered it, but still had no time to deal with it.

Then, now that things have settled down a bit except for the floors, I checked again and wrote the guy. He said that yes, he still had the lot. I asked if he thought it would fit in the back of the truck. He said he thought it would with the tail gate down.

Well, we decided to go get the lot. We didn’t take the truck - we took the Galaxy - it’s complicated.

Here is the auction listing -

I know that number “1500” seems really huge to us. It is really $400.72 in USD.

These are the pictures of the things that were included.

In the car and going

We got up about 5:30 am and were on the road by 6 am. We knew that with a 3+ hour road trip with road construction, the earlier the better.

We had to cross the Vistula River - this is what it looks like shortly after 6 am in July.

Then, because our plans changed the evening before about which vehicle we were going to use - we had to fill up with fuel before heading out of town.

They often have these sound barriers on the freeways here. It is not unusual for them to make them pretty or with some sort of design like this on them.

There are several areas of road construction.

We got there at around 9:30 am and I decided to go ahead and get the lot - I hope to be able to use most of it in charity quilts.

We handed my husband the fabric through her kitchen window. He took it on as a personal quest to put as much of it in the van as possible!

We couldn’t put it all in. I left the rayon slippery types there. There just wasn’t room. The rest of the fabric is cotton and wool and wool blends. Some of it is super, super nice fabric— it what you would make expensive wool suits out of. I’m thinking how to use it in charity quilts.

The lady of the house had had a business - and then passed it on to her daughter. But the daughter had gotten another job and was selling out.

On my way out of the house, I walked past the older lady’s machines so I asked if we could look. She graciously said yes I could take pictures. Here’s what she had.

She said this old Polish machine - the Lucznik has been a real workhorse for her. It is 40 years old, I think she said. (at least 40 years old).

An Elna quilting queen model. I don’t think the lady quilted though.

Juki overlock/serger.

This is how full the van was.

She said this machine is the best ever. A no-frills German machine - seger.

On our way again - this time at 11:11. We’ve got another 3 1/2 hours back home! (minimum).

This shows why this drive really isn’t that fun.

A lot of the road is undergoing construction and they’ve made the lanes narrower than normal.

I took a few second video so you could experience it with me! :)

Then there were times when we were completely stopped. I felt like I was watching Bob the Builder.

We finally got to eat dinner just over an hour from home! We had been hungry ever since 11:11 when we got back in the car since we had had breakfast before 6 am.

We brought the van to the church and unloaded the fabric and batting and some other sundries there. I will sort it there and take it upstairs and put it in my storage room (where I put finished charity quilts). I can’t bring it to the house since we’re doing painting. Too much stuff.

I did bring the thread. The thread and buttons were the only things I brought to the house with me—I hadn’t realized there were buttons when I went there. I wanted to check out what I have - am thinking they would be good for the fidget quilts I want to make.

Most of the thread is nice and thin and perfect for piecing. The little bit thicker will be fine for quilting - especially straight line quilting. I tend to like to use poly embroidery thread for FMQ - but this will be perfect for straight line quilting of the charity quilts.

Here’s the thread. Just to give you an idea. There are 725 spools of Saba or Amann poly thread - German thread - 1000 meters. There are 111 spools of Guttermann poly thread - 1000 meters.

There are 17 large spools of thread with three of them having 30000 meters on them.

In Poland, thread like this is coming from Germany and is not particularly expensive, though it is well known for being a quality thread. I think we can figure about $1 a spool for the small ones. The larger ones - would be much more than that.

Of the smaller ones, If I say that half of each one is used up and should sell for $0.50 each, I think the thread alone was worth what I paid for the lot. And most of it isn’t half used.

In the USA, a spool of 1000 meters of Gutermann thread is often between $5 and $10 (crazy expensive). Remember, Germany is just a few hours from us!

It’s quite a eye full! I’ll probably keep some here at the house and store the rest at the church with the fabric. I’ll look at it periodically and bring over more as I need it.

I can’t show you all the rest of the fabric and findings yet because I’ve not sorted it yet! I will share though!

I hope you’ve enjoyed your little journey with me as we drove to southern Poland to pick up this lot.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this.

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Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!

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