I’m spoiled.

I admit it.

I don’t need to go to the post office much anymore.

My sis goes daily. I don’t. We used to have to go and stand in line to pay our bills (in cash) at the post office or another bill paying place. They would take your cash and they would pay into the accounts of all the places you were paying. You got a piece of paper that said you paid with a stamp on it.

Also people used to get their retirement in cash once a month at the post office.

Or people who were on what we think of as welfare or disability would get it in cash at the post office.

You could also pay taxes of sorts at the post office - radio and tv tax (you are supposed to pay a monthly tax if you listen to the radio or tv to help pay for public tv/radio stations).

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago - really through the Christmas season, we had an online auction here in Jozefow for sick children. They were raising money for 36 children with varying issues from cerebral palsy to autism.

I was busy with Szlachetna Paczka as well as trying to get the last of the charity quilts done, so all I did was check every day for what they had for sale, and occasionally bid on something - but I did not put anything up.

They were encouraging people to put things up for auction. What, in effect you are doing, is donating that “thing” as when people pay for it, they pay into the account of the non profit. You then have to arrange to get the “thing” to the person who won it. They were going to go until the evening of the 6th of January.

I decided about the first of January that I would put up a quilt. I had time to think about it. Now, I know that I really shouldn’t put quilts up for auction as they don’t usually bring enough.

But I did.

I looked in the room where I have a lot of my quilts stored and decided to find one. I didn’t reach my -25 quilts in 2020 goal, so I decided it wouldn’t hurt me. (My own goal was to give away, or remove from my house 25 MORE quilts than I made. HMM.) I decided whatever I donated, it had to be something with crowd appeal - for any chance at all of a good price.

I realized I had one of my upcycled bargello quilts still here. That was it! Crowd appeal. Upcycled materials. Cool design. Why not? I had named it “Red Tide”. :)

I chose that one. When I told my husband what i had done, he told me, “Becky…you know it won’t bring that much!”

I shrugged, but decided I wanted to throw my hat into the ring and see if anyone would bid in spite of that fact that I doubted how much I could get from Polish people.

(They are notoriously bad about thinking that sewing is a no-skills job and doesn’t bring much.)

I started the bidding at about $35, I went up pretty fast to twice that.

Now, not sure if you all realize how much work it is to make a bargello from upcycleds, but it is at least double what it is to make from new fabrics. Hmm.

I think the Polish people thought it was a great thing - about 300 zl for this queen size quilt. I didn’t think so. Not at all. 300 zl is about $80. Not when a person can get almost half of that for ONE HOUR of talking in English to someone wanting to learn it. Yeah. Not great.

Also…someone offered a hair cut/coloring job and it went up almost instantly to 1.5x this amount. It’s amazing what the Polish ladies will pay at the hair dresser!

So I told my sis. She thought it would be neat to tell some of the Quilted Twins customers just in case any of them wanted to bid. I was willing to send it, or bring it over in my luggage next time I come over which is slated for later this year.

So she did. Rachael wrote about it in her emails. We do have a lot of people with Polish roots and they like the idea of helping their own, of sorts!

Anyway, we did have one of our ladies win the auction. She paid over 1200 zl - so quite respectable. I usually charge $500 for this quilt when I sell them. But this one brought in $321 for the sick children in Jozefow. I wasn’t disappointed.

I told the winner I would be happy to ship it - if she would cover the cost. She said, “Ship it.” That is an additional $40 or so.

She did. So I shipped it today. I wanted to get it shipped today because we are supposed to be getting “winter” here for the next few days.

Yes. Winter. It’s finally coming. At least a few days of it. Let me show you. If you live where it is truly cold, then just look at this and groan at us. We have it easy. And people just “THINK” it is very cold here. It hasn’t been. Not at all.

I went to the post office just after 12 noon - since we can’t go between 10 am and 12 noon - at least I can’t because that is ONLY for seniors over the age of 60. They will not serve you if you aren’t 60 or over.

And I got waited on quickly. So grateful. Hardly any line at all. Since I don’t normally do this, I had to ask the lady which form I had to fill out.

And so I did.

And it is done. And I am relieved.

As I was contemplating packing this thing up and taking it to the Post office, I realized why more people don’t get involved. It’s easier to say, “Nah…no time.” It did take me about an hour of time today to get this in the mail from the time I got her address, printed it out, packed up the quilt, drove to the PO, stood in line, filled out the forms and mailed it.

And it made me appreciate even more those of you who have done the same for me! And my sis and her minions who do this kind of thing every day!

Wow.

You all are appreciated! I do not enjoy that - not at all!

But it’s done now. It should be winging its way to its new owner soon. I shipped it priority which should mean it shouldn’t take 3 months! I guess we’ll see!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Stay safe!

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

Here’s one of the beauties we have!