I'd been wondering where those quilts were. Oh, and the photo albums as well. When we moved into this house almost exactly three years ago, I soon realized that I didn't really have as much space to store things. That's the excuse I'm giving anyway....the excuse for leaving unpacked boxes in my basement for three years! Well, long story short, I now know which boxes contained those little quilts and scrapbooks. They were the boxes at the bottom of the pile against the far wall. The ones with stacks of more boxes in front of them containing wall art, games, and whatnot. They were the boxes standing in 4 inches of water after a week of nonstop rain when our sump pump decided to stop pumping but forgot to tell us for about 24 hours! You know where I'm headed here......... It was not a pretty site...... A basement full of water and a woman with her own waterworks at the realization of what she'd lost. My pain, though, is nothing compared to those in the South who have had so much flooding earlier this month.
We ended up taking the precious photographs out of the albums and laying them onto bedsheets strewn around the house. My husband and I worked till 1:30 in the morning prying the pictures off of the pages before they were permanently adhered to the album sleeves. The next morning, the photos seemed like they will be okay....just need a new home. (I won't be spending my time doing fancy scrap book pages again, I know that.)
The lesson here.......NEVER store photos in a basement in anything other than a plastic, waterproof tub!
The quilts. Well, some may have to be tossed. The mildew has already set in on some of them and the colors, especially reds, bled onto each other. It's a shame, really, as a few of them were even hand quilted in my early quilting days before machine quilting became popular. I'm not in love with the quilts anymore because my style has changed over the years. Country was really "in" back when I made these wall quilts. One is a teaching sampler that I used for beginning quilters. Still.....
The lesson here.......NEVER store quilts in a basement in anything other than a plastic, waterproof tub!
I've learned my lesson! Please, listen up friends. Don't be a dunce like me!!
Oh, MAN! I'm so sorry, Carla. That's beyond frustrating. I'm glad you were able to save the pictures, at least. :(
ReplyDeleteThat really is a sad story. Thanks for the reminder, though. Maybe you could use the better parts of the quilts for pillows or make things out of them? I have a framed piece of an old quilt that I adore. So glad the pictures are savable.
ReplyDeleteOH NO! I was about to be jealous that you have a basement because we don't have those here in Texas... but how sad for you! I'm glad that it's looking like your pictures are going to be ok but your early quilts, I'm really sad about those for you. I like Barbara's idea of salvaging the better parts of the quilts; I hope that's a possibility.
ReplyDeleteJennifer :)
Thank goodness the photos survived! But so sad about the quilts... even though they weren't your favorites, it's always sad to be forced to give up something you worked so hard to make. But you are right - all things in proper perspective - so happy for you that the damage wasn't worse!
ReplyDeleteI just googled removing mildew from quilts and there are a lot of ideas out there. I would be more than willing to help if you want to try to save them. I would really hate to lose your handiwork!
ReplyDeleteOh no! My secret fear...the disabled sump pump! We never had one until 5 years ago and I often think about *what if*, despite our having a back-up battery on it. Hope more could be salvaged than you initially thought.
ReplyDelete