Share Your Collection!

As a seller of antiques vintage retro collectibles I have often wondered about what people collect and why. I've also wondered where do the items I sell go? What fuels their passion for certain collectibles?
So I asked buyers & sellers to share their stories and collections with us.

That bring me to Dee from Divine fabrics and more a lovely lady
with a passion for cotton fabrics. I asked her a few questions and she has also shared some samplings of her collection.

Question: Why collect fabric?

Answer: There’s a lot of beauty in art, we’re visual beings, us humans, however, most art you cannot wear, but when you have various prints of various fabrics, not only can you wear those by sewing fabrics into clothing of all kinds, but you can sew fabrics into quilts, make wonderful home decor items, and do all sorts of fabric crafts from wall decor to scrap-booking, from seasonal valances, to even using fabric on walls if you wish. I collect fabrics because I Love Beauty, fabrics not only look beautiful to me, and other fabric lovers, but feel Beautiful, too, I collect because I simply love the fabrics I collect!

Question: What is your favorite?

Answer: My favorite fabric, over these almost 70 years has been cotton prints. Cotton is a natural fabric, it’s comfortable to wear, it makes an excellent choice for everything from valances to blouses or tops, to quilts and even quilted jackets. Cotton prints are my very favorite for many, many sewing needs.

Question: When did you get started?

Answer: Our mom sewed because we were rather impoverished growing up, although we didn’t really know this, we only knew mom was creative enough to make us blouses and jumpers, pillowcases, and curtains, we thought that was really great to have some clothing no one else could get at a store! I started sewing in my teens, but I sewed the very most when our children were growing up in my 20’s and 30’s. I really didn’t start making quilts until I was in my 40’s.

Question: Where do you sell?

Answer: My very favorite place to sell is at Bonanza.com. I also sell in a place called Atomic Mall. In the past I sold right out of our home, as well as on eBay, iOffer, and privately through emails when AOL had it’s hometown site, which is no longer available. I’ve been selling about 16 years off and on, online, but longer than that privately, and from our home.

Question: Why do you sell?

Answer: I used to sell to supplement our income. After hubby retired, we moved from a very tiny country home back to the Cleveland OH area to be closer to our one set of grand kids. Doing so, put us in debt again, so I sold to supplement our lower fixed retirement income, then. Since hubby’s dad passed on, I now can sell just for fun. Because quilters and cotton fabric lovers are the Very Best Customers on the Planet, in my humble opinion, I sell because I love my Customers, mostly ladies, and I’m delighted to bring them lots of joy and happiness in their search for the perfect cotton print for their creations in quilt weight cotton!

Question: You state you sold from home. How did you advertise?

Answer: When I sold from home, I advertised at Craft Shows and Craft Fairs, had Quilter Friends, and THAT helped a lot! Also,I put up Posters at Local Stores – in those days and in such a small town, I used to make HAND made and then Computer Generated Posters for All My Volunteer work, and so those same Store Owners let me also put up Posters for my Fabric Sales. I was Very Careful about Whom I let into our Home years ago, andnow, in These times and in a Larger City where we now live, I’m extremely careful, and a person must be someone I Know, like a Friend of a Friend to come see my Quilt Room where my Bolts and Loose fabrics Cuts are on Shelves. Call me fussy, but you have to wash your hands before allowed to touch my fabrics! Ha!

Question: What fueled that passion?

Answer: I started helping out, without pay, a neighbor who owned a quilt shop when we lived in a little country home some years ago. She got me interested in quilts. When she closed her shop I bought lots and lots of her bolts of fabric, and decided I would try my hand at selling too, and I’d have, then a lot of different quilt cotton prints from which to choose to create and sew for family, friends, and home. When I was in my Quilt Room in our Little Country home, and customers would come, we’d be like two little kids in a candy store, excited, thrilled, chattering, laughing, and having a blast picking out prints, cutting yardages, sharing what’s going to be made from this print or that one!

Question: What is your user ID?

Answer: Within Bonanza.com I’m known as: divinefabricsnmore aka Divine Fabrics n More, also in Atomic Mall, I’m DivineQuiltFabrics4U.

Question: What can customers expect from you?

Answer: The very best customer service, is my top goal. Customers can rely on me for anything that relates to sewing, once they get to know me, they know, too, when you buy from me, the more you buy, the more FREEBIES I will send to them, and they just love those, for sure, I mean who wouldn’t? Also my prices are often some of the lowest prices for Highest Quality Quilt Shop All Cotton Fabrics, and that’s something every fabric lover is looking for in today’s economy, too, as Most of my cottons are FREE to ship, also. However, I think, it’s the non-monetary importance that my customers seem to value the most, I’m blessed to be friendly, helpful, and can afford to be giving, in other words I strive to share my Blessings with my customers!

Question: What is the most special thing you’ve created with your fabric?

Answer: That’s a tough one to answer. I think for the most part I’d have to say anything I sewed, loved dearly, and then gave it away! There’s something very deeply sweet and rewarding in those things I’ve sewn together and simply gave away! When you can touch another’s heart and spirit, there are no words to best explain how truly wondrous that feels both to the receiver and me the giver, it’s the greatest feeling on Earth!

Question: How many years have you been sewing?

Answer: Okay, All I’ll say here, is I’ve been seriously sewing for over 45 years! You do the math, LOL!

Thank you Dee for sharing your collection and story with us. I highly recommend to anyone looking for cotton fabric to visit Dee at either her Bonanza or Atomic Mall she can help you with all your fabric needs and is very knowledgeable about them as well.