Do You Love Your Stash?
February 9th, 2010
Many of us are determined to use our stashes. I’m not committed to buying nothing this year. I am committed to using my stash; to making sure that I’ve checked the stash before buying anything. Then, if there’s something I need, I’ll buy it.
We’re all different! Bet most of you knew that without me having to tell you, huh? 
When I showed something last week, one quilter commented that she rarely uses solids/tone on tone fabrics. This morning, CJ and I were emailing back and forth and she told me that she’s beginning to lean towards more solids or tone on tones. Oh, speaking of CJ, she just ordered a new Millennium and has her HQ16 setup for sale. Check it out if you’re near Arkansas and in the market for something like that.
I can’t remember when I went from prints to tone on tones. I do remember having prints in my stash but that was at least 15 years ago. Many would be very uncomfortable working in my stash since there are hardly any prints . . just tone on tones. These are the fabrics I’m working with right now. The borders were on my design wall yesterday.
The pink has a bit of yellow and green, the yellow has a bit of pink. Those two happen to be from the same collection . . which is purely accidental on my part. The green is Patrick Lose and the black is Dimples by Andover, which I totally love!
I truly love my stash! If for some reason I had to replace it all today, I’d go with mostly the exact same fabrics I have. In fact, one of the hardest things for me about using the stash is . . once I’ve used a piece of fabric, I no longer have it! The pink in this project is almost gone, only about 1/4 yard of it is left. I’ve loved that fabric and have used it in several quilts.
My questions for you are:
- Do you love your stash? I don’t mean is it too small or too big but do you love the fabrics that are in your stash? All of them? Half of them?
- If you woke up tomorrow and your entire stash was gone and you could replace it yard for yard at no cost to you (don’t ask me how that would work but just pretend), would you buy the exact same fabrics you have now or would you buy something different?
- If you would buy something different, what would you buy that you don’t have now?
Thanks!
Some of my stash, I love to just look at and keep it ready for some quilt. The mediocre stuff falls in the category of “rats, I can not remember what I wanted to do with this, or that project just isn’t thrilling me anymore”
I love tonals and plain for contrast, much more than just all busy prints.
Brights plain and brights with contrasting cute figures on them are my favorites. Florals, blah. Plaids and stripes blaher for me. I still just love 30’s prints especially with animals.
I LOVE my stash, but I’m overwhelmed by it, lol.
We just finished our basement with a HUGE area JUST FOR MY SEWING STUFF! WOO HOO!
BUT, I’m terrified because I’m not sure how to start moving things in, lol.
I am moving toward acquiring more TOT fabrics (because I’m so inspired by your quilts, Judy…you’re luring me over to the dark side, he he he).
I’m a SCRAPPY girl, but I’m looking toward doing some different things in 2010.
If I could magically replace my entire stash, I think I would…but, it would also magically be placed in an incredibly sensible, easy-to-maintain, system…OH…and it would magically put itself back when I’m finished with it, lol!
I love most of what’s in my stash but there’d be big changes if I ‘lost’ it all. First off, when I started quilting it was wall hangings so a good bit of my stash is fat quarters. Now I’m more inclined to make lap quilts and bed quilts so I’m buying by the yard now. I also find myself drawn to the batiks more than prints. So…….if I started replacing my stash it would be with batiks and tone on tone fabrics in yardage.
i have few problems in my stash because i’ve started buying selectively, and specifically for projects. that makes all the difference!
when i started out i saved all my scraps, and now have too many. that’s also the last place i look when searching my stash. as a result i’ve used almost all the old stuff except the scraps.
So if i were purging today the scraps from 10 years of quilting are the thing that would go first, which would free up some much needed space for new fabrics. and also a drawerfull of fat eighths of homespuns. (enough for a lap quilt). in fact, i’ll probably do that this weekend!
SO IF SOMEONE OUT THERE LOVES DONATED SCRAPS OR MANLY HOMESPUN PLAIDS, E-MAIL ME.
what i would buy in their place would be a bolt each of white and tea dyed muslin for backgrounds as well as bolts of printed white and creme yardage for more backgrounds, and some yardage of wide neutral quilt backings (not batiks)
I have organized Operation Pillowcase and we are using manly homespuns for pillowcases for the soldiers in Afghanistan. If you want to send them my way, I can use them or send them to team members.
debraspincic@yahoo.com—email me and we can talk. Appreciate it!
Thanks to you too Judy!
Your name isn’t a clickable link, so I don’t know how to e-mail you — but if you should get this, I absolutely LOVE scraps, and would be most happy to give yours a good home, in lovely, scrappy quilts. I’ll pay you for postage too, of course. I’m at thepoch[at]aol[dot]com (take out the brackets and replace those words “at” and “dot” with the appropriate symbols). Thanks! — Lydia
Great questions Judy~ you really got me thinking! I do like most of my stash. My problem is the scraps and smaller pieces~ I love the quilts they went into, but am not so attracted to the leftovers. I doubt I would replace everything yard for yard, my tastes have changed. I seem to run out of basics the fastest, so would definitely stock up on those tone on tones, neutrals etc. And I think I would add more pre-cuts and some yardage to go with them.
I love my stash. I always have. There were some fabrics that I gave away when we moved in 2008, so I no longer have fabrics that don’t make me smile.
If it all went away tomorrow I would most likely buy the exact same fabrics as I have now, after a time of great mourning, moaning and wailing, because I didn’t pay near as much for my fabrics as it costs now to buy. I worked at a quilt shop for several years.
I would buy the large floral prints that I always pass up so I could use them for picking colors.
I love most of my fabrics, but would but more tonals and batiks, around here those are scarce and out of my budget, except for small amounts.
Have been playing lately, know there are some things I really need…more black & whites and other basics.
If I were just starting out or if I had to replace my stash, I would buy backgrounds in yardage and any prints that I buy would be Charm packs and Layer Cakes that coordinate or yardage that I could get lots of variation from for applique. I save scraps and use the tiniest pieces for my applique.
I am never going to regularly make large quilts. If I do want or need to make one, then I would either get a kit or have someone like you with me because I am always going to drift to the beautiful florals and pastels.
Right now all I want to do is applique and stitchery.
Except for a few what-was-I-thinking prints, I love all the fabric. I just wish I could use up more so I could buy more.
More than anything, I don’t have enough room anymore!
When I go into a store, I always wander over to the sale section and buy some of what catches my eye. For that reason, I don’t be able to replace it with the exact same fabric; but I guess since we are pretending, I’d have to say yes, I’ll probably have the same fabric. The only thing I’d change is that I have a few from my first year of quilting that I don’t think is as good quality. I’d leave those out. (That fabric just sits there because I don’t want to use it and have it wear out on me.)
Monochromatic modern prints are very under-represented in my stash. I’d buy more of those if I had to change anything.
While I have fabrics in my stash that I probably wouldn’t buy again they do work in my scrap quilts so I have to say I’m pretty happy. It works for the kind of quilting I do and it’s easy for me to make quilts completely from stash.
I got my book today and LOVE it! I’m packing for Los Cabos tonight but once I’m done, I’m going to make a cup of tea and sit down and read through it again.
Most of my stash is made up of scrap bags from thrift stores. I can’t say that I love it all, but it’s allowed me to make quite a few quilts that I absolutely adore!
These are good questions!
I love my stash. There is not too much I would do different, as I LOVE scrap quilts, (and Judy’s quilts!) so I want to use it ALL. I have tons of yardage, and FQs (30’s, CW, Novelties) in the hope to make those one fabric block scrap projects. I think I would replace it with more t on t’s, but also have a large variety of everything, to do everything. (Until I need that ONE piece I dont have!) My sister in law says they are “old lady fabrics”-really? I think she just likes batiks.
I often collect things in my stash that I am tired of looking at, and donate it to a charity, but then I feel like I should get fabrics that coordinate, and then I think-”well, I could make this quilt!” and find it hard to give away (but do) which is rather weird. This bond we have with fabric is sometimes scary….
Oh, yes, I absolutely love my stash! Even the fabrics that I may not love on their own, always seem to work somewhere when I’m pulling things. I’ve been getting more into scrap quilting lately, which makes it easier to love everything, I admit. But I love it all anyway, and can just about always pull what I need for a project all from stash.
If my stash were to vanish, and I could replace it at no cost, the end result would look very much like my current stash does. I’d have a lot of variety — Thimbleberries (but the older stuff more than what she’s designing now), 30s repros, CW repros, homespuns, stripes, dots, tone-on-tone textural prints, some novelty prints (mostly cats and sewing notions), hand-dyes (my own and others’), batiks, lots of Modas, some brights…
If I were to buy something that’s not in my stash right now? I’d say I’d add a bit more pink and purple to my stash. I don’t really like pink, but sometimes need it and almost inevitably have to shop for it. I’m not crazy about purple, but love green so I often use purple. Yet my stash doesn’t have much of it, so I’d buy more of that as well. Just to make my stash a bit more complete and usable.