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Design Wall Monday

January 11, 2010 By Judy

On Lime Green Kitchen today:

Dilly Sweet Carrots – they’re different and they’re good!

What’s on your design wall?

Peaches and Dreams is on my lineup for workshops this year and the first time I’m teaching it is in March.  Since the one I made went to Chad’s friend for a wedding gift, I’m making another one.  The original one is about 90″ x 104″ but the one I’m making now is going to be about 60″ x 80″.  It will travel around with me and I wouldn’t have minded making it even smaller but when I’m finished with it being in my trunk show, I can donate it so . . 60″ x 80″ is what it will be.  This is where I am with it right now.

What’s on your design wall?  Please share a link to a specific blog post . . not your main blog address.  Links to main blogs are deleted!

Tagged Design Wall, orange quilt, Quilting Filed Under Quilting 17 Comments

Week 51 Stash Report

December 20, 2009 By Judy

There was an addition to my stash this week . . even though I didn’t do it.  I promise . . I didn’t do anything . . I just opened the door when the UPS man rang the doorbell!

A friend sent me the cutest kit to make a chicken quilt.  It’s a great quilt and it will be perfect for the chicken fabric I’ve been dying to use for a backing.  She also sent a big piece of fabric with eggs — brown and greenish blue eggs . . just like I get from my chickens! Puts me back into negative numbers again but I haven’t counted the fabric for the four patches (which were on my design wall last week and are still on my design wall), so I will end the year in the positive . . I hope!

Used this Week:  0 yards
Used year to Date: 456.50 yards
Added this Week: 10 yards
Added Year to Date: 457 yards
Net Used for 2009:  -5.50 yards

Anyone else want to share a stash report?

Tagged Chickens, Collections, Fabric, Quilting, Stash Report, Stashbusting Filed Under Quilting 17 Comments

Storing the Stash

December 19, 2009 By Judy

A reader asked in the comments yesterday about storing the fabric.  There are so many different ways to store the stash fabric.  In the trunk of the car, in the freezer, under the mattress .. anywhere your husband won’t find it!  :)

Please share how you store your fabric. Or, share how you wish you stored your fabric.  Share what you’ve tried or seen that works great or what you’ve tried or seen that doesn’t work so well.  What absolutely doesn’t work for some may work perfectly for others.

My stash has been stored in everything from Rubbermaid type boxes, to a three shelf bookcase, to a linen closet to a walk-in closet.  My guess is that we’re all doing the best we can under our circumstances.  While we want to make our fabrics as accessible as possible, I pretty much just take the space I’m given and use it as best I can.

My current fabric storage setup, and probably my most favorite so far are shelving units that we got at Sam’s Club.

stash2 I like this setup because the shelves are deep and I have other things stored behind the fabric.  There’s more fabric behind some stacks; there are boxes of varying sizes behind some stacks; hidden suprises behind others.  Because the stacks are short, the fabric doesn’t topple over too easily.  I can see pretty much everything I have and I can get to it easily.

My fabric is stored in the basement so there are no problems with food odors and dust from the tons of baby powder and flour that I use upstairs.  Don’t try to figure that out — baby powder in the bathroom; flour in the kitchen!  :) Since our basement is a walkout and part of our living area, it’s heated and cooled so I don’t have to worry about humidity issues.

With the fabric being in the basement, there are no windows where direct sunlight can reach my fabric so I don’t mind that it’s on open shelves.  If my fabric was stored in a room with windows and sunlight, I’d probably prefer to have the fabric in a closet with doors or in storage containers.

Think about what works for you when re-organizing  your fabric.  Not only does the fabric need to be easy to get to, but it also need to be easy for you to put it away.

In a previous house, I had the fabric stored in a walk-in closet in one of the bedrooms but I sewed in the family room.  I was constantly bringing fabric into that room and rarely taking it back to the closet.  Having my fabric right next to my cutting table now helps me get it back onto the shelves when I’m finished using it.

Think about possible problems such as sunlight, humidity, bugs and work around any such issues.  If your fabric is stored in multiple locations (hall closet, bedroom closet, under bed type boxes, etc.), you might keep a notebook or spreadsheet as to where you have things.  Like . . reds in hall closet, blues under bed.

Do the best you can with what you have but don’t stress about it!  Get the stash organized though because it’s just a bit less than 2 weeks til the real stashbusting begins!  :)

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Tagged Fabric, Quilting, Rubbermaid, Sam's Club, Stash Storage, Stashbusting Filed Under Quilting 35 Comments

Putting the Stash to Work

December 18, 2009 By Judy

2010 is coming . . ready or not!  2010 is the year that I’m going to use my stash like you won’t believe.  If I use anywhere near my goal, my actions will be historic.  Future generations of quilters will talk about me . . the lady who used all those yards of fabric back in 2010!  OK . . maybe not but I’m giving it my best shot.  The only thing that will stop me from reaching my goal would be some unforeseen happening.  Let’s just hope there are no such happenings at our house in 2010.

From the responses to the question posed yesterday, it’s obvious that all of our stashes are different.  Some are comprised of small amounts of yardage, some are comprised of fat quarters or smaller pieces, many are comprised of a combination of all sizes of fabrics.

To effectively use our stashes, I believe we have to intimately know our stash . . know what types of fabrics are in there and what type patterns work best with our own stash.

My stash for instance, as most everyone knows, is almost totally tone on tone fabrics.  I love those! I think they’re timeless.  You can look at a Moda Marble that I bought in 1996 and it looks just like a Moda Marble I bought yesterday (but really . . I didn’t buy a Moda Marble yesterday.  I didn’t buy any fabric yesterday . . really!)  Tone on tones work for me.  Florals and plaids do not work for me . . at all!  Tone on tones may no work for you . . . that’s ok!  So long as your stash works for you, that’s all that matters.

When you see a pattern . . a free pattern on the internet, a pattern in a book, a single pattern . . that you like, what’s the first thing you think?  If you want to make that pattern, do you:

  1. Try to choose the exact same or similar fabrics so you can make your top just as shown?
  2. Go home and shop your stash to make the quilt using what you have at home, even if it means you have to tweak the pattern a bit to fit what you have at home?

My guess is if you’re thinking along the lines of option #2, you may use enough stash fabric to be in the quilt history books with me!  :)

Here’s an example.  This is the Saratoga Lights quilt just as I showed earlier.  One navy, one gold, one red, one light background and one darker background fabric.

QuiltHere’s the same drawing where I used multiple gold, red and navy fabrics.  I still used one light background and one darker background fabric.

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Hardly makes any difference in the overall look of the pattern by using a mixture of fabrics, but it makes a difference . . especially in my stash reports, if I made my stash work for me versus buying the “perfect” fabrics to work in this quilt.

In 2010, if you’re wanting to bust the stash, when you want to make any top or pillowcase or backing or whatever . . see what’s in you stash!  Be absolutely sure there’s nothng in there that will work for you before buying new fabric.

Remember . . I’m not saying we don’t want to support the quilt shops!  We want to see if we can use what we have in our stash before we buy.  What if I had everything needed to make this quilt but had nothing that would work for the darker background.  If I really wanted to make this quilt, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy the 1-1/2 yards of darker background fabric needed.

Is your stash going to work for you in 2010 or is it going to sit and collect dust, and then you’re going to feel like you can’t buy fabric because you have so much fabric already?

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Tagged Fabric Selection, Fabric Stash, Quilt Patterns, Quilting, Stashbusting Filed Under Quilting 15 Comments
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