Posts Tagged "Stash"

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:

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. If you would buy something different, what would you buy that you don’t have now?

Thanks!

Today on Lime Green Kitchen:

Springerle Cookies – You asked for it.  If you don’t like anise, you’re probably not going to like these cookies.  If you like anise . . you’ll love these!

I asked this question yesterday in another group so I’ll ask it here too.  I have a habit of repeating myself!

What’s in your stash?  Is it mostly scraps, fat quarters, towers, jelly rolls, yardage?

Have you always kinda bought the same thing? Like .  . did you start out buying fat quarters and now you buy yardage or do you still buy fat quarters mostly?

Have you changed the style of fabric you buy now from what you were buying 3 or 5 years ago?  Maybe you bought florals at one time but only buy dots now . . or something like that.

Thanks for your answers!

So many thoughts run through my head when I’m sewing.  Some of them make perfect sense . . if only to me.  There have been times in the past when I thought if I had yardage of every color in a certain line of fabric, I’d never need to buy fabric again.  The first time I had those thoughts was with Moda Marble.  For some reason, my preferences have changed and I like a heavier fabric now.  Not long ago, I thought maybe the Splash line from Blank Fabrics might be a perfect match but today, I decided it’s Dimples by Andover.  I like that fabric so much.

There’s somewhere between 130 and 140 colors in this line.  A color for every single project!  Multiple shades for every single color!  What if I used up everything I have . . ok . . maybe that will take 100 years and maybe by then Andover will no longer have the Dimples line . . but what if I start buying only Dimples fabric and what if I get every color . . maybe 10 yards of every color?  Not all at once; not this year but make that my goal.  Stop buying everything else except maybe a stripe every now and then, maybe a print I just can’t live without but for the most part, only Dimples!  When I run out of that one color, order some more of just that one color.

Do you think I could quilt that way?  I think I could!  The big challenge is using up what I have so I can replace it all with Dimples!  And, if I do that and don’t like that plan, I can just buy more fabric, right?

Back to trying to use up my stash!

Who’s willing to share photos of you stash?  This isn’t to say My stash is bigger than you stash or My stash is neater than your stash.  You may have a small or a large stash . . it isn’t about size! The plan is to share a picture of the stash now and then I’m going to seriously clean and organize my stash and show a new picture on January 1, 2010.  Then sometime toward the end of 2010, we’ll do this again and see if anyone can detect a difference in the stash size (smaller I hope!).

We all operate differently but I’ve found that if I commit verbally either to friends or fellow bloggers that I’m going to do something, then I’m a lot more likely to do it.  Design Wall Monday has given me the impetus to be sure there’s something new on my design wall, even if it’s just a few more blocks added to what was there last week.

Here’s my plan:

1. Take a picture of my stash today.  Posted below. I’m also going to print it and tape it up where I have to see it every day.
2. Between now and January 1, 2010, I’m going to clean it and organize it.  Post it here.  Then I’m going to print it and tape it below the disorganized stash picture.
3. All through 2010 I’m going to use work hard (really hard) to use the stash and at the end of 2010, I’m going to post another picture (and post it here) and then compare the three.

Want to join me?  Here’s my first picture.  It’s looked worse; maybe there was a time when it looked better.  I will look better for sure by the end of 2010.

So . . no prepping.  No cleaning.  No organizing.  Got snap a photo of your stash now, as it looks the minute you’re reading this post.  Share it with us in the Mr. Linky box.  If you feel the need to clean and organize, do that and add another photo on January 1.  Then get busy and make lots of quilts or other projects so we can see smaller stashes at the end of 2010.

There’s only so much blame I can place on my friends (one friend in particular lately).  In between classes this week, she asked what I wanted to do and I said “can we go to the quilt shop?”  Oh, sure  . . she could have said NO!  But, she didn’t . . she drove me right to the closest quilt shop.  We both enthusiastically walked into that shop, headed straight to the sale shelves, loaded up, found a few things from the not on sale shelves, had our fabric cut, paid our bills, started to walk out of the shop and ran into two sisters . . one of whom had taken up knitting socks after she sat behind me on a bus trip for hours and hours while I was knitting socks.  They told me about a yarn shop nearby which was owned by their niece so . . I said to my friend “can we go to the yarn shop?” And . . she drove me over there!

I don’t feel bad about the fabric (though I really don’t ever feel bad about my purchases) because most of this is already designated for a project.

The four fabrics on the right go with the fabric on the right . . not the same collection or anything but they do match and I think I can get the look I’m trying to get, though I may not even use the fabric on the left in this particular quilt.

A couple of batiks with no purpose in mind but I liked the.

Yarn . . pretty yarn; soft, fluffy yarn.  Enough yarn for 8 pairs of socks.

Really . . I’m not adding anything else to the sock yarn or fabric stash for the rest of this year!

My thoughts have always been that someone with a neat stash really never sews but just collects fabric.  My friend, Elaine, has proven that I am wrong.  These photos were taken with my cell phone, with her permission.  The fabrics look more dull and washed out in these photos than they are but look how neat and orderly this stash is.

There’s something not right about these pictures.

1. It’s just too neat.  I know she sews.  I see quilts she makes.  She makes a lot of quilts.  Maybe there’s a secret room somewhere in her house where she sews and she merely pretends this is her sewing room.  Think that’s possible?? I maybe should have explored more.
2. There’s no lime green fabric in this stash and I’m almost sure there was no purple fabric.  Is it possible to quilt without lime green or purple?  I’ll have to think about that some more.

Her stash looked so organized in real life but these pictures look even more organized than I remember and it was just a day or so ago that I saw the stash in real life.  I’m suddenly feeling like I shouldn’t go downstairs and look at my stash for fear I’ll realize how totally unorganized I really am.

Maybe I need a friend whose sewing room looks worse than mine.  Then I wouldn’t feel so bad.  But  . . there’s probably no one whose sewing room looks worse than mine.  Do I really care?  Not too much!   But, if I woke up tomorrow morning and found my stash this organized, I’d be really happy!