Pondering My Stash
Do I have too much? Too much for what? I have a sense I might. As I pawed through putting my kits together it was rather eye opening to realize the size of the stack of a dozen quilts existed many times over in various stacks and piles in my sewing room. The exercise of kitting may have been just what the doctor ordered. On my last fabric shopping expedition it was apparent that I was effected. I didn't buy any fabric!
Do I still love my stash? I do. I can think of two pieces I bought because it was on sale that I now wonder how I will use them. It isn't that I don't like them it is just that I have to find a different purpose. I even have the mauve and blues from the 80s and still love them!
What will I do with all the projects I make from my stash? Well use them of course. Will I ever have too many quilts? I might but I have started using them more. My kids could use more quilts. I can gift quilts and other items to others outside the family. I made my first charity quilt this year and have plans to make more. I don't think this is too hard to address!
How do you feel about your stash?
A Little Quilting
4 hours ago
10 comments:
{stare} I think if anyone GETS to have a stash it's you because you're all caught up with what you had started!! Seriously though, I don't have a ton of stash; my friends were even amazed that I didn't. Most of what I buy does end up in projects. I look at it this way; i'll know if it gets out of hand. At that point I just need to re-evaluate. Keep, donate, give away. At the end of the day I have something to look at that makes me happy. At the end of the day my hubby only has the soreness in his back and the grass stains on his shoes from golfing. At least my hobby gives comfort!!
I regularly ponder my own stash. When I found out I was pregnant the realization that I had to make room for baby had me cull quite a bit out of the stash... It is still on the big size - but I know people with a whole lot more... (I even culled some cats - they became pillow cases for cancer patients.)
I too have a couple - what was I thinking - but I also kind of have plans for those when I get a "roundtuit." (Big non-white/cream/black background comes to mind.)
I have not been shopping like I did in the past... & I am using what I have... (But I am not trying to be a teetotaler either.)
I like my stash. I don't stress about the size of it (although it does fit on one closet). My stash is my "paint palette". My fabric is the most important item in my tool kit. Without it I can't create.
I don't over buy fabric. I haven't done a shop hop in a year. Every time I buy fabric I have a plan in mind for it.
I like my stash.
Because I live 660km from the nearest fabric shop, I try to have a bit of a choice on hand, nothing worse than having to wait a month for a piece to come....sorta lost the inspiration by then hey??? But I don't have a lot of fabric, just a couple of those little drawer sets, one with three and one with two drawers.... jam packed!! I do have a lot of calico (for backing) and a roll of vliesofix (iron on for applique) and a range of embroidery threads. I find it hard when I do get to a shop because there is too much choice and I end up with a lot of small prints for eg and then not what I want to a project....sigh. I find it hard to buy matching fabrics.
I actually don't like having a stash. I never seem to have the perfect fabric when I need it. It kind of makes me crazy that I own all this stuff and must then go buy more for my project. I also often feel guilty for owning so much, monitarily, that is not being used. On the other hand, there is no better therapy then folding and fondling fabric!
I have a large stash and like you, there is not 1 piece I don't love. This year though, I decided to get my hobby purchases under control. Solution: I started a blog; gaggle-of-geese.blogspot.com . (blog's name is Samadhi.) In this blog I created The DETOX Files. Here I publicly keep track of the dollars I'm spending on purchases. It's working for me, as I need to reduce my stash and related purchases.
What a great idea to kit up quilts! We can't buy big ziplock bags over here (and even small ones are expensive) or i would do that. I keep mine in an odd assortment of carrier bags and tote bags and they are always falling out when I open the cupboard. I have a love/hate relationship with my stash. I fully support that a quilter needs a large stash the same way that an artist needs many paint colours. And it is true that I often don't have the colour I want. But that usually forces me to improvise, which often works out better. My main problem is space, I get cross because I can't SEE all my stash, it isn't organised, I don't have room to display it all, and there are loads of fabrics that never get used because I can't see them, or easily get at them. I would love to have a large quilter's studio, or even a bedroom, but unless I win the lottery...
Well, for only quilting for under 2 years, I think that I have a fairly large stash. I don't ponder it that often because it is in the other room from where I sew. I know that there will be a lot of charity quilts in my future, but it's a matter of making time for them. I keep coming up with projects (and new fabric) that I absolutely MUST do. I guess I should try and go on a 'no-buying' plan, but what fun is that?
I have way too much stash. A lot of fabrics have been given to me over the years and it's stuff I will probably never use. Some is stuff that I bought when I started quilting and now 7 years later I look at it and wonder what I was thinking. I need time to take pictures of everything I don't want and try to sell it or trade it away.
Then there are the WIP and HSY's that are gathered in tubs all over the room.
But I still need a better way of organizing my scraps stash.
When I started quilting it was annoying that I didn't have any stash. I would be inspired over the weekend when looking in books and magazines, then I wouldn't have anything to make it with!!
I am quite happy to reduce my stash (although, most of it is assigned to projects now and these are called PIGS), I like having it too. The other day I made a small Christmas wallhanging. Ok, I needed small pieces of yellow for the pears, so I went to the yellow/orange/red box and found some. I like that about my stash.
There are some fabrics I grew out of. I turned them into oven mitts for Christmas presents last year, and the recipients loved them!! No more guilt, and I used up batting leftovers too.
I want to make more oven mitts for Christmas this year. :)
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