Wanabee Quiltin

I have a friend who is a hoarder. I have not understood why she buys and buys and her house is full as well as about 20 storage units. Now I do ! A shelf in my sewing room broke so DH needs to fix it. I have fabric stored in bins on the shelves and they are too heavy. I knew that I had FQ's, yardage and scrapes all mixed together so I figured I would clean the bins out. So far, I have gone through the red, green, brown, yellow and orange and the purple and turquoise fabric bins. I must have 500 FQ, about 50 Fat 8ths and three grocery sacks of scrapes to be cut up. Now that still leaves me the black and white, the patriotic, 2 bins of Christmas, 2 bins of children, 1 bin of mixed, one bin of floral and 2 very large bins of blue. None of these have solids in them, that is another area of the room. I think there is another bin, but I am afraid now to go into that room and check it out. I also have FQ's in the chest in the guest bedroom with all my charm squares. There has to be about 50-75 FQ of my Kaffe Fassett fabric as well as my Liberty of London Fat Sixteenth's. And believe it or not, all this except the chest are in my sewing room which is a small ex-bedroom. So now I am more than a little ashamed of all I have, I will never ever use up all my fabric. I have made a rule now that I will not buy any more fabric -other than the background or borders for my quilts. It comes at a good time as I have made all my family members quilts in their desired designs/fabrics and now I am free to use what I have. I am wondering if there is a 12 step group I can go to ?

Quilt-T

I know the feeling! I haven't even gone through my scraps or the boxes of scraps that I bought a year or so ago from someone on this site. The guilt and shame is driving me a little nuts. But I do still have family quilts to make. I don't have as much as you. But I have way too much for having only started in mid 2011! I am trying to not even buy for backing. However, I do lack in solids except for a couple of colors. Hang in there and quilt away!

Judith1005

Just take it one day at a time. And keep telling yourself, I will use my stash. You are very lucky to have such a stash. Especially with the price of fabric now. So just give yourself a pat on the back for planning ahead. I hope you find lots of fun things to do with your stash.

quiltstringz

Well if you find a program - let me know. I am in the same boat and am trying very hard (so far successful) to not buy any fabric.

KalamaQuilts

Hang in there. I went on the fabric wagon in October 2001. Wanting to buy more fabric in the first 6-8 months almost make me ill...it was just a habit that had become an addiction.
30 pounds of fabric equals 100 yards, give or take a few inches.

My stash didn't even begin to look like so many shown here...and it took me 13 years to use it down to what I consider acceptable levels. Stashes are perfect for all scrappy all the time quilters. But planned quilts? Hopeless, you ever have enough of the right stuff.

Good luck, PM me if you need real courage. The wink wink nudge nudge about getting a handle on stash here isn't the answer if you really want to get a grip on the problem..

Another way to look at it, buying fabric because it is on sale, only flys if you put the $$ you saved in a savings account on the way home from the store. Other wise all you've done is spent money and saved nothing.

Tartan

I keep mine on mini bolts for easy access and I have not bought any new fabric this year. Oh that's right, it is only FEBRUARY! I am committed to sewing from my stash but with the price of fabric these days, I am darn glad to have it!

AlvaStitcher

I have quite a stash as well but I think you have me beat by a long shot! LOL I lack in solids though. Oh well, another trip to LQS seems to be in order.

Buckeye Rose

I had a small tote of scraps that was bursting open, so I finally dug into it and started cutting EVERYTHING IN THE TOTE down to usable sizes. I started with 10" squares, then 8", 6", 5" and then 2.5" strips. That cleaned up the tote for more scraps and gave me a huge stack on 10" squares to make utility quilts. Doing 10 blocks by 10 blocks and using double batting makes a huge extra warm quilt for our cold months. I am on quilt #3 like that and my girls just love em. May not be the prettiest things, but they will never be cold!

PaperPrincess

Not a 12 step program, but you could join the 2015 Fabric Moratorium we have running in the Challenges sub forum. We try and encourage members to curb excess purchases and commiserate slips ups!
http://www.quiltingboard.com/quiltin...m-t259073.html

Lori S

My advise... any time you feel tempted to buy... spend 10 minutes in your stash.... trust me the urge will pass.