afraid-to-use-my-fabric-stash-itis
 

I suffer from "afraid-to-use-my-fabric-stash-itis". I have all of these beautiful fabrics....fabrics that I purchased for the express purpose of using them, and I hesitate to do so. I always think "Maybe I'll want to use this fabric in a *different* project in the future and I'll have used it for *this one*....". Ack!

Anybody got a cure? A 12 step program? Something???

After all, I didn't get these fabrics to just sit on my shelf and look pretty! ;) I want them to look pretty in a quilt!

When you find the program please le me know too. :) I pet my fabric all the time. God forbid I should cut any of my favorites.

I have the same problem.

We just have to keep reminding ourselves, there's always more pretty fabric in the store.

When I first started quilting I had a very small stash, and I actually used it. Now that my stash has grown to an unmanageable size, I have more trouble getting motivated to search through it to find the right fabrics for a given project.

Perhaps you suffer from my fabric mania - I only sew as an excuse to buy fabric.

It's kind of like money, though. You can't take it (money or fabric) with you to the hereafter. So make sure you do good things with it while you can.

Oh gosh, that's so well said!

I'm so happy to learn I'm not alone! ;) :D

Pick 4---any 4--the first 4--that grab your attention, and take them off the shelf.
Rank them in order of stars---4 stars for your favorite, down to 1.
Take the 4 star fabric and set it aside.
Go to Pinterest or your bookmarked favorite quilts. Pick a pattern that would show it off well.
A sofa size or smaller, not huge. You have stash to move on to, remember!
Give yourself a deadline to finish it. Thanksgiving, maybe. Then start cutting with the finish line in mind.

Shop your stash for other fabrics to put in this quilt. Don't overthink it. That's our problem. Give yourself 24 hours to decide what to do with it, and start cutting before hour 25.

This is one 'itis' I've never suffered from.

Never had this itis. I sometimes cut fabric into scraps if I need scraps. LOL I buy it to use so what difference does it make what I use it for. When my granddaughter was little I'd find lots of fabric with a big hole in the middle of it. She used the part she wanted. We should all use the little girl in us sometimes.

I had to force myself to start cutting. Once I did this, it became much easier.

I too have a lot of fabric but it's not because I don't want to cut into it, mostly it's because there are so many quilts that I want to make and then another pattern comes out that I have to make but need that fabric........

I'd love to see what fabrics are on the "do not cut" list. Is that like a "do not ressitate"; DNR?? Maybe that is a little different.

When I see a fabric that I just love, I buy a lot of it in each color available. Then.....what do I do with it? Leave it here for the kids to ship to Goodwill? I really need to use it. After all, I loved it as fabric, why wouldn't I love it in a quilt?

I know exactly what you mean. I hung onto a beautiful blue and white toile print for years. Finally I used it for a back. Wouldn't you know our next quilt show theme is blue and white quilts? Hang onto your favorites. Oh how I wish I did. Favorites sing to your heart and deserve something special.

This is the fabric on my DNC list. I just cannot bring my self to use it for anything.

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Watson

I understand this tendency, but I've gotten over it (mostly) by telling myself that there's no point my spending the time making something out of fabric I find ugly. I can make only a limited number of quilts in my life, so shouldn't I be making them out of fabrics that I love? If I'm making something for myself, the question is: Don't I want a quilt/bag/skirt made out of something I love that I will then see regularly?

The other coping mechanism I use is to buy a lot of something I really love. Then I can use it for something and tell myself that I'll still have some left if I want to make something else out of it. I sometimes do, but other times I feel like I'm done with it.

Thank goodness there's someone else out there! Will be watching for this answer. Help us!

I tended to not to want to cut into my favourite fabrics. Then I got breast cancer. It scared me into realizing that I may never see those fabrics as they were meant to be.

I started cutting them up and after my surgery when I had healed enough to start stitching I did pretty much what zozee suggested. I made a lap quilt with my precious 1930’s reproduction quilts that were too good to cut. I cuddle with my dog under it every day.


I can still see and admire and , yes pet those fabrics. They are in quilts where I can see them and not on a shelf in my sewing room where they are not doing me much good.

Take zozee’s advice. It’s good advice.

I remember feeling that way at times long ago and in many cases by the time I got around to using a fabric I was saving I no longer liked it.
Now I use only what I love, which is most of my fabric. I don't save it for "someday". There will always be a new one I want to buy.

Oh Watson!!! That is the most beautiful fabric I have seen in a while! Is it currently available? Who makes it? Like you I would never be able to cut into it. I would make a whole cloth quilt and use just as it is. Back it and bind it....keep it on my chair and use it every single day.
Wow, just wow.

Dunster this is so me. Sigh...

I suffer from the same malady once in a while. It took about two years to use some that I have with bears on it. Take it out and make it stare at you until you are forced to pick of the rotary cutter. Even if you use a little 5 inch slice in a scrappy project. This may make the fever go away.

I am right there with you! Sigh

I have your problem too! Don't know why I can't just go into my stash and pick some companion fabrics and make a quilt??!! There is always going to be more beautiful fabric in the stores for me to buy!

Oh this sounds like me, too! But I am realizing my immortality and know there's only so many quilts I can make. Love, love zozee's suggestion! Thanks.

I've been to too many sales of passed away quilters whose too pretty to use fabric was bought for pennies on the dollar. My plan is to leave only the boring fabric I always use my pretty fabric first. I never fail to find another favorite fabric to have to have.

I have this fabric too! The picture doesn't do it justice. I cut most of it in 10" squares, ready to use when I need a layer cake. I have solid color fabrics to match some of the different colors in it. I made a set of pillowcases using the rest of the yardage. I think I bought it at Hancock's of Paducah.

I've only had one fabric that I couldn't bear to cut & it was a fat quarter and I dearly loved it. I finally sent it to a dear friend who makes watercolor quilts & knew she would use it in one of her beautiful quilts. Now I feel so much better knowing that it went to a good home.

I have this problem too. I have a collection of a fabric in multiple colors. Couldn't find the "perfect" quilt for highlighting the fabric. Then, I decided to make a wall hanging using the fabric. I was able to get over my Do Not Cut by using the small amount in the wall hanging. Now I have used the fabric 2 or maybe 3 projects. I realized I had enough fabric to make multiple quilts with it. Lesson learned, now I have no hesitancy to cut fabric. Maybe it is because I usually buy three yards of fabric I love, so I have lots left over after one project.

I hear you brothers and sisters :) It can be hard to cut into that big piece, sometimes even harder to use the last little scrap of something that is important to you. When I do, I make it a little occasion and recognize that "that was the last piece from my best friend's wedding quilt" or whatever it may have been. And then I move on.

Because none of us know how much time we have or what things may come up. Saving things for "some day" or for the perfect purpose isn't nearly as important as making each day what we can. Each of us are important, each day is important, and each time we sew it is important.

I accumulated a lot of fabric because fabric was affordable and if it made me smile, I bought it. When I had bad days (which I have too often...) I'd play with my fabric and it made me feel better. My favorite part of the quilting process is the design and making of the top but then it always comes up that by the time I'm done, I'm pretty much tired of it and never want to see it again and move on to the next project. So now I have a surplus of tops waiting to be finished as well as fabric.

And that's good because in-between I finally got a diagnosis on my vision issues and it isn't good. There are many types of blindness and what I have is the best possible bad diagnosis, I am losing my ability to focus. I'll always have light and dark and colors and large shapes (a brown door in a white wall is a large shape). My best work is probably behind me now. This year I can see pretty well close up, I've had years where I couldn't sew or read (at least 3 full years out of the last 7). We've set my contacts up for my best quality of life which means within 3 feet so I can sew and cook and read. I have a bad spot between about 3-6 feet where I don't see well, and then after that I have glasses and I can still (this year at least) drive and go to movies or whatever. But it's progressive and we don't know how much vision time I have left, I think 5 years still of being able to pretty much do what I want.

Live each day like it's your last. Tell the people that are important to you that they are important and that you love them/appreciate them. Let the bad stuff go, it's simply not important. Wear your good clothes, use your good dishes, and cut your good fabric!

I think of my stash as art supplies. So I routinely use whatever I've got in it. I sometimes have a fabric that just doesn't work with anything I'm currently working on, but I know that eventually it'll be what I'm looking for. That said, I do have a fat quarter bundle that just looks so wonderful I have not managed to open it up yet and I've had it for a year. I do take it out and drool over it occasionally :D

Rob

Hugs Iceblossom...your story hits home. I've had a lot of 'I'd better get started now or else!' moments. Hoping you are able to fully enjoy every bit of what's next.

It sucks and I still get mad and depressed about it, but in some ways it has made me a better person and more appreciative of the little things in life. The good news is that after losing 10-20 feet a year for decades, last couple of years I've had less loss, but there are no guarantees about next year. Forget the E on the eye chart, if you put a white chart on a white wall I can't even see the chart any more without my contacts or standing within touching distance.

We don't know what the future may bring, but I have learned that "stuff is just stuff". Have you ever done the exercise about "your house is burning and you have 5 minutes"?? My fabric never even made the list. I get the pets out (even the hubby's snake and spider) and everything else can be replaced. Hubby hopes if I have time I grab the computers but I figure they are goners... Photos aren't memories even though they can help bring them to the surface. Important papers can be replaced. There is nothing needed that can't be replaced -- except for today.

Old saying: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”
― Bill Keane

Oh my! What a striking fabric! I think that would probably go onto my DNC list as well!

What is this "unmanageable sized stash" problem? I think you all should box it all up and truck over to Wisconsin. We'll have a good old fashioned sewing bee for a weekend :D

Yep Iceblossom, the five minute exercise is an eye opener. I had all my old photos copied and put on online storage. We have copes of the papers we should have and the originals are in a safe deposit box. DH and I do this exercise at least once a year and always find something we can do now to save a little heartache if the worse happens. And you are right, my fabric and sewing room contents has never been on my list.

I'm in the same boat or it's reserved for a quilt I'm not ready to make. I need a large piece for a body size pillowcase . Every piece I look at, there's a reason I can't use it. I need to suck it up and cut one. If the remainder isn't enough for a backing, I'll piece it.

Yes, this has been me.

Then I decided I am not immortal . . . my day of reckoning is coming.

So I decided to pick one fabric off the shelf/out of the pile to make a quilt or wall hanging or mug rug. That still did not move much fabric.

Now my down time is spent cutting off 6" or 10" off each piece of fabric, then cutting that piece into smaller pieces that will go into scrap quilts.

Scrap quilts/quilted projects have joined WIPs.

Only problem: I'm seeing some empty spaces on shelves so I feel the need to fill them with new fabric.

I am a STASH builder; my neighbor calls it a hoard (she is no longer invited in my house).

Zozee is right - I overthink it and end up putting it back. My fear is that while whole it can be anything but once cut it might end up as an ugly mess of a project. Why risk it?! : )

I am going home tonight and cutting into my stash - I'll try the grab 4 and rank them method to start. Wish me luck!

Inform your neighbor that curating a fine fabric collection is an entirely separate hobby from quilting. : )