We're all fabric hoarders. Just thank God it's not dogs or cats you can't resist!

LOL, I started quilting over a year ago and didn't understand when they started talking about stash. Then when they explained I thought well I will never do that one project at a time and all that jazz. Yeah that went out the window after my first quilt....but if you need any of your stash to go to good homes we will all be MORE than glad to help. We will even share pictures of what we made from your stash. OK dreaming we all have stash and it is NEVER enough, there is always something beautiful out their calling our name. Enjoy every minute of it!

You made me feel better, I only have 11 bins and one three drawer stacker (that's only what I have in the garage). I keep trying to convince myself I am on a "buying hiatus" but I have to keep turning in those coupons to stay on JoAnn's mailing list. They make me do it, honest! And that fabric just jumps in my cart! Honest! :oops:

You are a fabricoholic. Welcome to the meeting of fabricoholics. We all have that problem to some degree or another. I go through spells where I can be ruthless when it comes to getting rid of pieces of cloth....then there is the rest of the time....SIGH! If you truly have too much (and only you would know for sure) you are in good company!

Ditter

Its only a problem if it bothers you I think. If its bothering you then regardless of what anyone says it is a problem. There is the old saying "There is a difference between wants and needs" What we want is one thing what we NEED is another. Do you need all that fabric? Do you have the means to purchase a bit more otherwise if you shared? would hanging onto it feel as good as sharing some with someone else who might have a need? (especially since you can then replenish it with something new stock?).. I look at everyones stash and think OOHH MAN. WOULDNT THAT BE WONDERFUL? I have a fairly small stash in quilters terms. That said I just moved boxs and boxs of household stuff. And I can tell you truthfully I am THANKFUL that yesterday I had only a bit of sewing stuff to move. 15 would have had my husband coming after me with a noose and the truck would be full, we would arrive and have nothing else but fabric (ok to a quilter whats wrong with that?).. At my peak I had six tubs of fabric and felt like I had a TON. Now its 1 tub of real fabric (quilters) and one tub of upholstry craft fabrics.. which is more than I have had in a very very long time.

Do you have any red hat material. I'll be glad to by it from you. I want to do some red hat things and can't find the material. Please help.

Cookie

I feel I am using fabrics as insulation for my house. :-P I am trying to use up from my stash;but when I want to make a quilt for someone and ask them what they like; it is always some about something that I don't already have fabric for. I try to make some quilts in a theme that matches the person. So I end up shopping again.
My name is Elaine and I am a fabricaholic.

Don't worry you have been vacinated with fabric and there is no cure just regular doses of fabric from now on.

AHHHHHHHHHH, that usually happens to me, but recently I was asked to make a Boston Red Socks quilt for a (1) year old. I am a Yankee Fan! Well, my first instinct was to go out and buy baseball fabric, my local quilt shop rolled her eyes and said they didn't have it. That was my challange. I went to my rack and pulled every white and red fabric I owned and made baseballs using the feather stitch as the stitching on the ball. The quilt is fabulous, I am taking it on a lecture and a curved piecing class sample I am teaching and then I am giving it to the 18 month old for a gift in february.
In other words, don't fall into the trap like I almost did. Think beyond the box, I know you have the creative juices and everything you need.

You're not alone. I have way too much fabric. Fabric keeps getting more expensive. We're investing in our sewing futures. :-D

Well, this one really reminded me why it's best not to read with a mouthful of coffee!
Truth be told, those large tubs do help hold the floor down under normal conditions...and in major windstorms the added weight may keep the house on its foundation! ROFLMBO

You are just one of the gang who is addicted to quilting, and there is nothing wrong with that!

When my adult children give me a bad time about the amount of fabric I have I just let them know that it helps reduce my energy bills because it provides insulation to the rooms it is stacked in!

Gosh, I never thought of that but you are right. That will come in handy for our tornado season. Actually, I bring all my quilts in to the fraidy hole with me and sit on them and a container that has my shoes in it. Those are things that I just can't replace. We all sit with motorcycle helmets on our heads, quilts under our fannies and holding on to my shoe containers.

LOL...I know it's not a funny situation but that mental image made me laugh!!!

LOL! That mental image in the fraidy hole made me laugh too! I would love to see that shoe collection! So see, your fabric collection is not a problem! It's necessary to ensure safety from tornados and inclement weather. I think you should go get more...just to be safe. Buy some new shoes while you're at it!

me too!! I can just see it! Lets hope that this year you don't have to do it or at leat not very much.

It looks just like you are imagining it I am sure. I live in Murfreesboro, Tn we had a major Tornado last Easter, 26 miles of destruction. It started about a mile from our house. It took trees out at the end of our street, threw one of my sons shoes up on the roof but our house was okay. Thank God, I was restoring a civil war quilt at the time and wasn't home to put in the fraidy hole. I was worried sick over that. Several homes were destroyed. It was really bad.

Wouldn't that be QA instead of AA?? ROFL

Forget it! You'll never get that stash organized. Before I can sew, I want my cutting table cleared. By the time I get that done, I'm out of sewing time. After you have decided on a pattern, just start sewing with whatever is needed from no more than two tubs. If you don't you'll run out of sewing time.
:lol:

You've got that strain of quilter's pox known as SABLE:
"Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy".
No known cure but regular injections of more fabrics help...

Just be careful after you buy (you know you will :D ) your first vintage sewing machine :shock: ----they are much more expensive than fabric :mrgreen:

~~my name is Cathy and I'm a vintage machine/fabricaholic~~

This topic's replies are so funny..and so true. I had a good laugh over the "I don't remember buying this" and the elves brought it in. That has happened to me, not remembering I bought it. I can remember once thinking I didn't have enough variety of fabrics for a scrap quilt. That was a good excuse to buy more fabric. Then you have more and you think, well,I have too much to be able to decide which fabric to sew next or which fabrics to use in that scrap quilt. After a while you start looking for places to store the stash and there is little room left for more fabric except maybe under the bed. Quilters are creative thinkers, maybe that's why we need so much fabric to work with..the more fabric you have, the more you have to create with. I know this didn't help much. If you're serious about giving some away, torture yourself by giving away your favorite fabrics or give away fabric that just doesn't appeal to you like it once did. The old saying, your trash may be someone else's treasure is true even in fabric.

i just returned from a long day of doctor's appointments and I have to say reading this has really cheered me up! You are all too funny! For many years I ran an online quilt shop out of my home, and we had 4000-5000 bolts of fabric in our basement, which was the source for the quilt shop. Now of course when I worked shipping fabric every day, I never had any time for quilting. Now that I have sold the business, I have time for quilting and you can imagine the stash I have accumulated! When the bolts of fabric were here, we would refer to the shop as the "bunker" and we laughed that even if there were a nuclear attack, we would be safe in there because it would never penetrate all that fabric. It was well insulated from temperature, sound and troubles ov the world!
There is nothing wrong with collecting fabric, as long as it brings you joy and pleasure and it is not breaking the bank!
If you seriously want to reduce your stash of some fabrics which may not be appealing to your personal taste at this time, you may want to consider working those pieces into some charity quilts. Right now Haiti is not accepting quilts because of the need to fly in food and medical supplies but think of all those orphans who would love a cuddly quilt. Start sewing!
Also there is a 1 million pillowcase challenge on (Calling all quilters and sewers) to make pillowcases. There are free download pillowcase patterns on the web site for All People Quilt (http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/millio...ses/index.html).
We are collecting pillowcases for Sloane Kettering Hospital in NYC, which is a major cancer center, but if you know of local organizations which will accept your pillowcases, you can stitch them up and take them in to be given to patients. Then add yours to the count. Tonight they show only about 13,000 and that is a far cry from 1 million.
Just a thought. Making quilts for charity makes me feel as if my stash is there for a great purpose, and it's not just wasting space and money.

SABLE. Oh, my, I hadn't thought of it that way! I am going to look through some of the ideas, again, and see if I can convince my daughter all those fabrics are useful. She is looking forward to empty totes I can send her way. I have no problem with my husband. He can can get as involved in picking out fabric as I can if we are looking for specific colors or designs in our LQS. He actually has a good eye.

I personally think my stash procreates when I'm not looking. I too have been reorginazing my fabrics , and stash is the correct word. One large walk in closet that can't be walked into,nothing else will fit under the bed,numerous tubs(10 or 12 at least) I have even put stuff in my file drawer with my reciepts, and last night ordered more online, sick ,sick, sick, and I know that there is no cure I've been at this for over 40 years. I will buy fabric just because I like the color,pattern,design, or the worst IT was on sale I hade to buy it!!!!!!!

I don't see that you have anything the rest of us have obviously had for a very long time. Don't drive yourself crazy - just watch for sales and stock up on storage containers that will allow you plenty more room to express yourself.

I hope there are some good cures for this! I have the same problem. I don't think that I can talk hubby into building a room on.

Hi M'boro-my name is Char (Manchester) and I am a fabricolic?sp Near Med Ctr Pkwy? Those homes are still not repaired as yet-I feel so sorry for those people. Glad you have a fraidy hole to hunker down into. Good luck this year.

"We are collecting pillowcases for Sloane Kettering Hospital in NYC

Our guild makes charity quilts for Hospice, local children's hospital wing, nursing homes, and the homeless shelter. We also give out small quilts wrapped around stuffed animals to the local food kitchen & fire department during the holidays - these are a huge hit with the children. In addition, we also make pillowcases for the teaching hospital's cancer ward. Last, but surely not the least, we make quilts for wounded service personnel through Quilts of Valor. There are endless possibilies for fabric collections - Lots of mine go to these causes and it makes me feel good to know they've found a good home.

I'm with you Marnie! I think sewing for charity is a great way to purge your stash of fabrics that are not matching up with your current taste, or if you have so much extra that you know you will never use it up in your life time. Rather than taking up space it can help someone in need. Sharing the love. I just suggest pillowcases b/c they don't take up much time and they don't require a whole lot of fabric, or a lot of coordination of colors, etc.
Please spread the word on the pillowcase challenge if you can. It may help some folks to reach out to local organizations and extend to baby quilts for newborns, layette covers for premies, etc.
Happy stitching everyone!

You'll sound like quilters to me!! I so enjoy beautiful fabric, the feel and the colors and the possibilities.....oh my. For economic reasons (read that as have no extra money to spend) I have not been buying fabric for too long but I have plenty to get me through this dry spell. I am glad that when I did have extra cash I bought all this gorgeous stuff. I say, don't worry about it, just enjoy it.

I feel right at home in this group. I started to clean up my sewing room a couple of weeks ago and believe me I think I could open up a fabric store. I cannot go into a fabric store without coming out with fabric.

Stay out of LQS! That's what I had to do. There's a group on here resolving not to buy any new fabric in 2010. I've already not kept up with that, but I have cut my buying significantly. Stay out of shops, stay off websites, it's a dangerous world out there!

I would have serious withdrawals! Complete with ticks and twitches!

I have that. I do try to stay out of the LQS however.

I am new to all this, and you are the 10th person that mentioned LQS-what is it?

Lqs means local quilt store. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it all.

LOL I got it! Thank you.

Hi char, nice to meet you. Yeah, some of them aren't rebuilding because of insurance problems.