How many of you reeeeeallllyyyy will use all the stash you have?
I have several shelves filled with piles of fabric (some still on bolts), yet I always need to buy more for each quilt I make. My stash just "isn't right" even though I don't have strange colors or prints.
Oh I might find one to use but most of the fabrics in my quilts are newly bought fabrics.
So I'm really toying with the idea of just selling it off.

Do you think you'll ever use up your stash?

I find myself in the same position. I guess my stash is more of a collection.

I doubt if I'll use up mine. I think we're all secretly hoarders at heart! :-D In my defense, I am toying with some ideas to do with it though.

Don't know what I'll do with it all, but. . . someday. . .somehow. . .the right piece will be there. . .
(just dreaming?)

Everybody's taste change. It is natural that things evolve. I have some things that I am not totally in love with. I have sold some and will be using them for a couple of raffle quilts. They are still beautiful and will make georgeous quilts, but not what I am looking for right now. I am really a 'buy it for a specific project' kind of girl. That being said, I am collecting some things because I do want to do a scrap quilt that is a true 'scrap'.
I will probably have to ask for help on that too.

If you are not in love with it - then sell it (to me heheheh) and use the money to buy what you do want to use. I know that my tastes have changed greatly. Things that I thought I LOVED I now wonder WHY?!?!?!?

Remember there are no QUILT POLICE and no STASH POLICE. Do what you think is best for you. You shouldn't fret or worry or stress over your fabrics. You need to just enjoy them, work with, love them and create beautiful things with them.

I totally agree with you. I find myself having to buy more for just the right color. My older kits that I put together are no longer appealing to me. Yes, thinking of getting rid of or selling some of them.

I'm one of the few who does not have a 'stash' per se. I typically buy for projects but I usually over buy a bit - if I need 1 yd I'll usually get 1.5 yds so that I have room for boo boos. As such I have bits left over that are a stash of sorts. Enough if I need to make up a block for some reason or if I want to try new techniques or patterns. It works for me. I don't have room for a stash and I'm not a scrappy quilter so it seems to work. I enjoy the process of selecting fabrics for a given project. If I had a stash of smaller pieces I'm afraid I'd never have enough of the given fabric that I wanted. I'd go for it.

we have so much and others have nothing.....I feel the same way....

I've decided to use my stash. If I can't figure out anything better to do with some of it I'm going to just make HST's and see what I can come up with from there.

I also do bags and aprons so I'm going to just start cutting and see what happens. Yards and yards of bias is going to get made and then I'll figure out what to put it on.

We plan on a long distance move in the near future and with all of my machines and my Gammill, box after box of fabric is more than I want to worry about. Guess it would make nice packing material though.

I am determined to use up my stash and it is HUGE. If I don't make quilts, I'll make aprons. Somehow I just keep buying more.

I was just thinking about this last night.

I don't have much stash by the standards of some people on here, but I am already experiencing that feeling of "what will I ever use that for?". The thing is I like lots of contrast so even just buying FQs I end up with lots of leftovers, because I might only need a tiny piece and then I end up with lots of little bits that don't seem to quite go together. Rather than going to the trouble of finding a pattern that will work with those scraps, it is easier to just go out and buy more!

I guess kits are made for people like me, except I do not want to just make something someone else picked! For me if I am going to the trouble of handmaking something, I want it to be unique, so there is the kit option gone.

I think there is scope for more fabric swaps on here actually. I designed a little project for my sister's birthday and I was jsut thinking- great, I need about fifteen fabrics, but I only need two strips of each- how will I buy that without making it the most expensive pillow in the world?!!!

Nope! Stash is like toilet paper. If there are less than ten mega rolls in the house, it's time to go shopping. The object of stash isn't to use it up, it's just to have enough of it.

With the prices of fabric these days, I am more than happy to have a huge stash. When I buy more, I think of it as an investment....... will I ever use it all? Probably not, but I enjoy sharing and swapping with friends if they need a certain fabric that I have and vice versa. Guess I'll just have live a very long time to use it all up.

sorry for the blank , cant seem to delete it

I am de-stashing right now--but will have LOTS left. (25 totes)
I do lots of scrappy, but eliminating lots of yardage, and keeping FQs or 1/2 yds for color/tone needs, etc. instead of bigger pieces.
I now have a HUGE tote of strips and have cut thousands of triangles and squares and charm pieces.
Hope to finish this week....then let the sewing begin!

And here I was feeling deprived because all of my stash (?) pretty well fits into 3 three-tiered Sterlite storage containers. I realize now that I am far from being overwhelmed and plan (hopefully) to stay that way. As I am a scrappy quilter I use my stash (?) all the time and rarely have any leftovers (except for crumbs and/or strips that I make into bindings).

I have sold a good bit of my stash, but with the prices going up & quality going down, I will probably hold on to what I still have even though I probably will not get around to using it.

I have some right now, that I bought as a beginner and they are just thin, so I wont use for quilting, so I am making a few summer tops.

Oh you have dangerous ideas :twisted: :twisted:

I was trying to avoid that word....lol

I don't near ways have a stash like most of you on this board. I usually only buy fabric when needed for special projects or if I see fabric at auctions or yard sales, I do try to get it! Fun looking through it all! Maybe someday I will just buy the fabric for the heck of it, but doubt it!

Why don't any of you live next door to me. I only have 4 or 5 bins left from moving and destashing. I feel so impoverished. Down to only three sewing machines now and a good percentage of the rulers ever made. Hmmm, maybe I'll go sew now. There's still lots of good stuff in there.

I'm starting to use thosse pieces I just haven't used in charity quilts.
simple quilter

I de-stashed 1/2 of my stash last summer. Now I have some breathing room.It also got my creative juices flowing again. :thumbup:

I de-stash on a regular basis as I am not much of a hoarder. I understand what you mean. I feel like it is shameful for me to have so much and others to have nothing so I try to get it into hands that will create with it and make something useful and useable.

I guarantee that if you make the decision to get rid of the stuff that you are not using, you will not miss it. I recently went through my collection and removed anything that I wasn't totally in love with and planning to use. I took huge clear heavy bags of fabric (think poly/cotton. gingham, dheap or sleezy cottons) to the Mennonite Relef Centre who manage to recycle all sorts of things. The lids fit on all my bins now and my drawers close. Will I miss this stuff? Absolutely not! I'll probably do it again this fall or winter. Quilters change their likes and styles of quilting and fabric that doesn't match your current way of stitching should go to a new home. We routinely give away clothing that we no longer wear, so why not do the same with fabric? Yes we may have purchased it but we have "outgrown" it, so give it away. No worries, no guilt and move on to buy and create for the new you.

Remember the one who dies with the most WINS!!! and I want to win.

I hope I never use all of it! And yes, I still buy more with great intentions. I just made 4 baby quilt tops for each of my nieces out of my stash. It came in handy. Now if I can get the finished befor the end of July. All 4 of my nieces are due the end of July through the end of August. Wheww - lots of work.

I don't have a large stash. it all fits into a corner of my china hutch probably have less than one of the grocery bags that you take with you. If I see something that screams at me that it needs to be in a quilt for a certain person I then collect it for their quilt. I am a new quilter and this probably is how a hording "stash" starts but I will only have four quilts in the planning stage at one time. It is not offal to want to destash, it is only offal if you just toss in the trash. I would weed out your stash those pieces that you are not totally in love with and sell them on here to those who could use a good deal. but that is just me.

I buy fabric for quilt projects and I buy fabric for my stash, some I will use and some I just cant seem to part with even though the quilt will stay at my house. funny how we quilters are.

I de-stashed last year, keeping only what I thought I would use up within a year. Everything else went to a local Project Linus group.

And I'm glad that I did it.

I still get my "fix" for shopping/seeing new fabrics when I go to work. And now I can walk in to an orderly sewing room that I'm happy to be in, rather than going into a jumbled mess that makes me depressed to look at it.

I'm right there with you. I finally went through all my fabric and sorted all the items I didn't like. i ended up with 2 full garden size trash bags. I then let all my quilting buddies go through them to pick out any fabric they wanted.

Now I'm going to donate the rest to my quilt guild for their yearly sale. I'm very happy because I know the fabric that I have left (and there is still lots-ha ha) will be used.

Good Luck :D :D :D

Probably won't live long enough, but there's NO way I'd get rid of it. I never know when I'm going to need it. LOL

My stash started getting a bit out of hand. I do use fabrics from my stash, however there are fabrics I have outgrown and I will find new homes for. I think there is a difference also between a fabric collector and a hoarder. My opinion is that "Its a matter of knowing what you have" I became very frustrated with my stash when I went and bought the same fabric for a project and then later found I had plenty of the same fabric in the bottom of a tote and just missed finding it when I went looking for it. That said I switch all my totes to clear and organized the fabrics by dominant color.

Sew On and Sew On... lol Jen

I am new to the quilting/sewing world. Started quilting two or so years ago and was buying fabric for projects as needed. But about six months or so ago, I felt the need and urge to build a stash. I wanted to participate in the doll quilt swap here on the board, I started wanting to design my own quilts and just make things up as I go, and I am afraid that is all hard to do if you have to go shop every time. So I started buying fabrics that appeal to me in a yard or more cuts. Organzied them and I love every single piece of them.

However, being a minimalist, and someone who can't handle clutter, I had to have a plan of what fabrics to buy for stash. After some thinking, I decided that I will not be buying any novelty prints of any sort just to stash, I'd stay away from prints for special occasions or seasons just for stash and I'd mainly only get it what I call "common" fabrics, the ones that can be used in any quilt, for any purpose, and buy those in varying colors. Being a batik lover, I bought batiks, tonals, blenders and some florals since I love those. I don't have much, less than 100 yards in total, but they organized and they give me a sense of freedom that I adore.

I was just having this conversation with my husband not long ago when I was working on my first OBW and it need some umph, and I was able to just walk into the closet and pull fabs of the colors I wanted and viola, no need to interrupt my mojo by going to the store,lol.

Sorry long post, but my two cents worth.

I look at my stash as a collection...kinda like people who collect Hummel figurines. I am not sure what I am going to do with it but I like looking at it. My stash is by no means the largest I have seen but it is a good amount, folded neatly and beautiful to look at. I use a piece here and there, and I will cut up 14 inch squares and sew them together for an interesting back...my stash makes me smile.

Gee...if you really feel the need to destash throw them my way! LOL I'm so jealous of all the pictures of everyone's beautiful collections and I have one cd tower of fat quarters as my stash :( Consider yourselves lucky!!

I've been known to just go into my sewing room and just touch fabric. I feel so at peace when I do that. Uh oh....does that make me an addict? :lol: :lol: :lol:

I plan on trying to use mine. With the price of fabrics going up, I will only have to buy a blender to go with them & make scrappy quilts. I have lots in mind, just hope I have the 'time' left to do them!

I would like to keep my stash for many reasons but sometimes I get the PIF bug.. then i feel refreshed to start a new quilting project.... Feels great to pass on so others can create....


If any of you are looking to de-stash I really need UGLIES.. and I mean uglies.. Poopie greens, mustard yellows, fierce fushia, pitiful paisleys, gawdy stripes, not so hot dots and spots and any other 'interesting' fabs for my 2in, 9patch scrappy ugly quilt...

if you feel the need to destash...
all yall know that those of us who are beginning quilters would love the chance to build our stashes lol...
i currently just make blocks that will one day be put together into a sampler...so for now...
i buy a lot of fat quarters...altho since the shop hop i saw some that i did buy in yard pieces since they were outta the clearance rooms hehe