At least one other poster on our board has mentioned this one - spend one year without BUYING fabric - use your own stash.

I honestly did this, with the exception of 10 yards of muslin. HUGE SALE lol.

Talk about doing something that makes you think outside your normal box - but using fabrics you yourself choose? WOWOW. I am posting a photo of one of my favorite quilts I made that year. Honestly, it is fun! AND NO, not fun like stop beating your head into a brick wall cause it feels so good to get relief. :roll:

WHO CAN DO THIS...with gas and fabrics going sky high pricing...why not try - say for 6 months?

Beautiful quilt! Love the antique too :D:D:D

Love the colors -

Looks very warm and welcoming.

The quilt on the bed is the design used in the Postage Stamp issued in 1978 to commemorate quilting as folk art.
I was involved with that project (quilt show) on the day of the issue of the stamp.

Yes, when I made the postage stamp quilt is was using one of my favorite patterns.

The 1847 quilt I bought to save it! IT is signed, and from upper NY state. I wouldn't begin to try to explain how complex that pattern is. Love the colors, and "Ellizabeth" and I have bonded... over the years...somehow I know her.

Julie (aka living in the Twilight Zone LOL)

I think I'm ready to take that challenge. I've finally built a pretty respectable stash.

Cheers, K

I've been trying to use some of my stash.

I love your quilt. I see coffee mugs for some reason.

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Beautiful quilt. I am afraid to stop buying for 6-12 months,it might cost too much to start up again, so i will continute to buy sale fabrics that i like whenever i see them.

I'm going to do this, starting tomorrow. Or maybe starting next week, or month, or.........

I'm going to make an exception for fabric purchased with gift certificates... But will try to be reasonable about that - and reserve those purchases for finishing pieces.

Cheers, K

Awesome, and a great way to discipline your fabric spending habit (make use of what you already have on hand..)

Tried to do that on this baby quilt I am in the process of making. But I was short on two critical fabrics. So in order to get the look I wanted, I had to go buy some more. Of course, I bought more than I needed and now that it is on my design wall, I might not use one of the new fabrics.

I've been buying fabrics for a quilt - the top, backing, & binding, along with the pattern and putting them into project boxes. I would love to make the quilts now, I'm saving the complete projects for when fabric gets too high to buy.

I love the colors. I work from my stash a lot, but when I see something on a really good sale I usually buy.

Beautiful quilts!!!!!!!

I'll tell you how I've been using up my stash. I joined the Boomerang 5.0 on this site and I'm using allot of my stash that's been sitting wondering when I'd cut it or use it...It's great...
And this wk I actually went to Joann's determined not to buy fabric with my coupons and only buy 3 things because I had 3 coupons and on all fronts I succeeded...no fabric...and found 3 items not on sale to use coupons

My goal for the summer is to use as much prepurchased fabric as possible and to practice my machine quilting on the results. But...I just can't hem myself into a no buying program at the same time. I am motivated to use stuff up but I do love to buy when I find something I really love. It's about my only splurge from time to time. So, I guess I'm halfway in. :)

Yep, I joined in 2 groups in Boom 5. :) It's a ton of fun. I have however needed to purchase backing fabric. And from June-Jan 1st, I'm only using my stash.

Using stash is great - I've done that a couple of years. However, if you are like me, you have no background fabrics. So, don't beat yourself up. Look at your stash and maybe limit your purchases to background and binding.

There's another reason to use your stash. I have a bunch of stash from the mid-90s. Only THIS YEAR did fabric come out that went with those fabrics (for instance red-purple, as opposed to blue purple). I have some fabrics from the 'watercolor' era. Really tough to use with newer fabrics without having to yep, buy more fabric.

I have a good bit of fabric, but I am TERRIBLE in using it together. I have to get a focus fabric and build from there...sometimes in my stash and sometimes not. The only two or three quilts I've started and disliked enough to just put away were ones I tried to just use my stash on... Looked awful. I have even given the blocks away to a lady who uses orphan blocks to make quilts for a children's home closeby. I wish I could coordinate colors like you did. Yours is beautiful, and so is the antique one.

count me in...6 months...no buying fabric (except for backing, for some reason i get fabric for the tops and choose the backs after they are pieced lol)...

so no buying fabric until dec 1st (with the exception of when i go w/ my mother and aunt to the rt 127 sale because i am already planning on hitting at least 3 stores on the trip)

Beautiful quilts...great colors

I hadn't thought of it as a project, but one where I am trying to use up the fabric I have accumulated. I inherited some of my mother's stash and going through her things made me realize that I needed to stop buying and use my stash. So I view this as a sew more, buy less until I get my stash much smaller.

Beautiful, and what self control not buying fabic for a year wish I could not give in to temtation so often. DEB

First, both quilts are beautiful!!
Very timely topic for me. I've spent 8 days organizing my sewing room (major overhaul!)
It's been an eye-opening experience for me in several ways.
The bottom line is that I have more fabric than I could ever use and I need to stop impulse buying.
I'm only keeping what I love and that's still a lot to work with. The rest is going!!

Great idea and what a beautiful quilt! I'm not sure my stash is big enough so I should probably keep adding to it so I can do this one day!

I absolutely love both those quilts, the one you made and the one you saved.

I couldn't just live on my stash for a year - I'd go round the bend. I couldn't make a quilt like yours either, no matter how much or how little fabric I had. Its gorgeous!! I love the pattern, I'm so impressed.

Both beautiful. I am working at present from stash only. Not becuz of prices so much but I have so much 'stuff' and I want to use it to make room for more.

Very inspiring challenge, especially when I see your beautiful quilts. I'm up for it. It will also force me to work on color coordinating which is a good thing.

Love both of those quilts and would love to see a bigger pic of Elizabeth!

I am trying to use more of my stash..the problem is that my stash is mostly small pieces/scraps. I don't have much yardage at all and for some things, that makes it harder to work with. I'm trying though...I really can't buy more because I simply don't have anywhere to put it!

That's so funny! When I glance at it I see tea pots, but then when I examine it more closely, I can't find them. I guess great minds hallucinate alike!

The quilt is beautiful!! That is what I am doing this year....cleaning out my stash :-D

Once I foolishly declared that I was not going to buy any more fabric until I had used up (most of) my stash. I've been pretty faithful to this pledge, but I do sometimes buy remnants, and occassionally a binding or back for a finished project.

My problem is storage. I really do need to work down what I already own.

I have been using my stash and I am amazed at the fabric I have and what I am willing to put together. So far so good. What happens when you only have ugly fabric left?

Due to finances, I haven't been able to buy fabric for probably close to a year....BUT I have had friends give me a lot of fabric, so much so that I shared the wealth with a friend who sews for her 4 daughters and herself. I have even been gifted with a lot of batting . And I haven't slowed my quilting down one little bit! I made 18 water bottle carriers for our Mexico mission team last month and bought NOTHING---it all came from my stash!

Good idea.

I have been no buy since Dec. 28 last year. My son bet me $100.00 I couldn't go no buy until June 6th which is my birthday. Just a few more days to go. Yeah. The deal was though, that if I did buy any fabric I had to pay him $300.00 and no way am I going to do that. It has felt good to not buy. I have so much fabric it isn't funny.
Right now I am into making scrap quilts. Haven't really touched my yeardage for ages except for backing. Oh, we did two workshops at the guild last weekend and I used from my stash for both projects. Felt good and the colors even worked out ok. One was quiilt as you go and the other was the Chinese puzzle.