Please Advise
 

Like many of you, I too buy beautiful fabric in fat quarter, charms, yards, you name it. I have so many projects I think of to work them in. The "problem" arises when it's time to actually cut the fabric. I can't seem to make myself cut a piece of of say a yard or quarter and leave the rest just "there". I love seeing my collection but feel some sort of angst in cutting. Anyone else in this boat or am I alone in this?? What do you say?

The secret is to pick it, pet it, cut it, and wrap the remainder around the fat quarter card so it "looks like" no one used it and it remains in the museum of fat quarters for visitors to tour.

Can you explain why you don't you like to leave the rest there? Do you mean, you want to either use it all or none of it?

I am using my stash as I don't want others to have it after I am gone.:D

I think some of it may be - what if I use this bit - and i want to make something with the rest of it - and there isn't enough left for the project?

Tartan does have the right idea!!!!!

I often bought a yard and a quarter. This way, I had a little bit to 'play with' and I still would have a full yard left for my fabric museum (I mean stash).

Too funny!

Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head w this!

Love this idea! I've been buying about 2 yards if I really like it but may now have to add the last 1/4!!

just think of how much more you are going to love it wrapped around you or some you love.

It's a lot more fun to be using that pretty piece than leaving it in a box in the closet -- I find I am emotionally rewarded by FINISHING something, and I can't finish it if I don't start it! Yes, using a little bit of a larger piece MAY leave you short in the future, but that's a quilter's life -- I once needed 2"more for a quilt back that I didn't have because I had cut a 6" square out of the corner of a large piece! (I had to go buy 6 1/2 yards new for the back.:( )

I buy extra of a fabric(s) when making a quilt because sometimes I will make a mistake or decide to add an extra row or column or change the layout.
Once the main part of the top is finished, I use leftover fabric for extra borders or for a pieced back or for the binding. I may even make a cushion, small wall hanging or a fabric gift bag for the quilt to go in.... if I have enough leftovers to do it. I try to use every piece I can. Then I don't feel so guilty about buying fabric for the next quilt. The tiniest pieces that aren't used get cut into 2.5 inch squares. Smaller than that goes into a tub for to be used as filling in cat beds.

yes! I had that happen too!

LOL Tartan

I try to buy what I need or going to use for my current project. I rarely buy just to buy or for a "someday" project (although, I do have a stash of 30s repro fabric, but I really do have a project in mind) I look at the unused fabric and I see dollars that I can't spend.

often I look at what is on my shelf and I no longer like it. It looks so dated some of it! LOL!!!

I actually get a kick out of using the last piece in whatever project w/ no remains. My current project will be that way.

That missing 6" square is the perfect place for the label. Sometimes the label can get "really big".

I've had the same feelings. If you really love it you want to save it for something extra special only you never seem to find anything you want to make that's THAT worthy . So, go ahead and use what you need for a quilt you love. My experience has been that by the time I'm through trying to figure out the other colors I want to use, the quilt pattern, cutting all the pieces, piecing it together, sandwiching it, quilting it and putting borders on I'm rather sick of it (!) and I'm happy to put any remnants back in my stash way down in the pile!!!!

I love this answer tartan! Made me laugh so hard!

Better for you to use it than for someone else to buy it for a quarter at your estate sale.

I know it's hard. My worry is OMG, what if I use this fabric in something I hate?

But, in reality, all quilts are beautiful in some way. If the fabric is great, it will save many disasters :-).

Also, if you use it up, it's surprisingly easy to buy another fabric you'll love just as much

Use it!

My thought, too! Instead of enjoying it in it's storage place, I'd rather enjoy it on my wall or table or bed!

At this point in my life, I say use it up and enjoy it. No one else will understand your particular love for that piece of fabric.

I, too, like to pet my favorite fabric and am afraid of using it on the wrong project. But, tartan, you reminded me of a discussion that my mother and I had about twenty years ago.

While eating Sunday dinner at my mom's, I was looking at her China cabinet and all these beautiful dishes and tea cups that she gotten over the years. Many were wedding gifts that she had gotten over 60 years ago. I asked her why she never used them. Her reply was that she was afraid of them getting broken. I thought how sad, and replied to her, "But, mom, I'll just love using them when you are gone; so thanks for taking such good care of them for me." Well, my answer gave her just the impetus she needed to start using them. The next Sunday, we had a beautiful setting of dishes and afterwards we had a lovely tea with all of her special tea cups and from then on the dishes came out on special days and holidays. I'm glad she started using them, because about 10 years later she started to get dementia and now has Alzheimer's and the dishes just sit in the cabinet, again.

Keeping my fabric and being afraid to use it on the wrong project is like having my words come back to bite me in the bottom. So the moral of the story, is I had better get going and start using my favorite fabric before someone else buys in a big garage sale for 25 cents a yard.

Tartan and bearisgray have the right attitude. That said I have some fabric given to me by a swap partner in South Africa that I cannot bring myself to cut, some day the right project will call out and then I'll do it.

I used to feel that way, I would "save" fabrics that I thought were too beautiful to cut. But, I have learned, it's only fabric. There is more every day. So now I wait till a project talks to me and then I go for it with wild abandon.

I was that way. I didn't want to use something, I'd save it for something Special or for something Good. My sister told me to "quit saving things for Special and Good because they are not stopping by to visit."

Stash = fabric museum. Funny!

Here is the way I see it, I have 2 or 3 pieces from the same collection that I adore, this fabric is beautiful. I love it so much I do not want to cut it. By now there is know other fabric around like it. I can not bring myself to do anything but look at it and smile. I don't even remember where I bought it or how long ago.
JulieM

I am just the opposite I love to cut, tear, and sew fabric! petting your stash is fine, but creating and sharing for me is so much more exhilarating. Try it you might like it once you conquer your fears.

Thank you Mac... made me tear up, but also re-think my position... thank you...

I haven't had them by either! lol

I once heard a woman who was teaching a class say that her house was flooded and she lost a lot of her treasured fabrics that she had never been able to just into. She said that her advice to people was "if you love it, use it. It's better to use it on something than lose it to flood water".

I have a few fabrics I've kept aside, waiting for a special project for myself. I have added a few coordinating ones, and soon I'll be able to jump in! :)
I'm trying to use things up, and move on to the new pretties coming out~ such fun! ;)

Good for you! I've started doing that myself. I have a couple collections I got from Quilt Festival that I really need to start working on ideas for.

If you're just waiting for some more South Africa fabric to go with it, here's just the website you need:
http://www.french-nc.com/shop/Fabrics/

The company is "French Connections" and their fabric is from France and the African continent (including South Africa).
Don't let the price give you palpitations - many cuts from overseas are 60" instead of the 44" we're more accustomed to.

I've gotten fabrics from them before, and see them often at shows in the Carolinas. They're super-nice people and have wonderful products!!