I have several yards of different colors of silk fabric that my uncle brought back from Viet Nam and had given my mother. I am too afraid to cut it and ruin it.

I have a whole pile of fabrics that I've had more than 10 years and still haven't cut into them. I keep thinking someday I'll find the right project, but I always seem to start with a new buy rather than one from my stash :-D

Hard to cut up favorite fabric. Someone has called such fabrics in a stash a "worship center."

libertykm- you should post it on here and see if anyone has it and might be willing to part with it.

I've been saving pansy fabric for a number of years and I'm now thinking it's time to start passing some one. Does it have a name,etc. on the selvage? Maybe I have it.

Me too.

Yes. I am guilty of this..........Who better to use than me.......BUTTTT still can't cut into some of my favorites. Maybe I'll change my mind one day soon.......

Yes, and I am still looking for the perfect pattern to use it on.

Oh, yeah! Worse than that--I don't want to cut them for something I am going to make right then because I "might" want them for some unknown project in some unknown future! Now, I ask you, which is more important--what you are going to make now, or what you might make in the future? Sometimes we make no sense at all! LOL! :roll:

I honestly think that's how I managed to accumulate as much as I have--because I love the fabrics so much that I can't bear to cut into them. When I realized this, I quit doing it. My favorite fabrics turn into my favorite quilts. Then I can wrap up in them. I wouldn't want to wrap up in yardage fresh off the bolt.

In my experience, when I buy a fabric that I really like, eventually the perfect pattern comes along for it. Kind of like "If you build it, he will come." Only I say it like this: "If you buy it, it will come."

I found the perfect fabric for the perfect pattern and I am afraid to cut into it and get started. I love the fabric and the pattern but I seem to be paralyzed over this one.

about 19 yrs ago, I bought this piece of fabric (from Jean Well's -Through the Garden Gate) I loved it so much, that I bought all they had which was about 10 or so yrds. Well about 3 months ago, I took a class on 4 patch stacked posies and guess what this fabric was the ideal piece for that pattern, it is at the quilter's on the wait list because it is too big for me to quilt it and I am happy I was able to cut into it BUT I still have some left.
Pat (homecaregiver)

There is a quilt book with patters for material like that,I think it is called "Just can't cut it" Might give a few ideas. Haven't used any yet, still don't want to use my material. Maybe one of these days.

It's really quite hilarious, saving a piece of fabric from being cut when that's why it was bought, but I have some of them, too. Now, the really sad thing is that I have a scrappy quilt with one random piece of fabric in it. That piece is from a project I made and gave away but loved the fabric and only had that little bit left. When I look at the scrappy quilt, my eye is drawn to that piece which should tell me to use more of those favourite fabrics.

I too am a fabric horder....there I admited it!! but one day my daughter came up to me and asked me when I was going to use one of my many favorites. Well, imangine my surprise when she told me....you know when you are gone, I'm having a garage sale and it is all going for a quarter!! That made me stop and think....why am I saving this fabric when I too could be enjoying snuggling up under a beautiful quilt.

I read the posts about people going to yard sales and finding the ''mother load'' of goodies and I don't want my favorites to end up someplace ''icky''....vbg!! but lining my casket is an idea!!

I`ve also been `hoarding` fabric for years and mostly recently (since our `baby` was put to sleep this past summer after 13.5 years) I`ve started buying fabric like I`m on `roids. I`m also teaching myself to quilt,, so in the meantime I`ve pulled out all the picture frames that I`ve collected at yard sales and framed swatches of my fabrics! Friends and family think the artwork looks great,, but yes they love me and would have saidd it looks good even if it doesn`t. i joined this message board a couple of days ago and you all are a great group of folks!!

jodimarie, may I use your idea of lining my casket? I think that`s the best idea!!

This is kind of like saving the good dishes for once or twice a year. My perspective is use it and love it, and don't save it for "someone else someday". I now have my silver pieces on the breakfast bar for cream and sugar, crystal for a biscotti holder, and I gave the good china to my oldest son, and use a good quality everyday dish. I do the same with my fabrics now, although at some point in the past I didn't. I still have a gorgeous piece of panne velvet purchased for an evening top, only now I could never make a top out of the yardage I purchased (styles and sizes change) so I am trying to figure out how to use it. :)

Oh yeah! I've got some. SO, its mine, mine,mine! and I'll keep it and pet it and even drape it over the sewing room chair sometimes just to take in the absolute excellance of it! I'll not cut it, trade it or hunt for a pattern to use it in. It will probably survive my death.... hey! wait a minute! Can I line my coffin with it? Then I can take it with me! Ta-da!!! problem solved!

Isnt it true that the `good` silverware and china was and for some is still only used for special occasions. Last Thanksgiving our ,at the time 6, grandson overheard some us talking with Granny, his great GrandMa, about whether or not to drag out the `good stuff` for the Holiday because some family members were coming that we hadn`t seen in a while and Thanksgiving was going to be extra special. Well River ask wasn`t all of us special enough for the `good stuff`? Needless to say, the good stuff is used for ALL occasions and hot dogs(not that Thanksgiving, maybe this year) made the china look more beautiful than I`d ever seen before.

I think we all need to take a break and take our OCD meds. lol

Same here! :lol:

yes ma`am, i will :)

I find myself in your position very often. I also do scrappy quilts, and many of my favorite pieces of fabric have found their way into at least five or six of these scrappies.

But what about the large pieces of fabric, like the Laurel Burch fabrics, particularly the horse fabrics. I am trying to design a quilt around these fabrics and I'm having a devil of a time. Any one out there who can lend me a brain cell or two, on how to actually get these lovely fabrics set into a quilt? Thanks for everyone's and anyone's help.

That's me. I have 2 pieces in particular, that I have had for a couple of years. I figure when I see the rite pattern, it will call my name!

Hi Fancy Nancy,

We all seem to have one or two, maybe more pieces that we have trouble parting with by cutting them up.

I was just looking at an old magazine dealing with this dilema. The suggestion was to make a table cloth using your favorite material as the center. I started thinking how nice they could really be. Have a couple that I am going to use that way. Hope this helps you so you don't have to cut your favorites up.

Daisy Dell another Il. person, Elgin, Il.

OMG! I thought I was the only one who did that! I have some fabrics I just love and hate to part with... I enjoy looking at them and dreaming of the beautiful things they will make. :oops: :oops: :oops:

I keep saying to myself that I will use it when I get to be a better piecer.. :) I have been quilting a long time now and still can't seem to use my favorite fabrics yet... :)

I've discovered recently that quilts don't have to be made entirely from little bitty pieces.

You can cut big pieces and 'frame' them to show off that gorgeous print you hate to cut.

A friend of mine calls these fabrics "strokers" you get them out and stroke them, hang them up and look at them, fold and put away and in a few days, take them out and stroke them again. I actually have one "stroker" I actually paid $20 a yard for it. It is just beautiful and hand dyed. Believe me it is the ONLY yard of fabric I will ever have that costs that. I've enjoyed stroking it for almost 10 years. May just take it with me when I die--grin.

I love the Asian fabrics that have a touch of gold in them. Have a bunch of FQ's and can't bring myself to use them. My favorite color is blue and I have hard time using up the blues. No pattern is perfect for them (yet). I get them out, pet them, refold them, and put them back. But this is one that I love the best, only bought 2 yards and have no idea what I am going to do with it.

thanks for the laughs........its all so true........off to look at and pet my favorites lol.............smiles.

I have a piece of silk brocade my uncle brought back from Vietnam 42 years ago. I had planned to make a bed jacket at first, then decided that was not practical. Then I saw a crazy quilt and decided that is where it belongs. I retired a year ago and still feel I need more practice before I cut it. Been sewing and quilting since I was 7.

YES!!!!I had to talk myself into cutting some lastnite !!! Glad my Mom spent the nite she pussed me in the right direction !!!!! I went kicking and screaming but i did it !!!!! hahaha

YES!!!!I had to talk myself into cutting some lastnite !!! Glad my Mom spent the nite she pushed me in the right direction !!!!! I went kicking and screaming but i did it !!!!! hahaha

Of course.

yep and because of that i have plenty

LOVE this !!!!

I have been wondering if there was anyone else that just like looking and feeling some of their frabic and I am happy to meet you all. I have a hard time cutting some of mine. I love floral prints, I buy them , put them in my stash, take them out to look at and put them back again. I don't want to use them because I may not get any more like it. Are we normal or do we need "help"?

I have a lot of fabric that I really like and don't want to use ...so much so that I have bought that same fabric several times :D :D Then I wind up using it in several quilts so that I'm sick of it. I know there is a happy medium somewhere...just haven't found it yet :D

Yes I have favorite fabrics that I have hidden so well that even I can't find them.