I admit that I grew up pretty sparingly in every sense of the word. So, of course, sales unleash desires that aren't for publication. Being married for a thousand years, my choice of vacation, music, tv programs or friends and places to go were just a laugh. So, I would make things. Baby food jars, old clothes, clothes pins, cardboard just about everything had a value. I even would ask for old magazines that folks had and did mosaics on bottles and trace the cracks with magic marker. So, this stash was obvious like my makeup and my extra sweaters and things that I hord.....hmmm there goes that four letter word again... anyway, it is natural for me to say, I might not be able to buy it one day. So, I keep piling it up and now I'm sewing like a fein. I love my freedom. I love my life. I love sewing but the need for food purchases and utility payments keeps me away from my wonderful stash and my loving sewing machine...but I keep trying. That's my story and I'm stickin to it!

So what's your story?


Blessings, Ruth

Pretty simple answer for me...I'm a bit OCD (Obcessive Compulsive Disorder).

I tend to "charge" full bore at the things that interest me. Losing weight, I was on Calorie Count website several times a day. I could tell you within 10 calories what I had eaten on any day of the week. Didn't take me long to know how many calories were in the meals that we ate, or what I could order at a fast food place.

I'm the same way with crafting or anything else that grabs my interest. And yep. I'm a "gatherer" and a "hoarder"....thankfully William isn't, and he talks me into getting rid of stuff when I need to.

My childhood was pretty spartan, and we moved and travelled constantly..not only homes but countries. When I was small I would dream of just staying put and hanging on to my possessions...Well didn't achieve that 'til I was just over 30, I then vowed vagabonding was out of my life. I have stayed put for well over a decade, am passionate about my garden, books and animals, enthralled by fabric and quilting. I think the thing with quilting is the fun of hunting and gathering and the quiet time spent designing and creating. The end result is not only beautiful but warm and somehow homely.

One thing I can't seem to achieve though is "the look" (whatever that means). When people who know me find out my interests they always say...."but you don't LOOK like a quilter/gardener". Just wondering if anyone else experiences that?

Ask them what a quilter/gardener looks like? ;)

I don't know what happened to me. Honest. I took up cross-stitch and had to have ever color, size of Aida Cloth and ever color of DMC embroidery thread made. Then I took up Tole Painting with Acrylics. Had a ton of my fav. brands of paint. See a habit forming here? Then I got into quilting. Didn't know squat, but hit Hancocks weekly buying fabric just because it was beautiful. Then found JoAnns. OMG then possabilities were endless. LOL Then my dear little friend took me to the LQS. The rest is history. I found what I thought was a dream that I never wanted to awaken from. Started buying Ft Qtrs and started traveling around to Quilt Shows. The weekend after my DD moved out after graduating from college in 1999, I painted her room and it became my sewing room. Got DH to put shelves along the length of 1 wall and from there I just had to fill them up with stash. It has grown and grown from there. It is an illness I hope no cure will be found for. I have slowed down this year and not buying like I have in the past. That is not until the Show in Houston this Fall. LOL And that is how it began.

i too grew up pretty poor, it was a big treat to get fabric to make a new skirt, i use to take forever to pick out which piece to get. Now i am onto quilting and buying fabrics, can't seem to stop, although i have to live to be 500 to use what i have now lol

Three years ago, DH and I decided to go full-time RVing. We sold/gave everything away....including SOME, but not all, of my crafts supplies. The house did NOT sell - well, it sold 2 times, but both sales fell thru....So, we did take a long trip to Texas and then decided full-timing isn't for us anyways. Well -- now after 3 yrs of being back into the home.........My craft room is PACKED to the gills!!!! Yes, I try every craft out there.....at least once. Yes, I buy because "it's on sale"....Yes, I'm happy as a clam!!!!!

Well I grew up poor and I still am. I started buying fabrics at the thrift shop, I got some really nice stuff from there. Then I started purchasing from WM especially sense other quilters discovered my secret to shopping at the thrift shop and now I can't find any fabrics there worth purchasing. I don't purchase at the LQS cause they are too expensive for me and it would take me forever to get enough fabric to make anything. I have a fairly large stash in my home and 3 to 4 plastic tubs in my folks basement. I can quilt for many years to come and not have to buy for quite a long time. Yeah right like that will ever happen. LOL.

I grew up poor, no allowance $1.00 a week lunch money. started working in cafertira sp? making $8.oo amonth and lunch. My mother started borrowing from me. I never expected it back. all I received war her love,I would have that anyway. As an adult I tryed to do better beauty collage Tech collage, Two back surgerys cronic pain, cause memory lose no past for 12 ys. Now sewing & qting kept me sane until the pain disapeared, not over night. Three grown children, on good days I Qt a lot Bad days I dream of Qting. Ym stash came alittle at a time. I hate waste 5 tubs six boxes, gee thought I didn't have enough. I don't. Don't have mush to send. don't get around very good. But good days are wonderful. Quilting is Wonderful, and Qting freinds that are super. Theresse

I used to make clothing, but even then not making enough to use up what I bought. LOL My problem started when I found a fabric store(many moons ago) that had fabric I liked, prices I liked AND lay-away. Boy, was I in trouble! LOL I used to make all of granddaughter's school clothes, then we home schooled for 5th-7th grades, so she didn't need school clothes and that's how I got into quilting. I have cut down buying fabric, mainly because I don't have the room for any more, especially in my tiny sewing room. My old sewing room was 500 sq. ft., my new one is 9x15. Not even enough room for ALL my stash. There's a small room attached to the back of my sewing room, that has the overrun of fabric. I have 5 machines in my actual sewing room and 4 more older ones in the "garage"(dirt floor) that I would sure like to put into the store room. I have to figure out how to get it organized so I can do that. LOL

I do know that "the look" of having snippits of thread in strange places is one way that "they" can tell. Last week I was at a line dancing class and the lady next to me came up to me after the music had stopped. She said "I'm not trying to be fresh, but may I remove the thread from your butt?" I thought I'd explode with laughter. I explained to her that I had been quilting that morning.


:lol: :lol:

ROTHFLMAO!!!! :lol: :lol:

Our fairly new LQS has nice quality fabrics AND the WalMart-type fabrics. (I always shopped at Walmart for fabrics, but was careful to get the better quality pieces.) When WM closed their fabric dept, the LQS opened. The owner told me that she purchases the WM-type fabrics from a person who buys out the WM depts as they shut down. She has those on special tables.

I wish I had your fabric store. :mrgreen: I almost bought our WM fabric out when they down sized it. $.25 a yard and I had connections so I knew when it was going to happen(my mom worked ther in the fabric) so I got first pick. :lol: I am picky when I go there and shop, I have learned what is good just by feeling it.

My stash is not huge, especially compared with some I've seen on this QB. I have a stash for two reasons:

1. Because I usually hate shopping, on the rare days that I am in a shopping mood, I need to take advantage of that mood.

2. Some shopping trips are super productive and some trips are a total waste of time and I come home with nothing to show for time and effort spent.

On a shopping mood day that also happens to be a productive shopping day, I can't afford to pass up fabric that I like; I'm sure to regret it if I don't get it when I have the opportunity.

On the other side of the coin, I still have a huge box of quality garment fabric and new patterns (for clothes no longer in style) and lots of brand new clothes I made that I've never worn. The company that I worked for was sold in 1994 and, as the seller's secretary, I shortly thereafter lost my job. I never needed nor could summon up the enthusiasm to get another job, so I quit making clothing. This is sadly a perfect example of overbuying and/or not being able to see into the future.

I see it as lots of plans. I did the same. But I eventually had to get rid of most of the garment fabrics. The only patterns I kept were a few vintage Advance patterns and my Stretch and Sew patterns, (Why I kept those, I have no idea.) and pajama and housecoat patterns. Occasionally I'll take out some of my cottons and sew up a new pair of jammies. It's about time for that to happen right now. My "newest" ones are a sorry sight.

I gave my fabrics to a charity garage sale that helps support a soup kitchen.

New Iberia, Louisiana -- Hwy. 87 (Old Jeanerette Rd.) -- Emily's Closet. Where are you?

You'll always know a quilter by "strings" she wears.

I work just to support my fabric habit. A few years ago the bosses decided to drug test everyone and I told them to save their $25 drug kit, I have a habit but it's to fabric not meth. I love fabric and don't intend to quit buying it. I do pay the lite/phone/gas bills and on a good week I buy some groceries.
I too grew up poor, daddy did the best he could. Back them moms didn't work.

Regina

I hear you

I kept finding patterns I wanted to quilt...I even made a list on Exel (oodles of lines!). We live about 1 hr away from 1 LQS, 1 Joann's (small), and 1 Walmart that still has material...so I started a decent stash.

Then September of last year we went on a trip to see 2 of our children and their families and my sister....who happens to live only about 20 minutes away from Keepsake Quilting....and my son.....who lives about 3 hrs away from Paducah.....and that was on the way home. Need I say more?

I was very careful however; we can still eat beans and cornbread for only about another 4 months and then maybe we can graduate to meat.....

So I have really slowed down on stash building. I still look for good sales and still have to buy batting every once in awhile.

I still fall victim to quilting magazines, however...

I have tons of fabric because I sew valances and sell them on Ebay. So I buy what I like.

I have a stash and a REALLY bad habit !! I NEED fabric and yarn and thread and and and... I am a hyper type person and if I dont have something constructive to do with my hands I may unravel my skirt and then yours and then knit it back together in a different pattern or quietly snip a pc out of two or three shirts of unsuspecting folk too close to me in church or on an elevator and pc one for myself...You get the drift... it is just easier if I have stuff of my own. THEN with the money I save in court costs I can buy MORE fabric,and yarn and books and thread and and and

Remind me to have some handy "throw down" pieces of stash for you to curb your appetite if ever we should meet!


:P :wink: :lol:

Yes, ma am

so that's why you re in hiding? !!! I see!

Good question - why DO I have such a big stash? Hm-m-m-m... because I can!! :) I look at it as my retirment - when/if it gets to the point when I cannot buy anymore I won't need to because I'll have my stash to dig into!

You must be younger than me. I too worked in hot lunch, but I only made $3 per month and my lunch. This was in 9th grade. From there I went to being a mother's helper(cooked, cleaned and took care of two boys my last 3 years of high school for $10 per month. I too know the value of a dollar and always buy the best fabric I can afford.

Well I just got to say this when I hear some one say their clothes are out of style! I have never been a person who went with the LATEST STYLES! As a kid when I wore brown colored jeans and my purple road runner shirt (by the way was a button down shirt) and my white sox with red tennies, need I say people looked twice. About a year later that became the style people wore. I wore tennies with my skirt outfits and dresses! Again people stared and later it was fashionable. I do not beleive in what people call styles except if you like it that is all that counts! Whether its so called outdated or what (including she is a little weird)style!! I am comfortable with whatever I wear if I like it and then it is MY STYLE!!

And would like to add if your my age just in the 50's you might remember the hot pants and short and I mean short dresses with matching panties I BELEIVE the called them sizzler dresses. AT least when they were in style girls and some ladies at least had the decency to wear the matching panty( and they called those gals risque) Today the gals dont even bother to wear any thing under those tight butt showing things and the boys and their nasty boxers showing that is just let's say(want to walk up to them and and yank that boxer to their ears ) I think that what they call fashion and style makes me want to lose my lunch! YUUUK!!

Well I too must confess.....I do love fabric and I do have a stash, not as big as many I've seen on this QB, but it's getting there! I can't pass up on a 'bargain' on quality fabric, so I'll buy the fabric. It's a good habit and now that the prices of fabric will be going up drastically next year, I think we all need to buy more this year before the big price increase.
Kind Regards,
MaryAnna

I dont have alot of money either, but I have an Aunt and Grandma who sew, so they give me their leftovers....we kind of trade back and forth. Our Salvation Army has a HUGE fabric and craft sale once a year, I mean HUGE, and grandma and I have gotten ALOT of great stuff there, too.

I grew up living in a small trailer with my patents and two siblings. What wasn't used immediately was disposed of. No room. I love to keep things. Mementos, kids papers and gifts, everything. So it goes to follow I never throw any fabric away. So the stash grows and grows.

Hey, at least you'll still be quilting when the rest of us can't afford to buy fabric as the prices will be rising drastically next year....so you'll be set for awhile.
Kind Regards,
MaryAnna