Clean up your stash!
 

I'm cleaning up my stash for the move in two weeks. Yesterday I discovered , in a cabinet, about 25 backs for quilts and about 30 UFO's in another cabinet. I absolutely had no idea there were that many. My DH helped me pack and he said I had really packed my room solid, he couldn't believe what was in that small room. I actually feel overwhelmed now, I wonder what I will do with all these quilts when I finish with them. About 25 of the 30 UFO's are vintage quilts or blocks I have bought at flea markets or a yard sale, all in wonderful condition. I have given so much fabric away and I found even more to get rid of last night. I don't like having all this fabric and projects, it's just too much. I've always been very orderly in my life and this is disorder to me. I'm in full rebellion now and I will make sure when we move that all my fabric and projects will be in the open and not stored away where I can't see it. Ladies and Men, start your engines and clean up your stash !

Going through the same thing. Thought I was getting ahead and found 2 bags (large storage vac bags) in a suitcase hubby pulled out of the attic. He was going to donate it (the suitcase) and realized it was heavy. His eyes rolled when he opened it. When he opened it, it also exploded. Evidently the zipper from the suitcase ripped the top bag. Laughed . Poor Brutus barked and ran to his kennel! I laughed more.

A little bit here - a little bit there - some over there - it can be sort of "Oh. My. Goodness." when it is all in one spot.

I do it within my comfort level. Most of my UFOs are waiting on getting quilted. Most of them are headed for summer camp next year for foster kids.

a few months ago our guild had a speaker (can not remember her name for the life of me) on organizing your work area and UFO's. One question she asked us was why is it a UFO? Lost interest, need fabric to finish, She said to finish what we can and want to, the rest pass it on. Just because it started out to be a queen size, and you only have a few blocks done, change direction is fine, make a throw, baby quilt, table runner. I looked at my UFO's with different eyes, In one evening I lost 1/3 of my UFO's decided to pass them on to my guild to finish as comfort quilts. Another 1/3 were reworked into smaller quilts, the rest needed quilting which I have set aside 2 hr. per week to finish. only have 3 left to quilt. I also make myself do binding and label before I load the next one on the LA She also told us her stash s very small, mainly neutrals, She said her taste in colors changed with every project.

I am working on my stash too, but I have bought to fill in and finish... at least it is not $300 at a time.

Thanks for putting my attitude into words. I too, am in the State of Full Rebellion.

Marcia

I just looked at your name:Battleax, Yoo-hoo, I love it.

What a great story! Thanks for laugh. I have given some away and it feels great however with that in mind I need to quit buying too!

Great advise, give yourself permission to change your mind or just move on!!

I think I got a chart from "All People Quilt" wherein we are to list 12 UFOs, quilt kits, knitting, etc onto the 12 lines provided. At the beginning of each month, draw a number 1-12. If you pick #4, this is the project for the month to finish hopefully by the end of the month. Repeat at the beginning of the next month and by the end of the year, you will have reduced your UFOs. -- This is my plan and have started to make my list.

It all sounds good...but it takes action to achieve your goals. I did dump a lot of things last summer: to neighbor with eight grown children who are married and have kids and grand children. What they did not use, she gave to charities.

Then Dh decided to 'move' into half of the Quilt Room, so I am purging the stash again. The group I have quilted with on QB with Laura Aaron Hird's three quilt books/projects will have first dips on the scraps. Then I will survey the leftovers for charitable organizations in the area here. I am moving so slow some days, its hard to see progress, but it is an on going action. I haven taken the end of every week: Thursday, Friday and Saturday to quilt on UFOs and current projects. For every two steps forward, seems like three steps back, but I am still struggling trying to balance everything. I will get ahead and surprise myself by this time next year. :) There is hope!

Word of warning! Sometimes that one piece of fabric you gave away, is the one you need now for a perfect match to whatever.....and the cost/time to replace sometimes can be frustrating.....just sayin'. I've done it! But can't save everything either..it's a catch 22.

I've been working on cleaning my sewing room -- then found a book that looked interesting so stopped and pulled the fabric for a scrappy quilt. Ended up cutting for 4 different quilts. Two of the quilts have been made and are ready for the quilter. Will start on the 3rd shortly. When these quilts are done I will have pulled 50 different fabrics from my stash and used them up completely. I was able to consolidate two drawers of fabrics into one. But then filled the empty drawer with my leftover Star Wars fabric. I still need to make 3 more Start Wars quilts (have 5 done for Christmas). All the fabric and kits that were stacked on top of cabinets have now been finished. It is a slow but sure process!

I have been trying to work out of my stash and I am getting cabinets for storage next week. I can't wait. Right now, I have my fabric in totes and exploding out of it.

I have been trying to work only from stash and to work on UFO's, lol doing better on the stash quilts then the UFO's. I also pared down a huge chunk of fabric that was hanging out in bins taking 8 bins down to four. Putting more on shelves wrapped on comic boards which makes it easy to pick from and match up fabrics. I have four more bins to go thru and plan to get it to one tote the rest either has to fit on my shelves or be donated. My room is getting cleaner which is making me more productive and want to be up there. I now have four tops ready to quilt and am working on my most hated UFO.

Good job, all of you! I am still organizing all sorts of stuff and trying to uncover the machine so I can finish a baby quilt that's quickly becoming a toddler quilt.

I am trying to organize my scraps and am making a little progress. Cutting fabrics for layer cakes and some smaller sizes. Have a couple of patterns in mind to use them in but just cutting and making piles for now.

I just made up 9 kits for baby quilts that will be about 40 by 45". I also put together a quilt kit that will end up being about 69 by 78". It sure took a long time but they are cut and ready to sew. I decided to make up kits because once the school year begins and my subbing schedule starts, I can just grab a kit and start sewing on it. No thinking should be involved. Lol!

Connie

I just sent a box of scraps and unused been around forever fat quarters to my DGD to make into doll clothes. I am hoping that my fabric addiction is hereditary!

I am trying to use my stash. It is very disorganized. It seems that it doesn't get any smaller. I do have to buy backings, and attend sales. Never thought of hiding things in suitcases. My quilt area would look more organized. Funny story!,

I finished packing my first floor items and so far, my quilting fabric, books and notions are way more than anything in our home. Today we go to the lower level and I know my quilting items will account for half of what is there. I can't believe I have so much stuff.

This is a great way of looking at a sewing room. I just finished cleaning mine (again) and am appalled at all the projects and fabric that I have accumulated. I am going to go back and take another look at it all with "new eyes"!

I just came upstairs from my sewing area...shaking my head in total depression.....I looked around at all that fabric..all neatly folded and stacked....but it would take 3 lifetimes to use...a bookcase tight with quilting books..have not really looked at them after purchase and maybe one thing done out of each...patterns, same story, but there are some on to-do list...never happen......gadgets/templates-love those and do use, did thin out last year.....
went down to work on that orange peel MSQC quilt that has been languishing forever...looked around....have a SBS kit since who knows when, 3 blocks done..not thrilled with it.......and epp cut hexies..that I do while watching tv in evening.....that 1/2 done...and I have accumulated over several years JAF boms (4),but purchased when clearanced and able to get complete kits- pieced one this spring..worked out well, now to L/A it...now I'm on an EB pattern kick...her patches of life...just got that in mail....may cut into some of the fabric.
Im thinking when the guild stats up again in sept..wow, that's right around the corner, I'm going to be like Santa Claus each meeting...with a bag of free goodies....to anyone who wants. Thanks for letting me vent a bit...have no one else here who understands this....dds just shake their heads....neither are interested so the puck stops here!

I love this! I don't sub, but having it all organized into kits is fabulous just for organizational purposes.

Blessings,
Lisa

I think the kit idea is a great one too. Plus that would really help me from getting bogged down and distracted while I'm sorting. I am definitely not a one project at a time person so having two or three kits to work on at a time could satisfy that need I have.
I have the whole day to myself tomorrow which in itself is extremely rare. I think I'll spread out in the living room and sort, kit up some projects and have HGTV in the background on tv. I really need to do this for my own sanity! It's impossible to be productive right now. And I'm starting to feel a little resentful which is never a pretty mood.
Thanks for the kit idea! Gonna run with it!

I am getting ready for a yard sale. This gave me the incentive to go through my stash. I have been working on this for over a week. Cannot believe the amount of beautiful fabric I had and here I have been working on little scrappy stuff. So far I have came up with four large boxes full. Talk about over whelming. I'm thinking about going back through it again.

Beehiveof9 and Lots2do: I'm glad you like the kit idea. I can't take credit for the idea but I can give the credit to people on this board for sharing the idea of 'kit-making.' :).

This board is awesome!

Connie

A great thread, WannabeQ...full of laughs and ideas....how did we get ourselves into this? Off to get a UFO finished...

I donated a large portion of my stash, most of it big-box store fabric and some just prints I was tired of working with. Now, almost everything is organized into project kits and I only have a few fabrics that don't have a project yet but were too pretty to let go.

I opened up a WIP that I had abandoned because assembling the blocks was so tedious and slow for a simple design. I separated out the blocks I already made to be a table runner instead, and chose a design I could chain-piece with the remaining HSTs. I put on some music and got to work. Made some good progress!

You can sell them if you don't want to finish or give them to a church group, guild to make up for donations. Backings are expensive. Remember to take it off your taxes.

I'm experiencing many of the same feelings expressed above. I have too much fabric (only because I'll never be able to do anything with some of it), I will retire from Mass to NC din a year or two (how am I going to be able to get all this fabric packed) I have a drawer full of civil war type fabric (don't like the colors) I have a drawer full of, well, you get it.
I know I won't have that much time in my life to be able to make all these quilts.
Love the story about the exploding suitcase. LOLLLLL

To those who are using stash, what patterns are you using for stars reduction?

huh? Don't understand your question....."stars reduction"?

Been working for two days on cleaning up scraps, misplaced items and project boxes. Cutting, cutting and more cutting. I have two Leader Ender projects that are both scrappy and non-repeated pieces. I let the scraps build up a few months too long but this is fun. I also took a class from Pat Sloan when she came to our guild and also tossing pieces in a project box for one of those projects. I make a lot of charity items and use my stash "no longer committed to this fabric" for the backings or bindings. Same thing for FQs (either gifted, grab bag content or the like) all get cut for strip quilting.

I went thru the last four totes of fabric along with two other boxes that came from somewhere? I did a fast and dirty sort. If my first reaction was I did not like it I dumped it in the go box I found a bunch of clothing fabric and some other weird fabric and got rid of all that, if it was thin or poor quality, Gone. The only ugly fabric I kept was flannel because I can use that as my middle layer in rag quilts. I got it down to one smaller tote of quilt fabric and one regular tote of the costume fabrics and trims that my daughter uses the rest is packed in my car to go away to donate. I feel way better and then I finished up a stash quilt that used up left over charms, scrap and some yardage. I have two UFO's out and working on them. Getting it thinned out made me feel better and more productive :)

Should be "stash" hate autocorrect some days...

This has been interesting. My husband always tells me that my stash is more than I can make up in my lifetime. I remind him that my mom lived to be 98! Of course, I really don't expect to match her record but I do have that as a goal! HA I also work on more than one thing at a time. Wish I didn't and would start and finish one project before starting another but it seems to be in my DNA. Also, I have a large collection of fabric like the others here and at times it is great to "shop" from my stash instead of going off to the quilt store. This also happens with clothes sometimes and I find a real bargain in a drawer or closet and shop at home. Something I put away and find I can still wear...almost new sometimes.

Oh elly66, I laughed and laughed about the fabric exploding out of the suitcase. I loved the part about Brutus barking and heading for safety to his kennel. And I really need a good laugh. I was making headway sorting my stash after I put up 3 sets of shelves in 3 different closets.