A new bookcase and a stash clean up.
 

My quite talented husband built me this lovely bookcase. It is in what we call the "Annex". My sewing room has expanded into the spare bedroom. This is the room my Long Arm frame and machine live.
While I was moving my books to the new bookcase, I decided to get busy and go through my stash. I had things tucked away here and there, in plastic tubs, boxes and some plastic bags. I took it all out and threw out fabric I didn't need or would never use. I know, I know.....I have lost it...throwing away fabric....but there is a method to my madness. Some of it has been lurking around for years, and I finally stopped listening to the voices and send what I will never use to the trash can.
I now know what I have and I found stuff I never knew I even had. Yards and Yards of pretty stuff!!

Enjoy!!

I need to get a parking sign like yours!

I have done that. I don't have anyone to give it to, so I tossed out some fabrics that I bought years ago, they are so outdated and nothing I will use either. Projects I thought I would do, now I realize I will never do. Sometimes, you just have to give it up. LOL

I got that sign in San Francisco years ago.

Some of the fabric I threw away was from big grab bags from the Goodwill. I never knew there were so many ugly and gaudy fabrics out there...LOL

Good thing is I found room again in the closet of the Annex. A place to keep finished goodies for Xmas time. :)

Very nice bookcase! Like your parking sign too!

I did that also. Threw out a couple of projects I would never finish and gave a Dear Jane block of the month to a friend . I had paid for all the blocks and they were sitting on a shelf for over a year. I realized I would never finish or even start that one. I don't have the patience. I felt soooooo good after doing that. All those UFO's no longer making me feel guilty.

a great organized room.nice space to be creative in.

Oh my gosh, I just shuddered at you gals throwing that fabric away. Our little quilt guild of older ladies (myself included) could have put that fabric to good use in the quilts that we make for people who lose their homes and possessions to fires. We don't have any funds in our little guild, so are always looking for material to supplement what we ourselves can afford to donate as most are on fixed incomes. Please anyone, don't pitch fabric, there is always a need for it. We have received blocks and fabrics and are putting them all to good use. You would be surprised what you can do with orphan blocks and extra fabric. Please anyone, don't just pitch it, it can always be used by someone.

themachinelady

If you only lived closer. Shipping all the fabric I am getting rid of would cost an arm and a leg.

Chase

I have won fabric bundles on Goodwill.com also. I take a laundry basket with me to pick it up. I take the box to my car and open it up. I pull out anything I want to keep and think I want to use and then I take the box with my cast offs right back into the store and re-donate it!

Great sewing room and soooo neat..

Pretty organized room. I am packing mine up for a move to a new apartment with a large bedroom for sewing. But discovering along the way all the duplicates of crafting supplies and I am so tired of searching to something I really need NOW and taking hours to locate it. My new room has to be organized so I will enjoy more time in there. Oh yeah, the joys of fabric withdrawal!!! Brutal.

To the ladies who are throwing away material- Surely every community no matter how small has a church which I feel sure would be happy to take your donation. Please try before binning it.

Good idea!!!

Next time you feel the urge to purge think about donating any unloved fabric to local charities. They are so appreciative of donations.

The first week of July, I was off school for a week and did a thorough cleaning of my sewing room, I went through all of my fabrics. I knew that I had too much and of course there was the "what was I thinking" fabrics. Some fabrics I just knew I was never going to get around to using. There is a member here on the board who doesn't have the resources to purchase fabrics as much as she would like but uses her time to make charity quilts for several organizations in her community. I packed up what I thought she could use for these quilts and sent her a 21# box of fabric via UPS! She was tickled to get it and it made me feel good about paying it forward. What I had left over went to the Goodwill. I have seen my fabrics up on their shopgoodwill site and I get excited when I see how much it brings in for them. I made contact with 2 local charities to give them first dibs and I was turned down. One charitiy wanted to go thru the fabric and take what they wanted and then I would have had to cart away what they didn't want. The second charity told me They had no room for the fabric and wanted me to keep it until they had a need for it. That would have defeated the purpose of getting it out of my sewing room. Rarely does any fabric go into the trash. Like my signature line says "No one ever became poor by giving"

Just imagine how creative you can be with your newly reorganized sewing room.

I also cringe when people toss fabric away - but then, I didn't actually see what was pitched!

I think many people do not realize how expensive it is to ship fabric - I can cram about 9 pounds of fabric into the larger medium flat rate box - but that costs $11.35 to mail if mailed from a post office, $10.85 if the postage was printed on-line.

I think some folks are willing to give unwanted fabric away - if there would not be an additional cost to them to get it gone!

Exactly!

What I have in 13 gallon trash bags could probably fill close to 10 large flat rate boxes. That's close to 16 bucks a box!
Not to mention the gas and time it takes to lug all that to the post office.......lol

It's easier to throw it away.

Yes, me too; I love it.

Wonderful bookcase!!!!

Thanks !! Mighty :)

It's nice to see a compliment on my new bookcase. Rather than....."OMG! Your throwing away fabric!! String the heritic up!!"

HAHA :P

Ha, ha, true that! Your DH does great work. You are going to do great things in that organized room . Congrats on finishing it. So jealous :)

May I borrow your organizational skills...LOL. Beautifully done by you and hubby both.

Nice job organizing. I could park in that parking spot.

I should probably toss out at least a fourth of my stash, but I don't. I keep going back to it to do my strip piecing. It doesn't matter if they are ugly; they can be used in "mug rugs", pot holders, hot pads, etc. The list goes on.
Strip piecing is very forgiving. Another thing you can use that fabric for is a foundation for your strip piecing. Every now and then, I take out a stack from my stash and spend time cutting into different size squares for later use. I may never use it all, but it's ready for someone else to finish. At least I hope so. Love your bookcase and organization.

Ditto. There is someone out there like me that would take your ugly fabric. Contact a guild, they are always in need of fabric for community pro
jects. Remember, " your junk is someone elses treasure".

Great bookcase and great husband!

If you have something that you don't need or want, list it on FreeCycle, give it to a Thrift Shop or a Quilt Guild. Our guild make quilts for the homeless, for those burned out of their homes, for kids in the hospital, for kids in children's homes. Each child, at a home run by the Lutheran church, is able to pick his or her own quilt when they arrive and it is theirs to keep forever. Sometimes it is the only thing that they have ever had that they could call their own. We make belly pillows for a local hospital for those who have had surgery. None of these recipients care what the fabric looks like, only that they have been given something made with love. I try to give or donate anything I can to keep it out of the landfills. BTW, you have a talented husband. The bookcase is really nice.

Oh my tossing fabric! I donate to our guild, and we sell donated stuff at our guild's quilt show. Some would love to have it. Give to Goodwill or place like that, it will be gobbled up.

You have a wonderful organized room. Wish mine looked that neat. I never throw away fabrics that can be used by someone else. We have freecycle in our area and we can list things we don't want and someone usually will pick it up. If you don't have free cycle, there is a section on Craig's list for free stuff. There are so many beginner sewers and people who cannot afford to purchase because of limited incomes that would love to have fabrics of any kind to sew. I don't waste a smidgen and none go to the landfills. When I have pieces that are two little to sew, I put them in a bag for a lady that makes dog beds for the humane society and for the dogs that help the blind and handicaps. I have helped 5 younger women start to quilt by supplying the fabrics for their first quilts. Two of them were "financially challenged" and appreciated the pieces they got from my scraps or fabrics I did not think I would use. It is a good feeling to help these young women get started in a wonderful life time hobby. I have had one of the high schools in our area call me to see if I had some fabrics to donate to them. I also have given pieces to a friend who makes about 50 donation quilts a year and I pick up fabrics at thrift stores and garage sales to give to her. Donate them to a thrift store that is non profit and you can get a tax write off. There is always someone to take the fabrics off your hands rather than throwing them in the trash...I hope you don't think I am fussing...only give you a some better options to dispose of fabrics you don't want.

Pitch me a PM.. I have a small stack of it by my craft room door right now.

Anyone willing to pay shipping can have it.

wow, wow, wow, lookin good