nancia

I have been soundly reprimanded by dh. He says our new fence is sitting in my sewing room in piles and bags of fabric. He thinks i have more than enough for the rest of my life. Let me give you a little insight into this man, keeping in mind i love this guy but I'm not blind to his faults!, he has worn the Same style of shoe for more than 37 yrs. he has four pairs of shoes, dress, sneakers, sandals and slippers. He wears the same colors of dockers year round. He wears the same style tee shirt with short sleeves or long year round. His wardrobe fills 3 drawers in a dresser and one small closet for his work shirts. He does not understand having a stash of fabric. He doesn't get it that fabric lines sell out and that's it, they're gone . need i say more? Fortunately , he also stays with the same wife! He doesn't find it funny that i justify others' purchases . And he does not find it funny that i buy batting and wedges and thread, etc. connecting threads appears to be selling out much of its thread, so i have stocked up on colors i use the most. Need i say he doesn't understand why I need three spools of fucshia? And he doesn't see the fabric i didn't buy! The other day i ordered some batting from con threads and included in that was a batt of black. I have a mostly black quilt I'm making and i think the black batting makes sense. Have never tried 80/20 before, so this will be an adventure.
I would seriously like to continue this thread. I know i joke a lot, but i REALLY do need the group support, and i appreciate you enjoy my silliness. We must all remember that at the end of the day we are all human and we need joy and pleasure in our lives. For many of us fabric gives us that. Sorry to those of you who were looking for this to be humorous, but now and then i succumb to serious. Forgive me, it won't happen often! Lol

nancia

Thank you, paper princess for hosting this moratorium! Are you considering keeping it going?

PaperPrincess

Sure. Even tho I repeated previous years' timing saying that it officially ends 11/1, I'll still make reminder posts for the last 2 months. I will get with the moderators in December & set one up for 2014. Although I didn't do as well as planned with NO new fabric, I did find that I really thought about my purchases and scaled back a lot. Making myself come clean and post here and listening to my husband's comments (what about your fabric "contest"??) did inspire me to be careful of what I bought without a specific purpose.

Pat625

Nancia- I know how you feel. I didn't completely stop buying fabric, but only purchased for specific projects other than fabric for backings that I got for 1.95 a yard. Three future backings were added to stash. I made a few scrappy quilts, and shopped stash first. I am sure I spent hundreds of dollars less this year. Being on disability this was a great help! I am sure I have more fabric than I can ever use! Onward for another year!!

MadQuilter

Nancia, I think your husband and mine are molded from similar material. Fortunately for me, I put down my foot a long time ago and claimed the right to be idiosyncratic (read "slightly nuts") so he would not dare chastise me. It does sound like you allowed the reprimand because you recognize that you may be a little nuts in the fabric collection yourself. So for now, let's get back to the origin of the thread. Let's all get back to taking our OCD a little more seriously and instead of rationalizing our bad behavior (and yes, I recognize myself in this), let's use what we have.

Instead of lamenting what we cannot buy, let's enjoy what we already have. Instead of being disappointed about the sale items we cannot put in our basket, let's go shopping in our stash store and actually put the time to good use sewing.

I almost succumbed the other day when craftsy sent a sale email. I went there, I put FQ-packets in the shopping basket but I ended up killing the transaction before I even pulled the credit card out of my wallet. So let's get back on that bandwagon.

Foxflower

My husband fully support my participation in this moratorium. He's funny in that anything MADE of fabric he considers fabric. He'll see a pile of laundry (clothes) and grumble about the amount of fabric in the house. He'd make a great up-cycling quilter if he could only grasp how much pleasure sewing and quilting brings. Anyway, its a rare husband indeed who understands or supports the quilting endeavor. Anybody who has such a husband should keep him. I"m keeping mine despite his faults too though since he seems willing to keep me and all my "fabric".

Nancia, we might question the sanity of anyone who was hilarious ALL the time or serious ALL the time.

Emma S

Nancia: I am widowed so I have no one to complain about the size, amount of space taken and money spent. Honestly, if someone (read husband), told me I couldn't buy any more I would probably be contrary enough to immeadiately head for the store. That being said, although I have made light of both my and others purchases, I really am trying to cut back. Wish I could truthfully claim to want to avoid all purchases but a good sale is hard to pass up. How about changing the new Moratorium rules to a more postive note? Not only not buying but producing only from stash and using the thread to showcase our projects?

Pat625

I TOTALLY see where you are!! Noone tells me what I can spend my money on LOL...The last one that did is Now an ex-husband!! I don't think anyone took anything other than in jest. I like the idea of showcasing stash only items, such as in the stash-busting challenge- we can show them in both threads. The rationalization of purchases for self and others is totally fun! We can laugh at each others and our own slip ups!! I really think we all have made great progress in curbing our spending- Isn't that what this is all about?

nancia

I love the idea of displaying the items we've made from our stash. There are times when we have to add, but I'm sure for you as for me, it's not as often as we think. I bought a bunch of orange fabrics in 1/4 yards thinking i needed them for a project, while the pattern was on its way to me. Not only did i over buy, i found a whole box of orange fabrics. Money spent, can't take the fabric back, so I'm feeling pretty dumb! Dh merely explained the harsh reality of our financial health and pointed to the fabric as one reason it was ailing. Yes, i do have too much fabric for what i actually get finished. Most of my quilting has gone to others in swaps, which i love doing, but i haven't given quilts to two of my kids, nor my husband, my sister and her kids or myself, and then I can start on donations and art quilts. I do have three flimseys and fabrics pulled for about ten other projects. At the rate i sew i have more than enough for the next twenty years, heaven help me i should live that long! Mom passed at 91 and dad was 84, so I could actually live another thirty years easily. Guess i better get started, i have lots to do!

irishrose

No one here to tell me what I can buy, but space limitations are my reminder not to buy. Over 1900 square feet should be enough for one person and 2 dogs, but right now it isn't. If I could get rid of half of my clothes and half of my fabric and I'd be better off.

I like the moratorium the way it is. I don't need the guilt of not finishing anything and having nothing to post added to the guilt of over consumption. Posting finishes is fine, but should remain optional, IMO. Or start a new thread - "Items made 75% or more from stash" in addition to this one.

I keep hoping my life will slow down enough so I can get back to quilting, but right now my energy goes to getting the garden and outside of the house ready for winter and getting ready for a church bazaar.

Let's use our stash and be have that we have it to use!!