Conchalea

To help with guilt, remember the moratorium is only through Black Friday, so any purchases made on that day until New Year's Eve are exempt. I'll start the new thread for 2020 in a couple of weeks. I will have to buy backing for the tee-shirt quilt, but will do that before the end of 2019. As it will be used immediately & go out of the house once I've washed it, it won't add to my stash.
I am looking at moving in the early part of 2020, so I won't be sewing or buying during that confusion & stress. I have so much Stuff!

ckcowl

As we come to an end of the year I can look back and see I truly did good with the moratorium this year- as far as not spending money. I did not do so well making any sort of dent in the stash though! I have a dear friend who’s mom passed away, his dad has started getting rid of her quilting stuff- evidently she had the whole basement! They have brought me up boxes and boxes and large totes of fabric. And the last load (12 large boxes and 4 totes!) they told me a dent has not been made. I have been giving most of it away, but oh my goodness I’ve also accumulated a lot. I’ve also won some fabric prizes this year. It is becoming quite overwhelming. I plan on doing the moratorium again next year and trying to make more scrap quilts too. I have to admit I didn’t make anywhere near the number of quilts that I usually make, spending the first 9 months of the year working 2 jobs. Next year will be different and hopefully I will find ways to be more productive. Either that or I’m giving away a lot more

retiredteacher09

ckcowl: I enjoy going through donations but the amount of fabric you are being given must be overwhelming. Please share some of the fabric you are keeping.

petthefabric

!!!

In my downsizing efforts, brought boxes up from the basement thinking they're all Christmas decorations. ! One very large tote is blankets and worn out matress pads I thought would work as batting...... maybe. Two large totes of different kinds of fabric, one box I don't even remember any of the fabrics. The other is a mixture of all types, including fashion fabrics. Those 2 are now in the garage waiting investagation and decisions.

grann of 6

Reading CKCowl's post makes me sad.... sad that that poor lady didn't live long enough to use even of her stash. She didn't have the joy of looking at it and touching it. I have a basement full, so this makes me want to make even more quilts. I have about 50 or more finished quilts in my little back room with 2 closets jammed full and more stacked on the bed. At least if I go today I know someone will get wrapped in love. This makes the moratorium even more important for me to stick to it and get more fabric used up. I also have a lot of fabric in bins in the garage. Most are home dec fabrics that I am no longer interested in using. Most of it was gifted me back when I did home dec sewing. It has got to go.

Iceblossom

I'm proud of myself for my stash reduction, but I still have a comparatively huge stash. Still, in the last 10 years I've gone from a room full of fabric to a large closet's worth stuffed full. I just need to get the stuff out of that closet so the fabric can go in it and it will be lovely Most of it has been simply given away, some of it has definitely been made into gifts and donation projects but the bulk was given as yardage.

But I know people who do have whole basements and rooms and storage units full of fabric. I still say there is nothing wrong with that. I would have more fabric if I had more space, even though I feel I'm running out of time to use it, because ultimately what does it harm? I'm very proud on my not buying "new" fabric, but I do need to do better with my thrift store fabric even though I'm turning over my finds into projects pretty quickly and I'm not accumulating much stash, but still more than I'm turning out.

For me personally, it was hard to admit that indeed I wasn't going to be able to use all that fabric. In the "she with the most fabric wins" I had already placed. I don't really want to get out 40 boxes of things just to get one piece each of 100 fabrics, most of what I want to get I can get out of 6.5" strips and so now I cut a strip that size, put it in the box and go to the one box first to see if I already have what I want. I no longer keep anything smaller than 6.5", have a lovely friend from here on the board who takes my crumbs, off cuts, and other pieces that I used to save. So a lot of my stash reduction just has to do with physical and mental fatigue and not wanting to deal with all that stuff.

I've shifted out from reducing to using, but now when I'm done with a project I find it pretty easy to collect up the related fabrics and send them out. While most of "my" projects are done with scraps, most of the donation quilts are done with yardage and then I keep that 6.5" scrap/WoF. Yeah, it's happened that I've sent out a piece only to quickly come up with a project that could use it. There is usually something else I can use instead. There is only one piece of yardage I've given away that I regret -- but deep down in my heart I know I would still not have a good use for it.

I've had to change a lot of my obsessive traits I'm finding it easier and easier to be freer and looser, it's still not natural to me but it is getting easier. This last year or so in my small group I've been sewing with an improvisational quilter. Our minds don't work alike, but it's good for me to see that there are other ways of doing things and the end result still works. My Wonky 9-Patch earlier this year was a good step in that direction. I can see where I can put all sorts of low volume things together, or maybe just collections of early 80s in that color palette just to use up bits and pieces of related things. I like the "stack the deck" style of crazy quilts too. String quilts are another opportunity for me to use up fabric and not have to be so precise and fussy all the time.

So now when I'm confronted with my desire for fabric, whether new or thrift store, the question is "can you really see yourself using this piece of fabric in the next five years" -- keep in mind that I really am planned out that far ahead. I'm figuring if it is for immediate use (especially when it means I can use stash with it) it doesn't even count in the moratorium, just my personal moratorium.

This next year I'm planning on working with my collection of civil war fabrics and more with the metallics. Have some more kid sized donation quilts in there too. Still plan on my Barn quilt, darn you paper piecing!

grann of 6

I'm proud of myself too. 'The past couple days have been spent sorting and rearranging the bolt size amounts of fabric so they are with like fabrics, blenders with blenders, florals with florals, etc. Some pieces had been reduced enough that they could be ruler folded into the shelves that I showed you. And I cleaned off a part of my counter space that had all sorts of schmutz taking up space. I had 2 layer cakes that have been waiting for a suitable pattern, which I found while eating lunch and going through my books for using layer cakes. I found some yellow solid that goes with it, started with 6 yards of that, think it will be whittled down to 2 or 3 yds left. Everything is now cut and ready for assembly. I can mess with that while watching TV in the bedroom.

I am going to try to not be so picky about matching and go with the flow as much as I can allow myself. It is still a struggle, but I am working on it.

joe'smom

Everyone is doing great with their organizational efforts! Rah, rah!

petthefabric

So far in December, I've used 40 1/2 yds for comfort quilts. At this rate I could use ~600 yds in 1 yr. We'll see if I can persevere. Pulled out 3 more groups of fabrics for more comfort quilts.....tomorrow.

Also purging books. The thrift store will get a delivery tomorrow.

cindyb

Memory quilts are my favorite to make.