Gemm

Hi and welcome to another year of focusing on reducing stash in the FabricMoratorium2024 thread!

I'm back to moderate this thread to the best of my ability and in the interest of getting it up and running quickly I'm once again making efficient use of last year's message! :-)

I'm the owner of a not-too-large-but-still-too-large-for-my-storage-space stash and have loved the stash-busting ideas, support, and company on this thread in the past and am looking forward to continuing this journey with you. Everyone is welcome, no matter where you would place yourself on the fabric-collecting spectrum!

The following is heavily borrowed from Iceblossom's intro from 2022 because it covers pretty much everything. :-)

We have general guidelines, but please just do whatever makes sense for you. Although we call it the "FabricMoratorium" the main idea is to avoid adding to our stash and hopefully reducing it, so any efforts in that direction are worth celebrating.

Here are some general guidelines:

• No fabric purchases "just for your stash" from January 1 until U.S. Black Friday (November 29, 2024 - it's late next year!).
• When you start a new project, shop your stash first. If you don't have anything that will work, then feel free to make a purchase. Hopefully at least some of the fabric for every new project will come from your existing stash.

As the year progresses, post your updates here so we can encourage, commiserate with, and support you! Post tips on how you organize and use your stash, ideas and projects you are planning or complete from your stash, as well as your deep thoughts about stash, purchases, and fabric in general. :-)

Also let us know about falling off the wagon, as everyone enjoys a great story about excuses to purchase fabric! Some members have come up with creative exemptions such as trips, birthdays, quilt shows, receiving the Covid vaccine... I'm sure our imaginative followers will think of others.

Pictures are always wonderful!

As stated these are just guidelines; there are no Moratorium Police here! Please do whatever makes sense for you and your stash. Just start using all that gorgeous fabric in your stash; after all, that's what you bought it for!

Here's to a fantastic stash-busting 2024!

patricej

i'll have to start over this year. i hadn't bought any fabric for around 3 years. i actually had empty drawers! (yay!!!)
a few weeks visiting my enabler friend in PA and my drawers are stuffed full again. lol?

i console myself with the knowledge that i did - at least - find suitable backing and border fabric for 2 tops that have been languishing on the UFO pile for quite some time.

here's wishing all of us luck this year! :-)

Snooze2978

I'm still good with not buying much fabric in the past 5 years. I did though buy some upholstery fabric at the thrift shop to make myself a couple dress jackets. Does that count as it won't be for quilting items?

I usually go shopping in my scrap bins first and then head over to the yardage shelves if I don't have enough. Plus the next 5 projects already have their fabrics pulled from the shelves.

Didn't do much sewing/quilting this past year either but hope to remedy that as I checked the quilt that's been on my frame since last April and though I have it covered, my middle furbaby decided it was the perfect place to take a snooze numerous time from the look of all the hair on it. Even found a couple tiny holes made by her back claws. I have windshied covers over the project to hope to deter my cats from getting up there but I guess it was just too tempting for Tabby to resist, darn her. Maybe she's trying to tell me to get the lead out and finish it.

Anyway, again I don't plan on buying fabric but ocassionally I might pick up a small piece at the thrift store.

Julienm1

I am so going to shop my stash. One sewing machine store gives us one yard of fab per month. Last year I bought neutrals. This year plan to do the same. Breaking my elbow really slowed my ewing so I have no busines buying fab. I don't have a lot of yardage for backings so decided I will sew blocks I like tro make and use those for backings. twodr appointments today and then I can sew.

Gemm

Glad to have people hopping on the wagon already!

Towards the end of last year my sewing slowed down although I did manage to finish the little purse I'd mentioned in the 2023 Moratorium thread. It's far from perfect (and getting the braid done just about killed me) but it's perfect for what my Mum wanted it for, so that's what counts. It's got a pocket inside and a magnetic closure and I did some matchstick quilting across the top of the purse where it folds over so that it closes on its own. I'm happy with how I was able to adapt different ideas to give her something that will be functional and easy for her to use. :-)

One of the things I love about the fabric moratorium concept is being intentional about taking inspiration from what I already have. While I wasn't sewing much, I did continue to play with fabric on and off and I now have a tote of partially curated stacks of fabric that I think might work well together in a quilt. Of course, playing with the fabric is the easy part and so I also have a tote of quilt tops/flimsies that were the result of previous play sessions and that really should be taken to the next step before I start too many new projects. Finding the right fabric for backing isn't always the easiest when shopping your stash first, but I plan to give it a good try.

Anyway, I'll have to see what happens in this new year but I'm hoping to be a steady presence on the wagon. Looking forward to the ride! :-)

retiredteacher09

Thanks Gemm for starting this thread.

I stopped by the quilting room at church today. I filled bobbins for the industrial machine, changed the needle, and stitched around a quilt. As I was putting the quilt on a table, 3 donated green fabrics on a different table shouted at me to take them home. 🤷‍♀️. It’s a little over 2 yards total and I will use them to enlarge some green quilts that were given to our group that need to be bigger. Hopefully, I will use most of it without putting it in my stash.

Sync

Thanks for starting this year's Moratorium thread. Last year was my first time hopping on board that wagon. There were some bumps along the way and I'm sure more fabric came in my door than went out it. But I'm ready for another year. I finished last year with working on Bonnie Hunter's latest winter mystery. So far all the fabric has come from my stash - and I haven't bought any new fabric since the begining of this new year!!

WMUTeach

I am in again. I can't remember for sure how long I have been stash shopping, but it has been since before COVID. I reduced my stash this year by about 120 yards. I don't see a significant difference but the UFO pile is smaller which means I used stash for backs.

I will likely have to jump off the wagon for backing now and again because I have very little yardage big enough for a back. I will still shop stash first. You just never know what may work its way to the top of a bin or pile and be "just the ticket" for a quilt back.

Hint that Works for me: I track how much comes in and goes out of my stash each month. I am motivated by numbers and seeing that "out" number is an encouragement. Some months I break even and other months, I purchase more than what I use from my stash. I don't get crazy with exact inches in and out but I do track. If you chose to track don't forget the backing and and the binding. It all adds up. I also count donation fabric or donated UFOs. Out of my stash is OUT and I count it.

dmo

Did pretty well last month, made 30 holiday pillowcases. used a lot of my Christmas fabric. Now will start a string quilt. Lets sew, sew, sew up that fabric.

Iceblossom

Thanks Gemm for starting this up!

I moved so much fabric but I did pass on about as much. In the past 10 years I have gone from an entire room full of fabric to a hefty closet full. In some ways it was very helpful to me to see/feel the weight of what I have. I know I will be buying some fabric this year, mostly civil war reprints in colors I don't have so I can use up the browns I do have... I won't really mention the buying in this thread but I should acknowledge it at this point.

Now that I'm out of the big city and spent my year in pre-moving and not-buying and reducing in general, I've largely broken my thrift store fabric shopping addiction.

I will have to reorganize my fabric, towards the end I was filling my sorted half-full tubs with random things. As I go through, I will be putting ideas together but my big goal for this year is to finish/quilt down some of the many tops I also moved with me. I think I do have backs for each of them, some pieced and some the extra large size. There isn't a moratorium on buying long arms I will be actively looking for one. Don't think I can afford robotics but will be ok with free motion and a stitch regulator and am thrilled to have enough physical space.