WMUTeach

Please, know that is only my way of tracking fabric in and out at this time in my quilting life. I keep a medium sized spiral bound notebook where I journal my quilts made, progress and fabric in and out month by month. It took a few years to figure out a reasonable plan/format that works for me that was not too hard to keep up with. I have been doing it for 5 or 6 years. I just want to leave a legacy of information about my quilt journey.

Fabric OUT is generally a good calculated estimate. Calculate square inches in a finished project times two (front and back) Then I divide it by 1440 (approx. square inches in a yard) and Ta-Da I have the amount of yardage I have used. I don't worry about the amount of fabric in seams and so on. Fabric IN is simple because now I only purchase yardage when I need it for a specific project or backing. (I seldom take advantage of my guild's give away table. I just don't need it.

Track or not track, but if you track, do it in a way the fits YOU and what you want to track.

Sync

joe'smom, the system that I use was set up by a blogger - Carole, From my Carolina Home. She has stopped doing her monthly Stash Busters post but the formula she used was - you take the size of your quilt, say it's 80 X 80, multiply the size ( 80 X 80 becomes 6,400) now you divide that by 1,440, that number comes from the square inches of a 36 X 40 - the approx. size of a yard of fabric. Now you take those numbers say 6,400 and divide it by 1,400. Now you have a approximate yardage for your quilt top. So the 80 X 80 quilt top used about 4.44 yards. Hope this helps - sorry I know it's probably clear as mud.

Iceblossom

I'll know when everything fits into my allotted space that I have achieved stash reduction. Even then, the plan is to continue to reduce.

But I'm not there yet!

One of my quilting friends is coming over today to help me, I hope she will also take a couple of yards of fabric for the project she's working on. Someone gave her about 30 nice batik UFO blocks, I may be able to provide sashing and/or a back and then it will be turned into a jacket and not a quilt... Is only a couple yards out, but is nice to be able to offer someone multiple options.

WMUTeach

Hey, Sync, My Carolina Home is where I started too! The monthly IN/Out was the foundation for how I track my moratorium numbers here and in my journal. It has become a visual for my stash busting. Like any habit it takes a little time but monthly tracking makes it doable for me and it feels good to see the numbers. I miss the monthly check-ins and chatter on MCH.

joe'smom

WMUTeach and Sync, thanks so much!