A conversation with myself this morning:

I should really figure out the backing for that project
(We saw something that would be nice at the store...)
No! We have fabric at home.
(But it would be lovely)
Have you shopped the stash? I mean really shopped? Or did you just take a quick look?
(*Inner 7 yr old sulking*)
Shopping stash - finds several pieces that will do if pieced together

After this summer's bonanza shopping spree and difficulty finding places for everything - I have several projects in line and I really don't need anything. So....

Using the "We've got food at home" energy.

Rff1010; love talking to yourself.

Just a variation of the "shop from my stash first" plan that has helped me use my stash.

I will occasionally choose my back FIRST. For example, my quilting group does a mystery quilt every year and it is tempting to go shop and we all know that most of use have a stash to shop from. This year I chose the backing first. For me the back is the biggest cause of excess shopping. I chose a large print with lovely colors that I had gotten on sale but it had been sitting on the shelf unused. I then pulled coordinating colors from my stash that matched the backing and met the fabric requirements for the mystery quilt top. The blocks look mighty strange at this point but their colors are lovely. The final layout is coming soon and I am anxious to see how it all plays out. Bottom line, a big old chunk of unused fabric will be out of my stash along with some smaller coordinating pieces. Sounds like a win to me!

Win/win.,.,.

I am not doing good I got two lawyer cakes oh well only live once

Layer Cakes
 

Well my dear, if you like cake, layer cakes that is, you are fine. Now it is time to eat cake! Turn those layer cakes in to beautiful quilts and not let them sit on the shelf and get stale. Tee-Hee-Hee.

Been a while since we've seen a post here, so I hope that means there's lots of stash shopping going on! I've been prevented from doing much quilting lately because of the addition of a VERY energetic puppy to our household, but it hasn't stopped me from thinking about using up stash.

Right now I've got a project I'm chipping away at (I get about 15 minutes of quiet in the sewing room a week these days), but it's SO in tune with this thread. I'm using an old quilt top I made back in the 90s with serious scraps (it's not as ugly as it might have been, but neither is it lovely). It's got some bits of polyester, some bits of I don't know what, including a hat band I didn't like on a fedora I owned back then, and a few pieces of raw silk left over from having a bridesmaid's dress made. I'm using a trimmed down mattress pad as batting and am in the process of cutting squares out of fabric I don't think I'll ever be able to use up in a serious quilt for the backing. All of this is to make a cover for the back seat of my car, since the new puppy thinks any fabric/upholstery/carpet is there for her to practice digging on. :p I'm hoping this will hold up to her persistent efforts!

Hope eventually to have a picture to share, but for now, just thought I'd post about the idea/early progress. I'd love to hear other people's stories of "using up"!

Gemm, congratulations on your new puppy!

I have been plowing through my prep quilt project. I have such a desire to get these projects (representing piles of fabric all around the house) prepped because I want to take inventory of my remaining fabric once these piles are out of the way.

I have been buying occasionally, but only to complete projects underway. I still put pretty fabrics in my shopping cart, then look at them for a while and delete.

Agreed - I'm trying so hard to stash shop, but I'm working on a project right now that I decided needed flannel for the back and I don't have any. So I bought JUST THAT. Nothing else. My eyes wandered, but that's it. It helped that I had a bunch of other errands that day so fabric store was a list item not a "let's go and browse..."

Gemm- congrats on the new puppy!

Though I've been shopping my stash a lot over the last few years, I have on two occasions hit the remnants bin at my LQS....oops. In order to rectify the problem of now having more stash than I started with for the year, I have signed up for two classes at the LQS---hopefully, being there in class won't lead to more fabric purchases LOL!

Rob