Elly, I'm sorry to hear of your health problems. While I still have a huge stash it was devasting when my eye condition was (finally) diagnosed and I had to confront the fact that no, I wasn't going to be able to use it all. LOL with the size of my stash at that time not even half. The good news (for me) is that it did make me confront many issues and my relationship with fabric has changed. Yes! Use up the good stuff and in other non-fabric things as well. Wear nice clothes even when just staying home. Use the good dishes. Get rid of the stuff you don't love. And fabric related again -- just use it! While I still have to fight my inner voice my new voice says I don't have to save/use every tiny bit in the best possible way -- using it IS the best possible way.

But join us as a lurker or participant in the Bonnie Hunter thread. The biggest difference Bonnie and I have in quilt design is I don't see much need to go smaller than 2" square in a queen sized project, or as a friend told me "But you don't like thousands of tiny triangle". Both statements are true. Yet, one time a year I am prepared to deal with 1" squares and tiny triangles. I typically cut a bit large and trim down to tiny size, I find it helps my accuracy.

I am also here to admit to buying surplus fabric. My justification is that I will use it in both my current Christmas string project and the Bonnie Hunter project. Ok, I bought a mis-cut that is larger than I needed and it was my fault for wandering into a shop to see if they had any "white with tiny red polka dots". But what I got was what I was looking for and I didn't get anything else just because I was going to be standing in line at the cutting table and checkout...

Here's a picture of what I call the "bed" of the quilt, the center without borders. There will be a 4" white border (the same fabric as inside the 4-pointed stars), and then a 6" string pieced border which should make the size about right.

Ice blossom, you go girl.

IB, very pretty.

Iceblossom, looking good girl .........

I am about to fall off the wagon. I am far from my stash but am addicted to the candy swap. I "need" 50 new fabrics. Everything is wildly affordable this weekend. I prefer novelty fabrics so we shall see what happens...

IceBlossom -- those colors and quilt are beautiful!

Elly66 - we are here to cheer you on!

Happy Thanksgiving (American) weekend to all my wagon-mates. Watch out for the bumps that throw you off the wagon!

Ibex -- if it helps the Fabric Moratorium Year is over!! While many of our forum members stay strong, we realize that from Black Friday through the end of the year is just too much to handle without fabric :) Is just like having a birthday or vacation exemption. Also if we are going to use something (as opposed to collecting), shop stash first but yeah -- sometimes fabric happens!

But once it is the new year it will be time to behave. Or at least try...

Iceblossom, knowing that the moratorium year is over helps a little, since my LQS is having a 35% off their fabric and notions this weekend. My Bonnie Hunter mystery is still coming (mostly) from my stash, but I had a small slip while checking out Shibori Dragon online. They have a nice selection of indigo and some kasuri fabrics that will fit nicely in this mystery "Indigo Way"

Moratorium is over?! Wahoo! Now where did I stash my coins so I can buy a little bit more than 50 new fabrics....

At the last Project Linus meeting I brought home entirely too much. So I'm going to sort thru it here at home away from peer pressure and bring a chunk back. (My life got better when I realized I can do that.)

I also used up all my navy blue, but there was none at JoAnns when I bought some fleece for another project. Left store with only the fleece and nothing else.

Hey there IBEX!. An idea to diminish your stash and still be ready for our birthday swap. Have you considered using pre-cuts rather than shopping? Jelly rolls, layer cakes or charm packs that don't grab your heart might make good 2.5" squares for birthday swapping. You can get 16 - 2.5s from one strip of a jelly roll.....just a thought. Trying to help you kill two birds with one stone so to speak. ;)