Icky - Unsuitable - Ugly
#1
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Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2008
Location: MN
Posts: 24,391
Icky - Unsuitable - Ugly
When someone says "quilting fabric" - the first thing that comes to my mind is a woven cotton.
Then, within the "woven cotton quilting fabric " - i have a narrower definition - but I don't know how to put that definition on paper.
Anyway - I do have some fabrics that I consider "quilting fabric" - but I do not like them for any number of reasons.
Some of reasons:
harsh finish
loosely woven - flimsy feeling
yucky color (what was I thinking when I acquired those pieces? - I remember - I was acquiring pieces for a charm quilt - that is still in pieces. I busily cut a four inch triangle from many many pieces.)
too tightly woven
just don't like it anymore
I have purged the too loosely woven pieces - a couple of which I purchased at LQS - for the color -
Do any of you have pieces that are in the "if i would have known then what I know now" - category?
Then, within the "woven cotton quilting fabric " - i have a narrower definition - but I don't know how to put that definition on paper.
Anyway - I do have some fabrics that I consider "quilting fabric" - but I do not like them for any number of reasons.
Some of reasons:
harsh finish
loosely woven - flimsy feeling
yucky color (what was I thinking when I acquired those pieces? - I remember - I was acquiring pieces for a charm quilt - that is still in pieces. I busily cut a four inch triangle from many many pieces.)
too tightly woven
just don't like it anymore
I have purged the too loosely woven pieces - a couple of which I purchased at LQS - for the color -
Do any of you have pieces that are in the "if i would have known then what I know now" - category?
#2
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 15,913
I have bought some and later on wondered why. I don't get attached to fabric. I toss it as soon as I notice I don't like it anymore. I don't like Kona brand and when I buy a Moda design I love, I know to expect a lot of raveling.
#3
Junior Member
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 110
There must be a run on ugly fabric. I have my own thread going. For me, I was looking for a very specific fabric color with a specific design and each of the packs I bought had one of what I needed with the operative word being "packs." Now I'm stuck with a bunch of uglies.
#4
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 15,913
I was purging fabric this morning. I have a bin full of don't want it anymore fabric. I'll take it to guild and put it on our free table. I don't see any reason to feel like I should keep it.
Last edited by Onebyone; 05-19-2019 at 12:34 PM.
#5
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: The Finger Lakes of upstate NY
Posts: 3,439
I've gotten really good at letting things go in the last couple of years. It's freeing! I used to think, "But I paid for it!" Then I realized that whether or not I paid for it, I wasn't going to use it, so it really wasn't costing me any more to give away.
What I don't like goes on the "free to take" table at guild meetings. If it doesn't get taken there, I give it to a charity thrift or a Mennonite group that makes comforts from all sorts of things. Out of my way and on to somebody who wants it!
What I don't like goes on the "free to take" table at guild meetings. If it doesn't get taken there, I give it to a charity thrift or a Mennonite group that makes comforts from all sorts of things. Out of my way and on to somebody who wants it!
#6
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Florida
Posts: 5,896
The best line I have ever heard someone say about fabric was in my Community Quilts group at Guild. When someone's donation was of fabric that we just couldn't quilt with, like drapery fabrics, upholstery fabrics or just ugly polyesters, She would say, "We will put it where it needs to go." We tossed alot of fabrics. Later on, someone started collecting it and using it for dog beds for the pound.
#8
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Flagstaff, Arizona
Posts: 9,475
I have been going thru my fabrics and it is "why did I buy this"!!! Now I am packing it in a bag and taking it to our local thrift shop. Makes me feel good to give away and maybe someone can put it to good use. I can't say that it is all ugly but some of it is real thin and I don't want to put that into a quilt.
#9
I had a really ugly piece of fabric that I got through a fabric swap so I made a rope bowl out of it. It made a beautiful bowl & didn't look anything like the fabric I started with. So that year for Christmas I made rope bowls for friends out of fabric that I didn't like anymore.....amazing results!
#10
Yes, I agree girls. I have been gifted some of this type fabric before for a charity I sew for. It sits and sits in a charity fabric bin awaiting some inspiration to use it. There was one very loose weight pink floral my sister gave me that I made into a baby summer dress. I bought a little slip to match and the neighbor mommy had a wonderful reaction. She realized that baby would be much more comfortable wearing light-weight in the heat.
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