How to build my stash
10-08-2014, 11:07 AM
#51
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Lost in my sewing room
Posts: 1,442
Agree with both of these....my tastes have sure changed, so I will only buy for a certain project if I don't already have it.
HOW TRUE......Now that I have all this fabric, a lot of it I wonder why I bought it. Some of it I still don't want to cut into. My quilting years will never come near my fabric years. My sister is just starting to quilt and she is doing it like I would if I started again. One project at a time. If she see fabric she must have then the project goes into a bag and when she is finished the one she is working on....she has the next project ready to go. Too much fabric so little time comes really fast. Anyone can have a stash, not everyone can have quilts.
10-08-2014, 11:17 AM
#52
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Delphi, Indiana
Posts: 190
I started quilting back in the early 80s. I bought fabric for the quilts I was making. Everything left over became "stash." Life happened, and now I'm back into quilting with a passion. I find that I like the precut jelly rolls and fat quarter packs for convenience and material quality. If I like a fabric line, I'll get a fat quarter pack or fat eighth. I have built up quite a few of these packages -- enough to make about 20 quilts, minus fabric for backing. So now I'm in a position of just being able to sew and quilt for a while with these. Leftovers will be added to the previous ones for scrap quilts. I'm set for a while. AND, I don't buy anything unless it's on sale, so I wait until the precuts go on sale so I don't feel as bad.
10-08-2014, 01:06 PM
#53
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 674
I am one of the large stash ladies. I really hate quilts done in just a few fabrics - always reminds me of store bought. When I discovered I loved scrappy I went for it. Fabric Shack had to find a storage property for odds and ends. Someone smart thinking brought those odds and ends in the store and sold it by the yard. What a fabulous way to get your scrappys. I bought hundreds of yards and I have a fabulous stash that I use most every day. I love string blocks and make lots of them. I love my scrappies and they are scrappy. If I have a few minutes I make 2" hst & 2 1/2" hst. Bonnie Hunter had split nine patch as her leader ender last year and I love them so I collect squares and hst. I almost always buy on sale and never at Joanns and Hancocks. I'm picky about my scraps - lol.
10-08-2014, 03:01 PM
#54
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 674
I am one of the large stash ladies. I really hate quilts done in just a few fabrics - always reminds me of store bought. When I discovered I loved scrappy I went for it. Fabric Shack had to find a storage property for odds and ends. Someone smart thinking brought those odds and ends in the store and sold it by the yard. What a fabulous way to get your scrappys. I bought hundreds of yards and I have a fabulous stash that I use most every day. I love string blocks and make lots of them. I love my scrappies and they are scrappy. If I have a few minutes I make 2" hst & 2 1/2" hst. Bonnie Hunter had split nine patch as her leader ender last year and I love them so I collect squares and hst. I almost always buy on sale and never at Joanns and Hancocks. I'm picky about my scraps - lol.
10-08-2014, 03:07 PM
#55
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Florida
Posts: 5,920
I made the mistake of buying for a stash. Not a lot but it was mostly prints on sale and not what my taste developed into. I wish I had just purchased for projects I was working on. Now I'm into batik scrappies so I now purchase a yard at a time of what in my head I consider to be "glorious color". A stash builds fast on it's own. Take your time, soon it will be more than you ever wanted to hang onto.
10-08-2014, 06:17 PM
#56
Super Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans, La
Posts: 1,768
One word of advice, don't forget to buy blenders. Apparently I've never met a feature fabric that I didn't like but I get very short on blenders to put with them. I'm a half hour drive from a quilt store so it's inconvenient when I'm sewing late at night and need something that reads as a solid.
10-08-2014, 06:25 PM
#57
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Upstate NY, north of Syracuse Area
Posts: 6,003
I think once you have a better feel for what you like to make, your style of quilting, and the patterns you gravitate to, you will have a much better idea of how to build your stash.
For example, I now know that I loveeeee making scrappy quilts, I Spy quilts and D9Ps. Sure I make lots of other things too, but those are my go-to's.
So for stash building, I know I can reliably depend on the remnant bin for scrappy and novelty bits. I have a good idea how much fabric I need for a D9P in different sizes.
That said, I also know that with the wealth of free patterns available and the wonderful resource of this board, whatever amount of a fabric I have, I can find a way to make a quilt I will love from it. So if I just have to have it, I get it. Maybe I'll just pet it for a while, but I know it's time will come.
Happy, happy stash building hugs and smiles!
For example, I now know that I loveeeee making scrappy quilts, I Spy quilts and D9Ps. Sure I make lots of other things too, but those are my go-to's.
So for stash building, I know I can reliably depend on the remnant bin for scrappy and novelty bits. I have a good idea how much fabric I need for a D9P in different sizes.
That said, I also know that with the wealth of free patterns available and the wonderful resource of this board, whatever amount of a fabric I have, I can find a way to make a quilt I will love from it. So if I just have to have it, I get it. Maybe I'll just pet it for a while, but I know it's time will come.
Happy, happy stash building hugs and smiles!
10-09-2014, 12:12 AM
#58
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: martinsville Indiana
Posts: 4,461
I wish I had never built my stash. Styles change and so does my taste in fabric. If I had it all to do over again I'd not have a stash only a scrap bin if necessary. Now I think about all the money wasted on fabric I really don't care for anymore.
10-09-2014, 04:42 AM
#59
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Mendocino Coast, CA
Posts: 4,892
Buy fabric when it's on sale, buy in color groupings, buy quality. There are a few, online stores that always have something on sale and that's straight where I head to. I rarely pay over $4/yard and a lot of my fabrics are even high, quality, organic fabrics. I also would advise that you buy in style groupings s/a civil war, French toile, depression era, etc., so that you'll have those styles when the need comes.
10-09-2014, 04:52 AM
#60
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Mabank, Texas
Posts: 768
Don't worry about 'building a stash' because over time it will happen.
Another example of how a stash is created: You're working on a project and when it gets down to cutting and aligning all the fabric together in one spot, you may not like a certain fabric choice you made so what do you do, keep it and work with it or go buy another piece of fabric. Or, you reach the end of your cutting and gosh darn it, you simply did not have enough of a color so what do you do, go back to the store and try to match it up to color.
It's still your personal choice; but eventually you'll find that you like the look of in certain fabrics, say civil war or Aunt Betty's or Batiks, those you will always look at regardless of what project you're working on and purchase it if it makes you happy to have a piece of it because you know you will use it.
Another example of how a stash is created: You're working on a project and when it gets down to cutting and aligning all the fabric together in one spot, you may not like a certain fabric choice you made so what do you do, keep it and work with it or go buy another piece of fabric. Or, you reach the end of your cutting and gosh darn it, you simply did not have enough of a color so what do you do, go back to the store and try to match it up to color.
It's still your personal choice; but eventually you'll find that you like the look of in certain fabrics, say civil war or Aunt Betty's or Batiks, those you will always look at regardless of what project you're working on and purchase it if it makes you happy to have a piece of it because you know you will use it.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
