Cutting the Stash!

This is a photo of my cutting project which I started last week.

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What you see here are 83 fabrics from stash. Actually, it is almost my entire stash except for some white/small flower prints, beige/tans, greens (very little), novelty, a small bin of blue strips - already cut, and very little yardage of slightly larger pieces, oh and that scrap bin that my son so loves dumping out all over the place. And, I've had these fabrics for at least 4 years, but some of them as long as maybe 6? years It is dated fabric, no where near as exciting as some of the fabrics you guys are buying/working with. Worse still, I feel like they don't "play" nicely with some of the newer designs out, so I want to use them - all by themselves - in quilts. As much as I would like to just start over with brand new and exciting to me fabrics - well, these are MY fabrics and I do own them without having to go on a roadtrip to get to a store. Honestly, I would rather spend my sewng money on long-arm quilting services than loading my shelves with more fabric. Oh, but once this fabric is gone - you better believe I will be buying some new ones!

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And, as boring as each one seems individually, I happen to know that these fabrics do make up into very lovely quilts. I just have to ignore the beginning boring parts and plow on through to get to the quilt part. And for me, it is very exciting to have quilts around - completely finished to snuggle under. Did I just say snuggle? Oops - I meant to spread out all over the couch and anchor onto the coffee table to make tents and tunnels and secret openings. Well, at least they aren't getting fold lines from being folded up in a closet!

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And, surprise! The stash is getting smaller and smaller! Not sure how that happened as most of you have ever growing stashes; mine must be defective because it doesn't seem to grow in dark closets all by itself. Whaaa!

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So, I am cutting. ALL of it. Yup. I needed 3 1" strips from 83 different fabrics for a lattern pattern and why stop there? I asked DH to pick up a new iron (the old one was luke-warm) and some clear containers at the hardware store, I have them all labeled (1", 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3.5"). Each tote also has a list of patterns I can make with that size strip - and since I have more 2" patterns than any other size, I cut a few extra 2". I also need about 10 fabrics at 6" so I've cut those too. AND, I needed 2.25" strips to finish another project, so I've got those cut too. Slice, slice, slice - feeding those bins. Some of the fabrics had very little yardage, and others had a full yard. I have about 1/2 of them cut now. All ready for sewing. I MUST remember to get some neutral sewing thread, because can you believe I am almost out of thread? Dire, I know. But please don't laugh - remember, I live hours and hours away from shopping so running out of thread can be a problem! Unless I mail order. And since I'm in Canada - well that can be a bit expensive for just thread. Much better just to remember when I am near the stores.

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A funny thing about my cutting plan though - after about 10 fabrics I was hit with a moment of panic - but what if I NEEDED one of these fabrics and I had it all sliced into smaller pieces? LOL, like fabric stores don't sell fabric!!! I must admit though - I was a little surprised to see how small my stash is - it will seem very strange indeed to have the bulk of it cut into strips. I definately have done a good job of using it! I've made lots of quilts over the past 4 years - kind of scarry to think that most of the quilts I made came out of my stash - oh sure, I've added some fat quarters here and there, bought yardage for borders and backings... but most of the tops were made from stash. Except - I haven't used my stash exclusively either because sometimes I buy fabric 'specially for a quilt. I mean, a girl just has to try out some of the newer designs once in awhile, right? But still, my stash is diminishing!

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Oh -and can you see the wall behind my fabrics? It is green linoleum. Yup - the kind of stuff that you are supposed to put on the FLOOR, not the wall. This is my laundry room - the green walls are growing on me. But the green astroturf carpeting? Hummm. Obviously redoing the laundry hasn't been high on my list of priorities! Oh, well I did have the carpenter raise up the BIG folding area to the perfect height for cutting fabrics. Smart. Guess I do have priorities. The green astroturf carpeting can stay.