Many of us are determined to use our stashes. I’m not committed to buying nothing this year. I am committed to using my stash; to making sure that I’ve checked the stash before buying anything. Then, if there’s something I need, I’ll buy it.
We’re all different! Bet most of you knew that without me having to tell you, huh? 🙂
When I showed something last week, one quilter commented that she rarely uses solids/tone on tone fabrics. This morning, CJ and I were emailing back and forth and she told me that she’s beginning to lean towards more solids or tone on tones. Oh, speaking of CJ, she just ordered a new Millennium and has her HQ16 setup for sale. Check it out if you’re near Arkansas and in the market for something like that.
I can’t remember when I went from prints to tone on tones. I do remember having prints in my stash but that was at least 15 years ago. Many would be very uncomfortable working in my stash since there are hardly any prints . . just tone on tones. These are the fabrics I’m working with right now. The borders were on my design wall yesterday.
The pink has a bit of yellow and green, the yellow has a bit of pink. Those two happen to be from the same collection . . which is purely accidental on my part. The green is Patrick Lose and the black is Dimples by Andover, which I totally love!
I truly love my stash! If for some reason I had to replace it all today, I’d go with mostly the exact same fabrics I have. In fact, one of the hardest things for me about using the stash is . . once I’ve used a piece of fabric, I no longer have it! The pink in this project is almost gone, only about 1/4 yard of it is left. I’ve loved that fabric and have used it in several quilts.
My questions for you are:
- Do you love your stash? I don’t mean is it too small or too big but do you love the fabrics that are in your stash? All of them? Half of them?
- If you woke up tomorrow and your entire stash was gone and you could replace it yard for yard at no cost to you (don’t ask me how that would work but just pretend), would you buy the exact same fabrics you have now or would you buy something different?
- If you would buy something different, what would you buy that you don’t have now?
Thanks!
Shelly Pagliai says
I don’t love all of them, but a good portion of them. I have inherited lots of fabric over the years. I didn’t purchase anything I don’t like, but I have kept fabric I’ve been given that I don’t necessarily like. I keep/kept it because sometimes, you can make something you don’t like work with something you do like, and then you end up liking them both. Also, I piece a lot of backings, and I can use the ones I don’t like so much for that. I also make lots of charity quilts, and I can use those fabrics on those projects. Someone else probably likes it, even if it’s not to my particular taste. Notice I’m not calling any of them “uglies”, because I haven’t kept ones I considered ugly, just some that aren’t my favorites, and I probably wouldn’t have purchased for myself.
If I had to replace my stash tomorrow, I would make it smaller, for one thing, and yes, I would buy some of the same stuff, but I would buy all new stuff. I have so much stash, that I haven’t allowed myself to buy much for the last couple of years, so my stash is getting stale, so I’d really love to have LOTS of the new gorgeous stuff that’s out there.
JudyL says
That’s great that you’re making use of even the fabrics you don’t totally love!
Teri says
I do love my stash and I would replace most of it. Sometimes I go on a quest for a fabric that I have used all of. I do have a few prints that I could do without. I have used almost all of my “what was I thinking” fabrics. I wouldn’t replace the flannels that I have in my stash (with the exception of a few that I have for backings). I have a large variety of fabrics in my resource center, but most are prints. I would buy a little bit of an entire line of solids. I am starting to like the look of them used selectively.
Linda says
I love my stash, sometimes I love it too much because I look at fabric for a project and I don’t want to part with it. That is what I have to work on, learning to enjoy the fabric in a quilt as well as in the stash.
I have a lot of florals and a lot of color, I am trying to add more neutrals and textures. Mostly I buy fabric for a project as I need it after pulling from what I already have. I am really a scrappy person so my friends have started giving me their scraps and I love it!
Julie says
If I could replace my stash tomorrow, I’d replace it with tone on tones, lots of batiks, dimples — I love fabric with tiny dimples but not many prints. The only prints I would get would be something for a focus fabric – like the stripe I used in Bears in the Farm House quilt. As I’m getting older (and hopefully wiser) I am getting much choosier. I do lots of donation quilts and try to use some of the fabrics I’m not thrilled with in those — but that go with the theme and colorway. If I just can’t remember why I purchased something and I don’t love it, it goes it becomes a fabric bag for the Bags for Kids project.
I’m getting my sewing room under control slowly and it’s a good feeling.
katieQ says
If I were magically replacing my stash, I would keep all of the batiks and Asian fabrics, but probably trade in all or most of the florals for tone on tone and dimpled fabrics. Many of the florals I bought when I was working and had money to buy, but no time to sew, look dated now and I no longer love them. I have already donated lots of the novelty fabrics in my stash, but I still have more I would gladly trade for something fresh and bright. I collected tons of goofy child oriented novelty fabrics during my “Eye Spy” phase. I’ve been slowly but surely making donation quilts with it.
Although I am not in love with all of the newer fabrics that are available now, I do love how many quilters are using solids and vibrant geometrics to get “crisp” looks in their quilts.
It’s a great question Judy. I try to use my stash as much as I can, but I find my self giving a lot of it away because it no longer “speaks” to me.
CJ says
I love some of my stash… other pieces in it make me think, “what the heck was I thinking”? I adore big, bold whimsical prints, bohemian prints, but they’re very hard to work with. And they tend to get dated quickly.
You’ve been my inspiration in realizing that as I use up my prints, I will be replacing them with marbles, tone on tones, and solids.
If I could replace my entire stash today? Yep, most of it would go bye bye 🙂
Linda says
Oh what fun questions!
1. I love my stash! Every piece of fabric in it.
2. I would replace almost all of it except for a few pieces. And the reason why is because once I’ve used the fabric in a quilt – I don’t want to see it in another quilt. I don’t like reading books twice either.
3. I would end up buying about the same types of prints I have now. Some forals, some strange, some kids prints, some tone on tones.
Jocelyn says
I do love my stash. And I would replace them with the same fabric lines. I think it is because last year I moved the stash that fell out of favor. I gave a lot of it to QOV and also to two LQS’s that do charity quilts. I felt lots better after that. It’s fun to shop my own stash when working with a new pattern.
Tamara says
I’d say I do love my stash. Oh there might be a few pieces I wonder why I did I buy it but like others I have been using them for outreach quilts or in a basket to make pillowcases. I’d say I’d replace about 95 percent of it with the other 5 percent being tone on tone, marbles or dimples.
Donna says
I like maybe a third of my stash. Most of the fabrics I have were bought on sale and I thought I could make do with them. I didn’t particularly like them but didn’t hate them either. As time has gone on I have decided I don’t really like them at all. If I replaced all my stash today I would buy mostly tone on tone and polka dot fabric. I find that more and more I like to add dots to my quilts. I started out thinking I would be a scrap quilter as I love scrap quilts, but I have found that I don’t like to make them.
My goal this year is to make as many quilts as I can with the stash and use up the fabrics I really don’t like as backings. If I can get most of it cleared out I will reward myself with new fabric next year. I do buy what I need to fill in and finish projects. I have found that sometimes one new fabric can cause me to want to get a quilt going.
Jill A says
I love about half of it and have been ruthless about mixing the unloved & ugly things in when doing scrap quilts so they eventually disappear. If I were to replace it all tomorrow it would me mostly tone on tone fabrics, solids and a few “theme” collections. Like a 1930s group and a Civil War repro group and bigger variety of batiks. Oh, and lots of neutrals. It seems like I have to buy the background fabric for every new quilt because I never have neutrals. I’m also leaning more towards scrap quilting, so I’d rather have 4 different fat quarters than 1 whole yard of any one fabric.
Julie H. says
I love most of my stash and I love seeing how many quilts I can use a favorite piece in. Some fabrics with great colors have spilled over into 3 or 4 different quilts. I can’t think of any piece except one which I would classify as an ugly (It was a Ginny Beyer and I never bought the coordinates and it’s out of my color comfort zone.) If I had to purchase all over again, I would maybe buy larger cuts of fabrics that I love best so that I could use them for backings.
CindyC says
I love my stash. I would probably buy what I have if I had to do it all over again. I have taught a few to quilt and I made an observation in how they buy fabric. I pretty much did the same. You start out buying fabric that you like, it may have “cutesy” prints on it. Then as you progress in quilting your taste begins to change and you will gravitate toward tone-on-tone, batiks, 1930’s, civil war, etc. If people got stuck in the cutesy prints they may have a lot and not like what they have on hand now. If find that the prints are harder to use than going with a tone on tone.
Carol says
After 30 years of stashing fabric, a good percentage of my stash is stale. I buy with good intentions but can’t keep up with it. If I lost all my stash today and could replace it yard for yard, many of the dark colors would be replaced with pastels and the fat quarters would be replaced with larger pieces suitable for backings and borders!
Linda C says
I love my stash. In fact, it’s a regular practice to go through and purge the “what was I thinking” fabrics periodically.
If I had to replace it, a lot of the fabrics would be the same or similar. I’d probably swap the fabrics that are really multicolored for more tone on tone stuff, as it’s more widely useful to me.
Laura says
I, too, love my stash. I have large pieces of fabric, small pieces of fabric, colors I love, colors that aren’t wonderful but look good with other colors, and lots of solids, which are what I tend to buy now. A great solid can be used with some of the wilder or cutsey prints and all can look fabulous. I inherited some of my fabric when my mother died, her taste was different than mine, and I tend to use hers mostly for backings.
If I had to replace it, I most likely would buy what I have now. I don’t like to buy fat quarters or smaller pieces of fabric–I try to get at least a yard or two of most fabrics now, because I always want just a little more to do something with!
BethL says
For the most part I love my stash. However if I had to replace it I’d probably have fewer focus fabrics and more blender type fabrics. I’m not a fan of solids as I prefer a fabric with some texture. Somewhere along the line I became focused on focus fabrics (no pun intended LOL) and precut collections (jelly rolls, charm packs and FQ bundles). I would certainly replace my collections, but I would lean toward less yardage of prints and alot more blenders that play nicely with the prints.
Kerstin says
I do love my stash. I have a limited amount of storage space so I purge the irrelevant stuff and cut it up for scrap quilts when I start running out of room. I mostly buy fat quarters unless I REALLY love something then I buy a yard.
Mary-Kay says
I like most of my stash but I wish I had more tone-on-tone fabrics. The only solids I like are white and black. I like to use prints in the borders and then make the body of the quilt in tone-on-tones or my favourite Dimples , oh and another favourite Fusions. i think if I had to replace my stash, i would get mostly tone-on-tone type fabrics.
Nancy says
I don’t love all of my stash. In fact, I have half my stash packed away as we have our house on the market and I haven’t even missed it…
If I had all the money in the world, I would buy a fq bundle of all the new lines….
Leah S says
About a year ago I went through my stash and got rid of a lot of “I don’t like you’s”. So the majority of my stash is liked, I love my hand dyes…
What I wish I had is a higher stash turnover so I can keep buying new fabrics. I’ll look at some pieces and say “goodness! I’ve had you since before I got married.” And then I wonder why it’s taken me 6 years to use half of it. If I like the piece, why am I not using it fast enough? That’s what bothers me about my stash. That I’ve bought more than I can use in 5 years. Must use it faster so I can buy more guilt-free! 😀
So if I could replace my entire stash tomorrow, I think it would be a lot of what I already have (maybe a few more focus pieces since I have a baby on the way now and think more colorfully), but it would just simply be newer stuff. I just want a higher turnover in my stash.
Darlene B says
I love my stash! I have mostly prints. It’s not so large as to be overwhelming, but big enough to find something I need most of the time. There are a few fabrics that I wonder what I ever saw in them when I bought them, but I’m sure I can hide a few pieces in scrap quilts and no one will ever know. If I had to replace my stash, a part of me would like to get some batiks or brighter fabrics, but I keep coming back to the same kinds of prints – and that’s ok with me!
Sara in GR, MI says
I have a lot of fabric that I SHOULD use. I’m no longer very enthusiastic about doing that.
However, this year I am concentrating on finishing UFOs, and I am trying like crazy to use my stash to do it, including for quilt backings. They can use up a lot of fabric. I’m holding out for NEXT year when I’ll be able to spend MOST of my time on new projects, carefully chosen so that I will finish them in the same year! And for those, I will use the fabrics I love.
Pat says
I really like about 90% of mine, I’d say. Some fabrics I’ve been given and about 75% of them I like a lot….the remaining 25% are just “okay”. I have tried to use the fabrics I like the least for pieced backings (don’t want a WHOLE backing I don’t like) and also for cutting into strips to use for scrappy quilts. If I could buy a whole new stash, I would do more tone-on-tones and also more “collections” instead of an odd one here and there from many different collections. (Of course, when I have collections, I love to look at them and have trouble making myself cut into them. LOL)
Laura says
1. I can honestly say that I love my stash. I know that there are some fabrics that I don’t love as much as others, but there always seems to be a use for those fabrics eventually.
2. If I suddenly lost my stash, I would replace everything but the Christmas fabric stash. I find that I just don’t have much interest in making “seasonal” or “holiday” quilts and I have way more Christmas fabric than I really want to use.
3. If I could add anything to my stash right now I’d add the complete dimples line and the complete moda marble line. Tone on tones are what I am lacking in my stash and I just love the dimples and the moda marbles. Oh, and those moda swirl fabrics that are tone on tone. I would add that entire line too.
Great questions!
Sue Lord says
I don’t love my stash! I have a small stash by most standards and most of it is cute novelty prints. I would replace it with solids, batiks, and some reproduction fabric.
Jennifer says
I am just now learning what is in my stash! I inherited another quilter’s stash early this year which has been an amazing gift. For my own stash (before I added hers), I would make a few changes. I buy mostly tone on tone/solid/blenders but add a few zippy fabrics for focus, purses, etc. I would probably replace much of it with the same fabric, but I would buy more lines of fabric that I love. I regret letting a few go by without having enough to put into a nice sized quilt top.
Karla says
Some of my stash I love, some I like and some I could do without. Replacing it would be fun, especially if it was free! I’m doing as you do, look to the stash first, then buy what I need.
Gina E says
I love about 1/3 of my stash. I find that I buy quilt fabric similar to the way I buy clothing. When I stand in front of my stash or my closet, I ask, “Did I really like this? Or was it on sale?” Most of the time – it was on sale. I felt like it was a good deal – an impulse buy. I’m trying to avoid that now.
I also don’t cut into my favorite stuff – the good stuff. I have a lot of hand dyes and tone-on-tones that I’m waiting to use. Waiting for what? The perfect project? Use it now goofball…
So I’m trying to make scrappy charity quilts and backings from the busier prints that I am no longer in love with and USE the good stuff. 🙂
Dianah says
I love most of my stash.
If I could start over I would not have purchase ANY fat quarters. They drive me crazy! I would cut back on novelty prints and large scale prints. I would purchase more tone on tone and darker tones, I have a lot of brights.
With doing the stash bushing this past year I realized that I have had some fabric for a very long time. Even though I love it still I most likely wont use it in a quilt. It has help me realize the fabrics I use verses the fabrics I like.
Tracy says
I love my stash! I sometimes just go through it and look! It’s mostly packed in clear totes but I like to go through them and imagine!
I’m pretty sure I’d go for the same things. I have a variety from batiks to ’30s to floral to lots and lots of novelty prints. Can’t say I’d change much.
Greg says
I love almost everything in my stash. I have always made a point of buying only fabric that I think I can live with for a long time. Sure, there are a few mistakes, but those were almost always fat quarters. I’ve been really happy with all of the yardage that I’ve accumulated, and sometimes wish that I had bought more of it. It is interesting to look back on 12 years worth of stashing to see how my taste has evolved.
Vicky says
Hmmm, this is a tough question. I started to stay I love about 90% of my stash, but that’s not true. I love the stash I have on my open shelves now, having tubbed up all the older stuff that I may use as go-withs. Someday, or maybe not. If I had to do it over again, I would still get the coordinated lines because I love those. I would not buy any batiks at all. I don’t feel they make cuddly quilts. I still like Civil War and ’30s fabrics and want to get back to using more of those. I love Americana fabrics, wovens, folk art. I love the soft pastels. My problem is I have way too much of everything. Okay, reflecting on that last statement, I really think if I had to do it all over again, I’d buy enough for one or two quilts and make them up before I buy anything else. Okay, Judy, quilt laughing!
Anita says
1. yes I do! ALL of it right down to the scraps of scraps
2. absolutely, I would want the same fabrics… but some I would do it differently.
3. I would get whole bolts of some, like you said when it’s gone it’s gone… and a bolt would last longer!
deb levy says
yes I do! It’s mostly hand dyes and batiks…those are the fabrics that speak to me. If I had to replace them? I’d replace them with themselves 🙂
Krista says
I hate my stash. Most of it, anyway. It dates from my early quilting days, when I didn’t know what I liked or what I would do with the fabric. So I have a lot of yardage that just doesn’t play well with others. I’m learning to use it though. Bit by bit, the uglies are going and the newer ones are the bits and pieces from quilts I’ve made recently. Very few recent “for stash” purchases.
I’d replace it with yardage for a few quilts I want to make.
JOY says
yes I mostly love my stash 🙂 I have a few in there that I wouldn’t buy, but find that once in a while those are the ones that give a quilt that extra something.
If I had to replace my stash, I’d go heavy to the batiks and TOTs with a few prints as they seem to give movement to my quilts.
Alycia says
Those are great questions! I do love my stash, I wish I made more with it. I have one cubby of fabrics that I just adore, but all I do is look at it, feel it, and put it back…. can you believe it?
ruth anne says
Yes, I do love most of my stash. I have learned from you and now when I buy I am buying tone on tone. I am also buying more lights but I have plenty of med and dark. I am happy even though some are dated (grayer colors rather than clear and bright). But I think they are not really dated as they are classics I have always loved. I love brights for children, and everyone else, but it clashes with my decorations! LOL
Chris says
My stash would look exactly the same–there would just be more of it! 🙂 My color choices haven’t changed in twenty years when I finally was able to get my then house out of the ’70s and go with the traditional looks I’d always longed for. My prints tend toward darker colors and are small to medium. I buy lots of tone-on-tone to blend.
Fun question!
Carol says
1. Do you love your stash? I don’t mean is it too small or too big but do you love the fabrics that are in your stash? All of them? Half of them? === maybe 1/5 of it… You see, I pretty much accumulated my stash eight years ago when we lived in Saudi and I was taking quilting classes and had NO CLUE a to what would make good piecing fabric. SO it’s VERY heavy on patterns that would be impossible to do anything with but whole panel pieces or fussy cut (wasting a WHOLE lot of fabric). And then there is that whole bin full of snowflakes! I mean, really, how many quilts can you make using snowflakes!
2. If you woke up tomorrow and your entire stash was gone and you could replace it yard for yard at no cost to you (don’t ask me how that would work but just pretend), would you buy the exact same fabrics you have now or would you buy something different? === I’d go for tone-on-tones and solids and maybe a few ombres…
3. If you would buy something different, what would you buy that you don’t have now? === Maybe something from the Kona Bay collection, just for a kick…
Peggy says
I no longer love my stash!!!!! Well maybe 10% of it is likable. My thoughts lately have been leaning toward primatives, folk and 30’s. I don’t know why, because I used to hate the quilts that had plaids, stripes, and lots of different styles of fabrics. Now I am really attracted to many of this style quilt. I would also like to have more tone on tone, because it doesn’t seem to become dated. It can always be used to design patterns.
I would buy something different. Most of my stash is from my quilt shop that I owned from 1985-2002. I was buying more for my customers and not for myself. My stash is very dated, too much of some things and not enough of others.
First I would buy some of the beautiful muted backgrounds and backing fabrics available today. I would avoid white white and any fabric that isn’t really soft(batik). I would like a collection of wool also, because I like the way it looks in applique.
I would like to be able to buy a whole collection so the fabrics would automatically go together. I also want to have enough of each piece to us it where ever I want. It would be fun to someday just go shopping for fabric without guilt because of the amount of fabric I own and am not using.
Last year a friend was cleaning out his wife’s sewing and quilting supplies(She is in a nursing home and will not be using the supplies). I could of had any of the fabric she owned, but avoided looking at it for fear I would find too much that I liked. So I ended up with her books, but I am selling most of them.
jaybird says
1. yes.. i love over 90% of them
2. i’d cry.. a lot… and i’d replace it just as is.. because i love it.
3. n/a
Deb from OK says
I cannot say I love my stash. I love a few pieces ( 6-8) of it. but for the most part it is just there to serve a purpuse.
I have only been quilting a short time and Most of my stash has originated from the clearance tables. I would say only 8-10 times have I really fell in love with a fabric and Had to have it, and most of the time those fabrics do not stay in my stash for long. I usualy plan and complete a quilt with them real fast.
If money was no Problem, My stash would be totally differant.
Anna says
Judy,
I do love my stash and the things that I would for sure have in a new stash would be be batiks and more tone on tone. I love black as an accent color to set off the other colors. ( By the way, I do love the colors you are working with just now.
I would have some Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I am coveting but have not yet bought because I haven’t found them for a reasonable price.
I do try to work from my stash and I would cry a lot if I lost my stash.
Regards, Anna
Pat T. says
Hmmm…love about 1/2 – all the batiks, & reproductions. The other 1/2 qualifies as “vintage” brought home when I sold my shop in ’95. Slowly using up or donating those puppies…
If I had to replace everything – again heavy on batiks & reproductions but really crave more romantic florals now and always, always great backgrounds. And no more small cuts – I need yardage for borders and making a statement! Oh and more stripes too.
Great questions – reading all the comments is so interesting.
Thanks for introducing this line of thinking.
patchkat~Susan in TX says
No, I don’t love my whole stash. It’s full of out of date printsthat I don’t care for anymore…way too many florals (mostly inherited) and not near enough tone on tones or solids…though I do have a decent selection of both. I like CW repros and plaids. If I could replace it all, there would be much less of it and I’d be looking exclusively at tone-on-tones and Kona Cotton (which I absolutely love) solids.
My stash is too large and unweldy. It’s too hard to find fabrics even though they’re sorted by colors. If I had good sense, I would box up about 3/4 of my current stash and get rid of it!
Darlene S says
I like my stash well enough, but most I wouldn’t buy again. I bought a lot of fabric when I started quilting jstash building just because I liked the color or print AND it was on sale. I’m afraid my choices were driven by the cost of the fabrics. I’ve receive a lot of stash from friends that were cleaning out, moving away and having yard sales and I couldn’t pass up a bargin. This has stopped!!! Now I’m trying to use only my stash to finish lots of UFO’s. Now and then I will buy fabric for a border, background or backing, but I’m trying hard to use the stash up! I’m into scrap quilts so I hope to move it out of my shelves, so I can buy nice new collecitons. In all honesty, it is a fun challenge to use the “not to desireables” in a quilt and make them look good. I’m lacking in neutrals, backgrounds and large pieces for backings.
Dar
felicity.quilts says
Not an easy question for me to answer, actually, but thanks for getting me thinking, Judy!
1. I mostly love my stash. Most of it, I chose myself, and some I bought holus bolus from another quilter. I do love that I have a wide variety of fabrics – large scale prints, tone on tones, some Asian, lots of conversationals/kids/I spy stuff.
2. If it disappeared, I would replace it with fewer cuts of more current fabric – my tastes are leaning more to the modern these days, so I’m not really as attracted to those more traditional florals anymore, for example.
3. I’d probably buy a lot more solids than I currently have. And fewer I spy fabrics. They seem to be mulitplying but it’s so hard to pass up a really cute and unusual print for that “someday” quilt.
Cindy Burgdorf says
Judy
You always ask the right questions to get us thinking about our “Stash” in new ways!!!
I “like”most of the pieces that I have (many fat quarters) as individual pieces. However, not sure that many of them “go” together!!
I, too, would buy more tone on tone, etc. Good thing to keep in my head next time I go to the fabric store!!!!
Cindy
Kerri says
Some of my stash, I love to just look at and keep it ready for some quilt. The mediocre stuff falls in the category of “rats, I can not remember what I wanted to do with this, or that project just isn’t thrilling me anymore”
I love tonals and plain for contrast, much more than just all busy prints.
Brights plain and brights with contrasting cute figures on them are my favorites. Florals, blah. Plaids and stripes blaher for me. I still just love 30’s prints especially with animals.
Tamera says
I LOVE my stash, but I’m overwhelmed by it, lol.
We just finished our basement with a HUGE area JUST FOR MY SEWING STUFF! WOO HOO!
BUT, I’m terrified because I’m not sure how to start moving things in, lol.
I am moving toward acquiring more TOT fabrics (because I’m so inspired by your quilts, Judy…you’re luring me over to the dark side, he he he).
I’m a SCRAPPY girl, but I’m looking toward doing some different things in 2010.
If I could magically replace my entire stash, I think I would…but, it would also magically be placed in an incredibly sensible, easy-to-maintain, system…OH…and it would magically put itself back when I’m finished with it, lol!
Karen says
I love most of what’s in my stash but there’d be big changes if I ‘lost’ it all. First off, when I started quilting it was wall hangings so a good bit of my stash is fat quarters. Now I’m more inclined to make lap quilts and bed quilts so I’m buying by the yard now. I also find myself drawn to the batiks more than prints. So…….if I started replacing my stash it would be with batiks and tone on tone fabrics in yardage.
pdudgeon says
i have few problems in my stash because i’ve started buying selectively, and specifically for projects. that makes all the difference!
when i started out i saved all my scraps, and now have too many. that’s also the last place i look when searching my stash. as a result i’ve used almost all the old stuff except the scraps.
So if i were purging today the scraps from 10 years of quilting are the thing that would go first, which would free up some much needed space for new fabrics. and also a drawerfull of fat eighths of homespuns. (enough for a lap quilt). in fact, i’ll probably do that this weekend!
SO IF SOMEONE OUT THERE LOVES DONATED SCRAPS OR MANLY HOMESPUN PLAIDS, E-MAIL ME.
what i would buy in their place would be a bolt each of white and tea dyed muslin for backgrounds as well as bolts of printed white and creme yardage for more backgrounds, and some yardage of wide neutral quilt backings (not batiks)
Debra Spincic says
I have organized Operation Pillowcase and we are using manly homespuns for pillowcases for the soldiers in Afghanistan. If you want to send them my way, I can use them or send them to team members.
debraspincic@yahoo.com—email me and we can talk. Appreciate it!
Thanks to you too Judy!
Lydia says
Your name isn’t a clickable link, so I don’t know how to e-mail you — but if you should get this, I absolutely LOVE scraps, and would be most happy to give yours a good home, in lovely, scrappy quilts. I’ll pay you for postage too, of course. I’m at thepoch[at]aol[dot]com (take out the brackets and replace those words “at” and “dot” with the appropriate symbols). Thanks! — Lydia
call me crazy says
Great questions Judy~ you really got me thinking! I do like most of my stash. My problem is the scraps and smaller pieces~ I love the quilts they went into, but am not so attracted to the leftovers. I doubt I would replace everything yard for yard, my tastes have changed. I seem to run out of basics the fastest, so would definitely stock up on those tone on tones, neutrals etc. And I think I would add more pre-cuts and some yardage to go with them.
Diane says
I love my stash. I always have. There were some fabrics that I gave away when we moved in 2008, so I no longer have fabrics that don’t make me smile.
If it all went away tomorrow I would most likely buy the exact same fabrics as I have now, after a time of great mourning, moaning and wailing, because I didn’t pay near as much for my fabrics as it costs now to buy. I worked at a quilt shop for several years.
I would buy the large floral prints that I always pass up so I could use them for picking colors.
Dorothy S says
I love most of my fabrics, but would but more tonals and batiks, around here those are scarce and out of my budget, except for small amounts.
Have been playing lately, know there are some things I really need…more black & whites and other basics.
Cindy says
If I were just starting out or if I had to replace my stash, I would buy backgrounds in yardage and any prints that I buy would be Charm packs and Layer Cakes that coordinate or yardage that I could get lots of variation from for applique. I save scraps and use the tiniest pieces for my applique.
I am never going to regularly make large quilts. If I do want or need to make one, then I would either get a kit or have someone like you with me because I am always going to drift to the beautiful florals and pastels.
Right now all I want to do is applique and stitchery.
Maya says
Except for a few what-was-I-thinking prints, I love all the fabric. I just wish I could use up more so I could buy more. 😀 More than anything, I don’t have enough room anymore!
When I go into a store, I always wander over to the sale section and buy some of what catches my eye. For that reason, I don’t be able to replace it with the exact same fabric; but I guess since we are pretending, I’d have to say yes, I’ll probably have the same fabric. The only thing I’d change is that I have a few from my first year of quilting that I don’t think is as good quality. I’d leave those out. (That fabric just sits there because I don’t want to use it and have it wear out on me.)
Monochromatic modern prints are very under-represented in my stash. I’d buy more of those if I had to change anything.
Mary says
While I have fabrics in my stash that I probably wouldn’t buy again they do work in my scrap quilts so I have to say I’m pretty happy. It works for the kind of quilting I do and it’s easy for me to make quilts completely from stash.
I got my book today and LOVE it! I’m packing for Los Cabos tonight but once I’m done, I’m going to make a cup of tea and sit down and read through it again.
Michelle says
Most of my stash is made up of scrap bags from thrift stores. I can’t say that I love it all, but it’s allowed me to make quite a few quilts that I absolutely adore!
Deb says
These are good questions!
I love my stash. There is not too much I would do different, as I LOVE scrap quilts, (and Judy’s quilts!) so I want to use it ALL. I have tons of yardage, and FQs (30’s, CW, Novelties) in the hope to make those one fabric block scrap projects. I think I would replace it with more t on t’s, but also have a large variety of everything, to do everything. (Until I need that ONE piece I dont have!) My sister in law says they are “old lady fabrics”-really? I think she just likes batiks.
I often collect things in my stash that I am tired of looking at, and donate it to a charity, but then I feel like I should get fabrics that coordinate, and then I think-“well, I could make this quilt!” and find it hard to give away (but do) which is rather weird. This bond we have with fabric is sometimes scary….
Lydia says
Oh, yes, I absolutely love my stash! Even the fabrics that I may not love on their own, always seem to work somewhere when I’m pulling things. I’ve been getting more into scrap quilting lately, which makes it easier to love everything, I admit. But I love it all anyway, and can just about always pull what I need for a project all from stash.
If my stash were to vanish, and I could replace it at no cost, the end result would look very much like my current stash does. I’d have a lot of variety — Thimbleberries (but the older stuff more than what she’s designing now), 30s repros, CW repros, homespuns, stripes, dots, tone-on-tone textural prints, some novelty prints (mostly cats and sewing notions), hand-dyes (my own and others’), batiks, lots of Modas, some brights…
If I were to buy something that’s not in my stash right now? I’d say I’d add a bit more pink and purple to my stash. I don’t really like pink, but sometimes need it and almost inevitably have to shop for it. I’m not crazy about purple, but love green so I often use purple. Yet my stash doesn’t have much of it, so I’d buy more of that as well. Just to make my stash a bit more complete and usable.