Sorting and Thinking

Figuring out what to make from my thrifted fabric requires a bit of sorting first. I separated everything into possibility piles like this one. The colors work together, and there's already enough to make a decent-size lap quilt.

Ditto for these fabrics.

Each of these prints would make a pretty accent for a Yellow Brick Road pattern lap or baby quilt (I like adding one or two prints to solids when I make those.) They'd also make nice bags.

Those were the easy piles; onto the tough ones. These three fabrics might work together colorwise, but I'm not sure the prints do.

These prints, which for different reasons didn't want to join the other piles, are probably the least inspiring. I'm not terribly fond of kiddie novelty fabrics, red prints or camo. I might use these as backing fabrics or bag liners.

The two oddball scraps will likely become journal covers or backing fabric, too.

I think I have enough to make at least two quilts, possibly three, along with several bags, pillows, placemats and runners. I'll probably start with a quilt and then juggle the projects according to size. The goal is to try to use up as much of the fabric as I can, so stay tuned to see how I do.

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Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to...

Valerean

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