Scrappy Strategy

One thing I noticed after cleaning out three bins of scraps from my fabric stash is that I am good about saving scraps, but not about using them. Rather than keep my old habits, I decided to do some new things with the scraps I collect after I finish one project rather than toss them in storage.

This project bag is made from most of the scraps leftover from summer's art tote. I fused them onto an old cloth napkin, stitched the edges down, and used a big scrap leftover from the lining fabric to make the handles, back side and lining.

To keep from spilling coffee in the mornings (I'm not too steady in the hands when I first get up) I thrifted a bunch of these Starbucks reusable coffee cups. They're great, but they get hot, so I'm making sleeves for them. Two old bookmarks and scraps from the art tote made this batch.

I do use mug rugs all the time, so it doesn't hurt to make a few more, especially when they match my cup sleeves. :)

I'm considering making a quilt just from fabric scraps, too. I don't like using fusing web for quilts because it makes them stiff, so I'll check out some other techniques and see what I can find that will work better.

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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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