State of the Stash : 2012

The past two years I have been both tracking and trying to use my stash. I feel like I have a lifetime's worth of fabric, but there is always that NEW line that you're sure you NEED.

Tracking both amounts in and amount used for every project has been a fabulous exercise.

In 2010 I added nearly 117 yards, and actually used MORE - at 120 yards. Hurray for me.

Last year I added 107 yards, using about 94 yards - for a balance of 13 xtra yards which will be carried into 2012. I'll chalk that up to last year's Christmas fun at the Fabric Shack when I bought 30 yards. I completed more quilts this year, but a bunch of them were actually started in 2010.

I'm still working on getting them all blogged, as I finished a whole bunch up at once. Leigh and I had a 5-quilt-finished pact that was a HUGE help in both finishing lingering WIPs as well as not buying new fabric.

For 2012, I started it once again with a Christmas outing to The Fabric Shack.  Honestly, it is a must when your in-laws live only 20 minutes from the shop.  But I was much more controlled this year - after two years of tracking everything in and out, you seriously think about every thing In and decided if it is truly needed.

I plan on continuing using my stash.  It's a fabulous feeling when you make a quilt without pushing some buttons or running to the LQS.

One big lesson learned from the quilt exercise with Leigh is that I use way more whites/neutrals than I would guess.  It was challenging to finish fronts and piece backs without going out to buy more white!  I expect that most stash additions this year will be background fabrics.  Anything outside of that will be added mindfully.  I'm really getting a better feel for the kinds of fabrics I search my stash for every time I start a new quilt.

Here's the accounting of the first fabric additions for 2012:

I literally spend hours searching The Fabric Shack for treasures.  My first stop is their scrap cart - and lucky me they had TWO overflowing when I visited the day before Christmas.  Anything on the cart is $3.98/yard - you buy the whole piece.  I pull pretty much every Kona solid I find, and came up with white, blue and pick this year.  The pink and blue pieces on the left really caught my eye, and then I think I squealed a little bit when I found 1.25yd of those letters!  I bought a FQ last year and had been carefully using every last bit of it.

The next place I park myself is at their FQs - any that are already cut are only $1.95 each.  I found five favorites.

There is also a little drawer of fat eighths and I couldn't pass up these.  I think I pulled/returned them three of four times before finally deciding to keep them.

Anybody have a good use for a fat eighth?!   The prints in this line are so awesome together that I think I would like to use them as a group.

Finally, a small group of FQs that I had them cut from yardage.  You should have seen these bolts on the shelf - there is no way you could pass them up!

That's it for a while I hope.  Now off to sew!

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