Want Fabric...{Stash 2013}

'Want' is exactly correct.

For sure I don't NEED any :)

Messy Stash

I've been tracking my stash for three years.  Nothing better than a good spreadsheet.

So, how did 2012 go?  Glad you asked.



Things were going pretty well until I started my shopping for the perfect ocean blues in June/July.

(About 62 yards showed up at my door....blues and a few others fell into my online carts....ooops)

I ended the year only 33 yards up, and I didn't even make a stop at The Fabric Shack while in Ohio over the holidays. I really do like trying to use the fabulous fabrics I have, before I don't like them anymore.  Overall, I say 2012 was pretty good stash-wise.



Last week, a couple of great tonal prints were in the clearance section at the shop.  I always seem to need a good orange or yellow, so I grabbed these at half off.   Besides, nothing had been added to the stash since early November!

Blue if it's a Boy....

Here's the real question, though.  Will I be making a little girl quilt or a little boy quilt?!

Ok, I don't actually need a single scrap of blue, and I'm pretty good with pink/purple as well.  But I have deemed a new baby a valid reason to buy fabric.

I'm looking forward to poking a few buttons, once I know.  Just have to control the fun and avoid shipping 50+ yards to the house.

Pink if it's a Girl....

Friday is the day for my ultrasound. Can. Not. Wait.

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Stash Deficit Celebration

I have been tracking my stash since 2010 - this was my first post

Started at zero - even with lots of fabric filling my china cabinet.  I never would have started if I had to try and get a starting number.

My method of fabric in/out has ended up staying the same since those first weekly reports.  Although, now I just group things by month in my spreadsheet, instead of weekly.  I carry over the balance at the end of the year into the beginning of the next.

After the quilt for Becket's teacher I went negative!!

-2.178yds!!!

The first time since the start of 2010!  Seriously - I was dancing around.

But then, I Ordered fabric - And I'm going to say that it's all Amanda Jean's fault.  Or something like that. The envelope arrived, literally bursting at the seams.

One of the women from the retreat was asking about favorite online fabric sites, so I wanted to send her a link for The Fabric Shack - that's when I saw they had the new Ghastlies.

I already have several of the prints and have a quilt planned with them for this summer.

The new flowery bramble and wall of portraits couldn't be passed up.

Look at that beloved Matriarch.

And did you realize that Sebastian is their son?  Is he a warlock?

His Errant Wife, Daria, is just fabulous. 

I ordered a full yard - be sure to get at least 20" for the full repeat.

You wouldn't want to miss a single family member!

But then, some other stuff fell into my cart.

And this lot is TOTALLY Amanda Jean's fault - I found some fabrics that I thought would be super fun for a second FMQ - QAYG sampler.

Let's see if I can get back to zero in less than 2 1/2 years this time!

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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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