Sunday Stash Report

This week was a "you use some, you buy some" sort of week. I did OK, considering that I didn't sew all week until yesterday. The package I ordered the week before arrived, however, so if I'd not sewn yesterday I would have moved considerably backwards - not the way I want to go!

I finished sewing the fabrics shown in this post into "new fabric" for quilt backs. When finished I wound it onto an empty bolt core, then counted the folds - two folds are approximately one yard. So this bolt of backing - now stored on top of one of the cabinets, used approximately 24 yards. Even though it's not yet made into a quilt I'm calling it busted because it is off the shelves and ready to become quilt backs in no time at all. By the end of the day today I'm hoping the double four patch top will be finished and I'll have constructed a backing for it from this bolt. If you have large pieces of fabric that you don't want to use for anything else, and you don't mind scrappy backs, then I suggest you do this also. Sure clears off the shelves quickly!

Once that was done I shifted the fabric left on that one shelf to other shelves, leaving me an entire empty shelf. I've not seen an empty shelf for a LONG time, so I know I'm using more fabric that I am purchasing - hooray! I was very happy to shift all the fabrics from these two baskets onto the shelf, thus freeing up space on my floor so I could move the string tub out of the closet. These are all the fabrics that Eileen Trestain OK'd for my mid-19th century album quilt, and since that's one of my longterm projects I need to keep them separate. There is more room on that shelf, so I need to take her book in hand to find other reproduction fabrics in my stash that also fit into that era. I feel so much better about the room now - one basket emptied, another basket holding the two quilts that are waiting for binding to be finished, with the string tub in it's proper place at the end of the island with the second basket on top. And I still see empty spaces on my stash shelves that weren't there before!

Good thing, however, as 22 yards of new fabric came at the beginning of the week. Thanks to Kathie I learned that Tara at Sew Unique Creations has many reproduction fabrics at $5 per yard, including an entire line I'd not seen before. There was just nothing to do but order half-yard pieces of the entire collection, plus two yard pieces of a great black, cheddar, and double pink. These will go with me to class on Tuesday - hopefully Eileen will OK all of them for my Civil War Quilt quilts.

So - net stashbusting effort for this week is another two yards used. Net stashbusting efforts for the year - I don't have any numbers, but my shelves and baskets are emptier than they were at the beginning of the year so I'm guessing I may have actually accomplished some stash busting after all. It may be that most of that fabric is hanging in the closet with the 30 flimsies waiting to be quilted - I made a back for every quilt needing to be quilted. I still consider that fabric busted even if the quilt is finished - after all, it's in use, right?