dogquilter wrote:
Yeah, but who wants to wait till they're dead?

I thought there was a prize for the quilter with the most fabric stash.

This "stash busting" thread makes me chuckle! I'm concentrating on building mine up! Everytime I go to walmart I stop by the remnant rack and buy whatever's there that looks like cotton. They wrap 'em up tight so sometimes it's quite a surprise when I get them home. I tell DH that I'm stocking up for retirement. He he!

My guild has regular charity sewing days. I don't like to sew with others around. I don't know why, it's just hard to concentrate on my sewing. To participate without sewing, I just take lots of fabric and cut it up for the others to sew. I'm rather ashamed to admit but for the last two or three sewing days, I cut up about 40 yards and it didn't even make much of a dent in my stash. Maybe I really do have too much fabric!

JoAnne

I can rid myself of little pieces by making scrap quilts, currently on a GFG charm quilt, it's about lap-sized now, so I might finish it & begin another, but I've cleared a few larger pieces sometimes by piecing quilt backs...
Florence

Our guild is having a stash reduction sale for our May meeting. Any guild member who wants can buy table space for $5.00. (money goes to the guild) Then they can fill the space with pre-priced and measured fabric. When the bell rings, the shopping begins. It should be fun. I just hope I don't go home with more than I brought. Betty Ann

My most effective stash busting method is to be sure that I don't have any log-jams or bottlenecks in my process. I found that buying fabric was easy. Starting projects was easy. The actual making of the top was easy. The two places that held me up were ironing and getting the quilt quilted.

I looked at the Big Board for quite awhile but I didn't like the unsteady platform of an ironing board. I bought the Roberts "cutting & craft table" and my DH made a board that locks onto the top. We covered it with cotton batting & ironing board fabric from Joann's. It is 60" wide and 35" across. This leaves room at the end for my iron to set. I timed the two methods and achieved a 40% reduction in time to iron. With the new Rowenta iron with the separate steam/water tank that I got for Xmas, I am down to about 1 minute per yard which is probably 30% of the time that it took with the old Black & Decker and Wal-Mart oversized ironing board. I no longer dread going to my quilt room because of all the fabric that needs to be ironed.... I am caught up and have stayed caught up. I now spend more time using the fabric than preparing it.

I am working on the getting the quilts quilted bottleneck now. What is your mental or physcial bottleneck?



Diana

What an interesting concept--stash busting measures--I have given away huge quantities of fabrics in the past several years, finally paring down my stash to something more manageable. I gave most of them to people who make charity quilts. I haven't been involved in charity quilts, so this makes me feel a little better about that. But I'm beginning to see my stash creep upward again, so maybe some stash-busting measures are in order soon.

i was told by a friend that she uses a different credit card with a smaller max limit on it for ordering items online only....this way if someone gets ahold of number there is limited spending room

my mother had a different card exclusively for hotels and restaurants when she traveled....

Then there was the time I was shopping at a large department store, and knowing what I was looking for, I didn't waste any time! By the time I hit the shoe department, they made me get on the phone at the checkout to answer questions - my card use was typical of a stolen card - fast and furious! Now, if I'm going to charge several things in a row (seldom happens these days!), I use a couple of cards and switch off! By the way, if you're leaving the country, call your charge cards and let them know in advance so they will allow purchases - they are very suspect these days, and with good reason! :shock:

Oh Hanne-Grete,
That is so scary! I had the same thing happen a couple of years ago but my bank called me for approval. Thanksgiving Day in US, someone was using my CC number to charge stuff in London, UK.
Good thing your bank reimbursed you.

eileenkny

I do not think I have to much fabric at all
BUT, you know those fabrics that just sit on your shelves and never seem to find their way into a quilt....I make what I call "clean-up-quilts". Easy patterns, all odd colors and prints...and they end up being fun quilts that I dont have to be scared of using on the beach, as table cloths outdoors, any rough use

I have not bought any new fabrics lately....someone misused my creditcardnumber in US..my account was left with nothing on it :shock: Luckily we do have a bank system over here realizing I could not shop for foods in Norway and at Home Depo in US at the same time so they closed down my card and gave me all my money back ...I am scared though, about ordering online

Ahhhhhh.... now I know what stash busting is! Thanks, Ann!

And no wonder I didn't know what it is until today.... I have fabric coming out of every nuck and cranny in my sewing room because I have no stach busting strategies!!!

Ann - Great to hear from you! Eileen and I have been wondering what you have been up to, you Busy Girl!

MK

I am on a stash busting mission. I have way too much stuff that I really do not gravitate to any more and so it just sits there. Here are my strategies to reduce the load.

1. any new project that does not require a certain fabric gets done out of the stash. I did two this year for our quilt group out of the stash and already have stash pulled for two more next year.

2. when a friend needs fabric I let her shop my stash first, if something she likes is there and it meets her needs I sell it or give it to her (selling at less than half regular price) Clears my stash that is good.

3. At least once a year I pack up a box of orphan blocks, fabric that I don't know why I bought and other extras and send them to a quilter who does a lot of charity quilts. What he cannot use gets sent on to others.

4. If a new project (ie: the Underground Railroad Quilt that our quilt group is planning to make next season asks for a lot of different fabrics, I pull from my stash things that I think will work and go with that. I do not always have four neutrals or four blues but if they are not in the same block I just punt and go with what I have. (I am not planning to enter any of these into a replication contest where the criteria is use the exactly required fabrics so what I have and love is what goes in the quilt)

5. My art quilts come out of my head and no one knows what the fabric should have been so anything goes.

these are my new rules and the economy is not the issue. Just more fabric than one person can use in a life time and I do not want it to get thrown out when I die. LOL

Hugs, Ann