jollyquilting

It is still cheaper than spending time at the shrink. I spent a lot there and quilting is so much more fun and productive.

nygal

I think anyone can buy too much of anything. Personally I feel it's trying to fill a "void" not just wanting to own more fabric.

Retired Fire Chief

I'm not sure I know when enough fabric will be enough. I tried to tell myself I don't need anymore until I get some of my current projects finished, but that only lasts until I went to buy for the fat quarters swap and the show in Grand Rapids!

lclang

Yes! And this year I have bought very little but have sewed like a crazy person, using only what is in my stash as much as possible. I am finally noticing that my fabrics aren't crammed in the cupboards as tightly as they were and I did have to buy some thread. Believe it or not, I have made some of my most beautiful quilts this year! Grandmothers made do with what they had and we can too!

coopah

NYgal, you've said it perfectly!

Stitchit123

When I was still working I spent a lot of time and money buying fabrics -sewing machines and attachments. My dearly missed Hubby use to ask what was I going to do with all of this stuff I rarely had time to use. Retirement- was my answer..I'm hyper active and can not stand sitting idle for very long and to spend a day doing nothing constructive would send me over the edge into a padded cell. So now I very seldom have to visit a fabric store which is something I can no longer afford. So I am so very happy with my gazillion yards of stash.

bobbiesboutique

I think we are long lost sisters seriously I could have wrote the same exact words!

judi wess

This is the perfect time for my warning to new quilters trying to built a good stash. Buy enough of a fabric that you love to actually make something bigger than a mug rug. While trying to use my stash, I've had to head to the LQS to buy yardage of another fabric to use what I already have. Yes, I know I can make small things with what I have but how many mug rugs does one quilter need? Wish I purchased more pull together classics and fewer feature fabrics.

romanojg

I totally agree. Then I used to see on here some of the 'Stashes" that looked like a small quilting store. Mine was so small. Then when setting up my very small room I started taking all of my fabric out of my totes and putting them on shelves and was amazed at how much I had. Not bolts or anything but different colors and designs. Then a lady advertised on CL that is someone would make her recieving blankets she'd give them free fabric. I took her up on that and got more. Then someone on CL advertised for free fabric and I drove an hour away and got more. That's still in the box because I don't have a place for it along with the fact that its not all quilting fabric so I wasn't as excited at that time but knew since I was getting back into sewing clothes it would come in handy and this next week that box is coming out of the closet. Last yr I decided not to buy any more fabric unless it was to finish a project all ready in progress or one that I had to do. I'm also not starting alot of new projects unless I finish them. This does not include my on-going embroidery classes. Since then I've done very well. I've gotten some things completed. I have finished what I started for the most part and not bought any more fabric unless it was being used at that time. Now, I just bought 8yrds of flannel because I have two grand babies on the way and my daughter has a freind who is having a baby. We are making rag quilts for them. She also raids my stash. I have bought two machines in the past 2 yrs though, I bought the Viking Ruby and then a yr later traded it in for the Diamond Deluxe, the deal was too great to pass up on and the Deluxe has the largest hoop size out there when I bought it that is, not sure now. It was easy to justify that because I really don't do anything else besides work and watch my grandkids. This is one thing that really makes me happy. It was easy to make my mental health in a good state. I guess I did justify that one too.

Jan in VA

Judi, Your point is valid, but, I am the voice of the opposite point of view.

For over 30 years I have bought fabric to create stash and rarely more than 1 yard at a time of any one fabric. I started by buying only 1/2 yard at a time! The cost of fabric has increased my purchase amount because I know if I really like this one, it will be even harder to find it again to use in another project.

I don't make only scrap quilts, far from it. But I do make quilts with lots of grading in the colors....shading values from darker to lighter....even if I make the quilt with only 2 or 3 colors. To me this gives a quilt more visual texture and appeal. It feels "warmer".

If I don't have enough of one particular fabric, I search out another print of as close a color as possible OR I switch gears and go deliberately in another direction. the amount of fabric I have often determines how many blocks I make but rarely the overall size of a quilt. I can add pieced borders using similar, complimentary, or contrasting colors and still have the piece turn out very well.

To me the lack of "enough fabric" is never a crisis, but only a design opportunity!

Jan in VA

This quilt (Floyd Ward Dancing School 1957), for instance, is an intentional lap size for a challenge. It uses 9 different reds, 8 different blacks, a blue drawn from the border print, set on a pale yellow background with a border print. Yet one would definitely say this is a red, yellow and black quilt. Think how different it would have looked if I'd only used 1 fabric for each color.

The one below it is definitely a two-color (red and white) quilt, yet there are numerous reds/pinks/rose (even a purple or 2) prints used in it. Does it really look like a scrappy? Not to me. But the multiple values, colors, and prints make it much more eye appealing.