afraid-to-use-my-fabric-stash-itis
#21
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We just have to keep reminding ourselves, there's always more pretty fabric in the store.
When I first started quilting I had a very small stash, and I actually used it. Now that my stash has grown to an unmanageable size, I have more trouble getting motivated to search through it to find the right fabrics for a given project.
When I first started quilting I had a very small stash, and I actually used it. Now that my stash has grown to an unmanageable size, I have more trouble getting motivated to search through it to find the right fabrics for a given project.
#22
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: East Oklahoma - pining for Massachusetts
Posts: 10,477
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I suffer from the same malady once in a while. It took about two years to use some that I have with bears on it. Take it out and make it stare at you until you are forced to pick of the rotary cutter. Even if you use a little 5 inch slice in a scrappy project. This may make the fever go away.
#24
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Flagstaff, Arizona
Posts: 9,475
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I have your problem too! Don't know why I can't just go into my stash and pick some companion fabrics and make a quilt??!! There is always going to be more beautiful fabric in the stores for me to buy!
#26
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,278
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I've been to too many sales of passed away quilters whose too pretty to use fabric was bought for pennies on the dollar. My plan is to leave only the boring fabric I always use my pretty fabric first. I never fail to find another favorite fabric to have to have.
#27
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,278
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I have this fabric too! The picture doesn't do it justice. I cut most of it in 10" squares, ready to use when I need a layer cake. I have solid color fabrics to match some of the different colors in it. I made a set of pillowcases using the rest of the yardage. I think I bought it at Hancock's of Paducah.
#28
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I've only had one fabric that I couldn't bear to cut & it was a fat quarter and I dearly loved it. I finally sent it to a dear friend who makes watercolor quilts & knew she would use it in one of her beautiful quilts. Now I feel so much better knowing that it went to a good home.
#29
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: California
Posts: 177
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I have this problem too. I have a collection of a fabric in multiple colors. Couldn't find the "perfect" quilt for highlighting the fabric. Then, I decided to make a wall hanging using the fabric. I was able to get over my Do Not Cut by using the small amount in the wall hanging. Now I have used the fabric 2 or maybe 3 projects. I realized I had enough fabric to make multiple quilts with it. Lesson learned, now I have no hesitancy to cut fabric. Maybe it is because I usually buy three yards of fabric I love, so I have lots left over after one project.
#30
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,141
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I hear you brothers and sisters
It can be hard to cut into that big piece, sometimes even harder to use the last little scrap of something that is important to you. When I do, I make it a little occasion and recognize that "that was the last piece from my best friend's wedding quilt" or whatever it may have been. And then I move on.
Because none of us know how much time we have or what things may come up. Saving things for "some day" or for the perfect purpose isn't nearly as important as making each day what we can. Each of us are important, each day is important, and each time we sew it is important.
I accumulated a lot of fabric because fabric was affordable and if it made me smile, I bought it. When I had bad days (which I have too often...) I'd play with my fabric and it made me feel better. My favorite part of the quilting process is the design and making of the top but then it always comes up that by the time I'm done, I'm pretty much tired of it and never want to see it again and move on to the next project. So now I have a surplus of tops waiting to be finished as well as fabric.
And that's good because in-between I finally got a diagnosis on my vision issues and it isn't good. There are many types of blindness and what I have is the best possible bad diagnosis, I am losing my ability to focus. I'll always have light and dark and colors and large shapes (a brown door in a white wall is a large shape). My best work is probably behind me now. This year I can see pretty well close up, I've had years where I couldn't sew or read (at least 3 full years out of the last 7). We've set my contacts up for my best quality of life which means within 3 feet so I can sew and cook and read. I have a bad spot between about 3-6 feet where I don't see well, and then after that I have glasses and I can still (this year at least) drive and go to movies or whatever. But it's progressive and we don't know how much vision time I have left, I think 5 years still of being able to pretty much do what I want.
Live each day like it's your last. Tell the people that are important to you that they are important and that you love them/appreciate them. Let the bad stuff go, it's simply not important. Wear your good clothes, use your good dishes, and cut your good fabric!
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Because none of us know how much time we have or what things may come up. Saving things for "some day" or for the perfect purpose isn't nearly as important as making each day what we can. Each of us are important, each day is important, and each time we sew it is important.
I accumulated a lot of fabric because fabric was affordable and if it made me smile, I bought it. When I had bad days (which I have too often...) I'd play with my fabric and it made me feel better. My favorite part of the quilting process is the design and making of the top but then it always comes up that by the time I'm done, I'm pretty much tired of it and never want to see it again and move on to the next project. So now I have a surplus of tops waiting to be finished as well as fabric.
And that's good because in-between I finally got a diagnosis on my vision issues and it isn't good. There are many types of blindness and what I have is the best possible bad diagnosis, I am losing my ability to focus. I'll always have light and dark and colors and large shapes (a brown door in a white wall is a large shape). My best work is probably behind me now. This year I can see pretty well close up, I've had years where I couldn't sew or read (at least 3 full years out of the last 7). We've set my contacts up for my best quality of life which means within 3 feet so I can sew and cook and read. I have a bad spot between about 3-6 feet where I don't see well, and then after that I have glasses and I can still (this year at least) drive and go to movies or whatever. But it's progressive and we don't know how much vision time I have left, I think 5 years still of being able to pretty much do what I want.
Live each day like it's your last. Tell the people that are important to you that they are important and that you love them/appreciate them. Let the bad stuff go, it's simply not important. Wear your good clothes, use your good dishes, and cut your good fabric!
Last edited by Iceblossom; 09-24-2018 at 07:38 AM.
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