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-   -   A stash ....really? (https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/stash-really-t147401.html)

auntdeb 08-24-2011 02:55 PM

My style is 'buy what I like'. Doesn't always work out for the best. Usually still have to buy something when I start to make a quilt. So now I try to limit my impulse buying to really good/really cheap and a good mixer/blender.

KLO 08-24-2011 03:22 PM

At this time in my life, I am wishing I did not have as large a stash as I do. Too much older fabric that I don't like so much and wish I could buy fabric for some projects but I feel guilty about what's in the closet. Maybe it's just where I am right now but I feel like downsizing just about everything ... machines, thread, furniture, "stuff" of all sorts. Maybe I'll get over that soon?!?!

grandjan 08-24-2011 03:38 PM

I never set out to build a stash. I just love fabric and it sort of happened--a great deal here, an irresistible fabric there. As of a year ago, I just quit buying new fabrics. If I can't make it from what I already have, it just won't get made. So far, no problem.

ManiacQuilter2 08-24-2011 03:43 PM


Originally Posted by shawnemily
Style? :) not really.. I didnt have a plan to get a "stash" but I turned into a fabric addict and just buy it cuz I like it! I have so much that I just look at cuz it is too pretty to cut up! I am going to have to stop buying and start using or I won't have any more room for it!

How much? It can be a little; shoebox? or totes full. (I have both; lots of shoe boxes and lots of totes.

Shawnemily is absolutely correct. BUY what you like because tomorrow when you want that fabric, all will be gone. I have collect mostly florals since I adore watercolor quilts but I also have Christmas, Plaids, Reproductions and Tonals. Good luck with building your stash. BUY what you love !!! Good Luck !! :mrgreen:

beebs 08-24-2011 04:25 PM

I hear alot about hoarding on this thread. I think it would only be hoarding if you had awful fabric you hated but you kept it anyway?? If its lovely and you know you will use it even in the distant future then that isn't really hoarding is it? Well that is what I keep telling myself :)

Quiltaddict 08-24-2011 05:23 PM

When I first started quilting I didn't have much money so whenever I saw fabric I liked that was a great deal I'd buy it. Didn't usually have a plan for it. Before I knew it I had a huge stash because I couldn't stop buying things I liked and just had to have even though I still didn't have a plan for it.

Kendallsmom 08-24-2011 06:32 PM


Originally Posted by leatheflea
OOOOh thats pretty! Thats how i build.

Ditto!!

TheSevenYearStitch 08-24-2011 07:16 PM


Originally Posted by Moedeenie
About 5 years ago I attended my first quilt guild meeting and they were having a "Scrap Therapy" workshop. I was a guest and didn't own as much as a swatch of fabric. One of the ladies in the guild said "you need to buy some fabric, honey". I remember buying a few pieces and diligently practicing my cutting it up into 3,4 and 5" squares as the teacher taught us and storing it in the shoebox sized tote provided to us at the class.

A short while later, I started piecing my first quilt and found I was a 1/2 yard short of one of the fabrics I needed to complete this quilt so I made a promise to myself to never run out of fabric again. It was then that I started buying yardage...yards of everything I could afford.
Needless to say, I now have a stash beyond my wildest dreams.

Now had I started out with a simple kit which provided everything I needed, I doubt that I would have the fabric collection I do today.

Sometimes it pays to come up short!

I couldn't help but envision this in the most dramatic Scarlett O'Hara fashion...."God as my witness, I'll never run out of fabric again!"
[cue dramatic music]


:mrgreen:

Jennie and Me 08-24-2011 07:31 PM

Actually, I had no desire to even start quilting. I have a friend who kept after me to make a quilt. Kept telling her NO! I have too many hobbies already. Finally gave in (2003) and we made a quilt each. That's all it took, I got hooked, but vowed to keep it simple. I actually made fun of her for having so much fabric. Fast forward to present day..yes, I have a STASH! If you don't buy what you love, you may never get it as the manufacturers change patterns all the time. At least that's my story!(And I'm sticking to it!!)

IAmCatOwned 08-24-2011 08:06 PM

A stash could be as small as one box. My stash is probably about 750-1000 yards. It IS too big and consists of a substantial amount of novelty fabrics and themed fabrics: Halloween, Western, Asian and Yule.

I am trying to gear myself towards buying stash that are blenders. Hard to do, but I've done that a few times now.


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