Fabric Moratorium 2024
09-11-2024, 07:34 AM
#201
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,182
With nothing being made with my vision issues, I've been doing pretty good on not buying fabric. I did buy a couple of backs recently but I'm claiming birthday exemption on that 
My sewing group supports a number of donation projects. I decided that I could donate some fabric even if I can't help make things. I did end up moving more fabric than I wanted and I since I haven't been sewing, the stacks haven't been going down. I have a few categories I can reduce... is easier on me to work that way than make decisions on every single piece of fabric whether to stay or go.
I've asked one of the group to come help me sort and put options together and have a large tote ready to be filled and bring to group next week or the week after I'll probably have to add some project sheets/patterns to the fabric selection
10 years ago I had a room full of fabric -- my goal is to be happy with a large closet full. Still working on that!
My sewing group supports a number of donation projects. I decided that I could donate some fabric even if I can't help make things. I did end up moving more fabric than I wanted and I since I haven't been sewing, the stacks haven't been going down. I have a few categories I can reduce... is easier on me to work that way than make decisions on every single piece of fabric whether to stay or go.
I've asked one of the group to come help me sort and put options together and have a large tote ready to be filled and bring to group next week or the week after I'll probably have to add some project sheets/patterns to the fabric selection
10 years ago I had a room full of fabric -- my goal is to be happy with a large closet full. Still working on that!
09-11-2024, 09:09 AM
#202
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Portage, Michigan
Posts: 7,876
Good for you ICE! Glad that you are finding a way to still be productive even if you are not doing the sewing yourself. Your goal of getting from a fabric room to a fabric closet is daunting but doable. I did not have a room full but I have been slimming down to closet size. Almost there! I need to just get over the long view for using my fabric and use it now. I have donated quilts, pillowcases and just fabric I know I would never put needle to. When we were making masks, donated a tote full of fabric to a student organization in my university department. Donated to make "little dresses for Africa". And of course dog beds.You would be doing that too if you could see better. Now I need a new organization and project where I can use10 to 15 yards per month! OK, I can dream. Right!
Will you vision problem clear up? Just a nosy question, but I recall you have mentioned it for quite a while now.
Will you vision problem clear up? Just a nosy question, but I recall you have mentioned it for quite a while now.
09-11-2024, 10:59 AM
#203
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Greater Peoria, IL -- just moved!
Posts: 6,182
My vision story -- I have a condition called Keratoconus (KC). Basically I have super pointy eyeballs and have a number of problems related to that like no depth perception and the ability to see double images with just one eye! Glasses are not enough to correct my vision and haven't been for about 20 years, I wear specialty contacts which change the shape of my eyes plus glasses for distance and other corrections. Right now readers only make blurry things larger and not clearer. Bringing up the size on my computer monitor helps somewhat but with the double vision and such, it is still very difficulty for me to read. My apologies for typos and such.
Uncorrected I am legally blind (I can't read the E on the eye chart), corrected I still have a hard time with small print and seeing stitches and things like that I will always have light and dark, and colors, and "large shapes" (like a brown door in a white wall) but basically am largely losing my ability to focus I can't see for miles and miles, but I could see well enough. Last year at this time I was able to drive from Seattle to Peoria, going 80 through states that allow that... About in March of last year I noticed that signs I could read when we first moved here were now harder to read. In May I was having difficulties reading the smaller freeway signs and took myself off first the freeways and then the surface streets. Before leaving Seattle my eye doctor told me that I would be needing cataract surgery probably sooner rather than later, and that some of the issues could come on pretty rapidly. Although it is unusual that at this stage in my KC, that can also result in rapid eye changes. Although my descent has been pretty steady and my last five years have been pretty stable, back in 2008 I had a period of rapid change and had to go contactless for about 3 months.
The cataract surgery won't result in more vision, but what I have will be clearer which will enable a better prescription for my contacts. The issue is that my eyes need to be in their natural state and so I can't wear the contacts for 6-8 weeks before surgery. Then after surgery I will have a longer than usual healing time. We don't want the suction of the contacts pulling out my implanted lenses.
I needed a physical pre-surgery which my doctor would not sign off. Primarily my diabetes was way out of control and there were a couple other more minor areas of concern. I am doing well but haven't rescheduled the surgery yet. I am hoping to have corrected vision by the end of the year but they give me no guarantees of either timing or what I can expect my corrected vision to be... If I am not going to be eligible for surgery this year, I will get new contacts to correct as well as I can for a better quality of existence (like me able to sew and/or maybe actually watch instead of listen to tv) and go through the 2 months of blindness (again), which I am trying to avoid.
Uncorrected I am legally blind (I can't read the E on the eye chart), corrected I still have a hard time with small print and seeing stitches and things like that I will always have light and dark, and colors, and "large shapes" (like a brown door in a white wall) but basically am largely losing my ability to focus I can't see for miles and miles, but I could see well enough. Last year at this time I was able to drive from Seattle to Peoria, going 80 through states that allow that... About in March of last year I noticed that signs I could read when we first moved here were now harder to read. In May I was having difficulties reading the smaller freeway signs and took myself off first the freeways and then the surface streets. Before leaving Seattle my eye doctor told me that I would be needing cataract surgery probably sooner rather than later, and that some of the issues could come on pretty rapidly. Although it is unusual that at this stage in my KC, that can also result in rapid eye changes. Although my descent has been pretty steady and my last five years have been pretty stable, back in 2008 I had a period of rapid change and had to go contactless for about 3 months.
The cataract surgery won't result in more vision, but what I have will be clearer which will enable a better prescription for my contacts. The issue is that my eyes need to be in their natural state and so I can't wear the contacts for 6-8 weeks before surgery. Then after surgery I will have a longer than usual healing time. We don't want the suction of the contacts pulling out my implanted lenses.
I needed a physical pre-surgery which my doctor would not sign off. Primarily my diabetes was way out of control and there were a couple other more minor areas of concern. I am doing well but haven't rescheduled the surgery yet. I am hoping to have corrected vision by the end of the year but they give me no guarantees of either timing or what I can expect my corrected vision to be... If I am not going to be eligible for surgery this year, I will get new contacts to correct as well as I can for a better quality of existence (like me able to sew and/or maybe actually watch instead of listen to tv) and go through the 2 months of blindness (again), which I am trying to avoid.
09-11-2024, 02:34 PM
#204
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Portage, Michigan
Posts: 7,876
Wow, Ice Blossom, how frustrating for you and how this condition impacts your love of sewing and games. Thank you for the explanation and keep us up to date on your progress toward surgery and new contacts as you feel appropriate.
.
.
10-04-2024, 09:12 AM
#207
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2021
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 641
It's been quiet around here lately and so I thought I'd share a little bit of my recent moratorium struggles and successes.
I had to take a bit of a break from sewing as "real life" suddenly got very busy and stressful. However, things are improving and I have been playing with the same stack of pink, white, yellow and blue flannels I highlighted in a recent post here. I have managed to get another quilt top planned (lots of work still to do - I made hourglasses that need to be trimmed down to a consistent size and then I need to figure out which fabrics I have enough of to make sashing and borders from). The hourglasses happened because I had a bunch of HSTs left over - I don't know that I would choose to use triangles in a flannel quilt again. I plan to piece the back of the quilt with the biggest of the leftovers and hopefully that will be the end of this pile of fabric.
I've got to admit that these flannels have been a stumbling block for me and I think I've learned some important lessons. First, I'm terribly stubborn! I decided I was going to use them up, by hook or by crook, and so I am doing that even though it's been a serious chore. I think in the future I will look more seriously at the fabrics I don't really want to use and consider donating them to the free table or our community quilts committee to avoid the frustration. After all, fabric out the door is fabric out the door, as many people have pointed out here in the past. :-)
On the "whoops" side of the moratorium, I have made some stress-induced fabric acquisitions, but have managed to keep them mostly under control. Once again, the free table at my guild meeting summoned me but I managed to keep 90% of what I picked up in the "neutrals" category (greys and blacks mostly this time). I also went thrifting this month and found a few pieces, but I'm going to call that more of a success than a tumble off the wagon because of all the fabric I saw and DIDN'T buy!
I had to take a bit of a break from sewing as "real life" suddenly got very busy and stressful. However, things are improving and I have been playing with the same stack of pink, white, yellow and blue flannels I highlighted in a recent post here. I have managed to get another quilt top planned (lots of work still to do - I made hourglasses that need to be trimmed down to a consistent size and then I need to figure out which fabrics I have enough of to make sashing and borders from). The hourglasses happened because I had a bunch of HSTs left over - I don't know that I would choose to use triangles in a flannel quilt again. I plan to piece the back of the quilt with the biggest of the leftovers and hopefully that will be the end of this pile of fabric.
I've got to admit that these flannels have been a stumbling block for me and I think I've learned some important lessons. First, I'm terribly stubborn! I decided I was going to use them up, by hook or by crook, and so I am doing that even though it's been a serious chore. I think in the future I will look more seriously at the fabrics I don't really want to use and consider donating them to the free table or our community quilts committee to avoid the frustration. After all, fabric out the door is fabric out the door, as many people have pointed out here in the past. :-)
On the "whoops" side of the moratorium, I have made some stress-induced fabric acquisitions, but have managed to keep them mostly under control. Once again, the free table at my guild meeting summoned me but I managed to keep 90% of what I picked up in the "neutrals" category (greys and blacks mostly this time). I also went thrifting this month and found a few pieces, but I'm going to call that more of a success than a tumble off the wagon because of all the fabric I saw and DIDN'T buy!
10-04-2024, 12:18 PM
#209
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Oro Valley, AZ
Posts: 4,232
I can report, I finished a UFO top and that makes about 3 yards gone from my stash! I have been doing really good with using more of my stash this year and more has gone out than what was brought in. But I'm taking a birthday exemption this month ...... my 73rd birthday is tomorrow and I visited my LQS today and came home with fabric (enough for the 90 X 90 quilt pattern I also bought), backing fabric for another UFO top and a couple of fat quarters. This fabric fix should last for a while.
10-04-2024, 04:34 PM
#210
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Cottage Grove, MN
Posts: 2,810
Gemm: I understand about the flannels. Like you, I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be easier to pass mine on. I will decide after I make a backing out of the larger pieces.
Sync: Happy Birthday!
Connie
Sync: Happy Birthday!
Connie
