Most crafters I know tend to have a hoard of materials they work with. Knitters have yarn stashes, quilters have fabric stashes and so on. Most of us tend to become addicted to our particular material of choice. There are even flickr groups encouraging the aforementioned addictions. I happen to be guilty of having more than one stash for more than one craft but I had vowed to at least reduce the fabric stash. Sadly this was not to be. For some reason 2013 had been a particularly appealing one in terms of fabric collections. I managed to fall in love with three different ones. I was very proud of myself though as I found the perfect pattern for one of the collections but, just my luck, this particular collection only had three fabrics in it and I needed at least three more in order to make the pattern work. It was also just my luck that the collection I fell in love came and went in a flash so I could no longer readily find related fabrics for it in the brick and mortar stores. This meant I had to shop on-line to try and match fabrics and we all know what this means. I’d receive a packet of fabric and realize that what looked so good on the web turned out not to be such a great match. Then I’d buy another bit of fabric and the process would repeat. So now I’ve got even more fabric in the stash, sigh.
I do enjoy about meeting a fellow addict though as it is always fun to be had in confessing our sins. Sometimes I begin to think that, even though I hear about other people having a hoarding/stash problem, I am the only one that really has the problem. However, I then meet someone at a store, at a show etc., and discover that a. I am not alone, and b. that I may not even have the biggest problem (assuming we want to call it a problem and I’m not sure I do). I went into a quilt shop to pick up a recently quilted quilt (thanks Margaret at Golden State) and got to chatting with the clerk there. I discovered he was a fellow block of the month junkie and we then talked about what on-going projects we had. He got out one of his projects and darn if I didn’t learn a new trick. This gentleman uses interfacing instead of the plastic vinyl for his applique overlay. Interfacing is certainly easier to find than vinyl so I think I might try this trick. I also had severe stitch envy as his applique looked perfect.
The above is all just a precursor for my fabric New Year’s resolutions. Since I didn’t winnow down the stash last year I have avowed to do so this year but in a manageable chunk for me. I have an entire drawer of cat fabric and I have decided to use up four of those fabrics in their entirety. This doesn’t seem like much I know but if I try and think about destashing entirely I panic but I’m okay with slowly using up fabrics. I even have a specific design for the cat fabrics, a disappearing four patch, and have even done a few and like the pattern so—fingers crossed that four yards or so of fabric “disappear.”
I’ve also made the resolution that I will finish embroidering and then put together my blocks (which are already appliqued) for my Raining cats and dogs BOM. This should be fairly easy to do and then I’ll need to find a quilter to quilt it. I have another BOM which I swear I’ll finish every year. I have no idea why I can’t but this year I’ve decided that I just need to finish two blocks, i.e. I’ll chip away at it slowly and not be upset with myself when I don’t get it done. Now that I’ve learned a nifty new trick with interfacing perhaps I’ll even do three! I do have the new quilt I’ve started but I’ve decided to let that one come together as I feel like it. I am so in love with the colors of the fabric I may put a lot of effort into completing it. I hope to be good purchasing wise this year but we all know that I’d be kidding myself, like Smaug I need a hoard. This year though at least some of it will be used! What’s you fabric resolution?
