Stash Happens

There's a woman named Nancy who writes and shares quilt patterns in small steps, called Mystery Quilts, for quilters who wish to donate their time, effort and stash to military service people who are injured while serving our country. Her quilt patterns are available only through the yahoo group, MysteryQuilts4Military, and she also writes a blog, http://lifetakesaturn.wordpress.com/category/stash-report/ on which she frequently reports how much fabric she is using from her considerable stash. She also blogs how much she "stashes," which to me means how much fabric she acquires.

As anyone who knows me knows, I have a little, ahem, "problem," with the acquisition of fabric. My other problem is that even though I quilt and sew a lot and am relatively prolific, the projects just seem not to use enough fabric to make a difference! Also, when I am very productive, it inspires me to buy more fabric. I make stuff and give it away, I make stuff and keep it, I make stuff and leave it sitting in a pile, and the fabric piles just seem to grow. They're neat piles, and they are really beautiful, but they do grow and grow.
I would estimate that I have thousands of yards of fabric in my sewing room and the adjacent bathroom. I realize how that sounds, fabric in the bathroom. It's not as bad as all that, but there IS truth to it. Nobody lives up there, so nobody has to use a bathroom also being used for overflow fabric storage. Still though, now that I've made that confession in writing, I am going to remove the stash from there. It's not acceptable. One day, I will have to move it to wherever I move next. That is not going to be easy, and it is not going to be funny to whomever has to haul it down from the third floor. I am going to make it my goal to stop the growth of the fabric stash in the year 2013, and to begin the downward spiral in subsequent years.

I would like to carve out an exception for the fabric that my mother has acquired in her house; I've already given away bags and bags, hundreds of pounds of fabric from her old stash, (seriously, how much polyester double knit does anyone need?) When she dies, I will be partly responsible for the cleaning out of her house, where she no longer lives, and I will merge her good fabrics with mine. I won't count her fabric as acquisition. Maybe I should limit their impact by choosing only as much as will fit in the shower in that adjacent bathroom.

Anyway, I'm going to try to start tabulating a stash count. Starting now. So the 4 skirts I made this past weekend from stash don't count, (That was 6 yards!!) but neither do the fabrics I ordered last night from Connecting Threads, (14.5 yds). Deal?

Next stash busting project: knit maxi skirts, this weekend. One in the Olive and Purple stripe, another in the blue heather stripes. That fabric is reversible. Could make a matching cardigan, preferably reversible. Need to find out how to make the serger do flat seams for reversible clothes. That will be in my owner's manual.
The knits I bought from Girl Charlee, (9 yards,) a few days ago haven't arrived, but they don't count. Also, pajama pants for Maboo and the girls. Giraffes for Alexandra, Otters for Sophia, gray waffle weave for Maboo.

It's becoming clear to me that I have to get there and start sewing, and fast!! I found great tutorials for making the maxis, as well as the cardigan. Check out my pinterest board for those links.