Deplete

de·plete  (d-plt)

tr.v. de·plet·ed, de·plet·ing, de·pletes

To decrease the fullness of; use up or empty out.

A bunch of people in one of my online quilting groups have chosen a word for 2013. A lot of women chose "simplify", some chose "enjoy", others chose "purge", or "finish". My word for 2013 is deplete. The funny thing is, my word choice was not brought about by anything sewing related. I chose deplete because of a jar of pickle relish.

I am a stock the pantry kind of girl. My mother bought canned goods once a year, and she had it down to a science on how much the family used. I learned from my mom that a stocked pantry can carry you through some lean times, and it has benefited us many times.  Six people live in our house, and we go though a lot of food. A couple days ago, I had to throw a jar of pickle relish away, and it really bothered me. Why did I throw it out? It was over a year past the date, which in itself may not have bothered me, but it was a weird color and that did bother me. You know what bothered me the most? I know for a fact we have emptied at least four newer jars of pickle relish. If it had been buried at the back of the pantry, maybe I could see that, but it was right in front, where the older stock should be. Why then, had this little jar of pickle relish been passed over again and again? I have no idea. I do know that I hate wasting food like that, and to that end, my word for the year is deplete.

For 2013, I am going to go against my stocking up tendencies, and only add something to the grocery list when the last can, jar, box, or whatever is almost gone. When I started thinking about how many things I have around the house half used, it is startling. I have a favorite hand cream, every time I get that hand cream, I use it up pretty quickly. On the other hand, I have half used bottles of hand cream all over the house, the ones I don't like as well, but were either given to me or I bought to try them or they were on an amazing sale or something. I could easily go all year on the hand creams that are not my favorite, but I already have. After that, I can only buy my favorite, which is what makes sense anyway.

Hand lotion is not the only thing I have like that, cleaners I tried but didn't really care for, detergents I am not find of. Yes, 2013 is the year to deplete my supplies of those things, not waste them, but use them up, and learn from my purchasing mistakes. It will also save us some money in the short term, which will help us with our financial goals in 2013. I think this is a good plan, now can I stick to it? We'll see.

Here are the spools from threads I depleted in 2012. These spools represent 14,584 yards of thread, or about 8.3 miles. I used up most of my pre-wound bobbins too, but I didn't count those. I have plenty of thread for 2013, and shouldn't need to buy any this year.

I just read over my 2012 goals, and I am happy to say I met all of them. I had a few gift quilts that needed to be made, and they all were given on time. I wanted at least half my quilt tops from the previous year quilted and bound, and I think I got all but one of those done, so far over half. I wanted all the quilts I had in the works last New Year's Day at least to top stage, and I did that too. I finished 28 quilts in 2012, which was far more than I thought I'd be able to do. Most of those were UFO's from previous years. I didn't keep track of yardage this year, and I didn't even write the size of all my quilts down, but I know I used a lot of fabric, because there is extra room on my fabric shelves. I do have new fabrics that need to be put away, but there should be room for it to go on the shelves when I get it onto mini-bolts. I am in no hurry to use up my stash, but I do like to know I am regularly using it.

I've been thinking about my 2013 quilting goals, and besides finishing up the quilts I have in some stage of production, I don't have a lot. My top four quilts to be finished are two I am currently working on for gifts, one for DD#2's bed, and one for the scooter rally in April. I'd like to try some new patterns this year, and work up some of my own designs I have made in EQ7. Non-quilt related, I'd like to make DH some new scrub tops as some of his are ready to be retired. I will be watching the twins a lot this year, as DD#3 continues in welding school, so sewing time won't be readily available, but I will have some. I am looking forward to a good year of quilting, improving my FMQ skills, and trying some new things. I am not on no buy this year, but hopefully, it will be a low buy year. If I run out of something, I won't hesitate to replace it, but hopefully I will be working mostly from stash.