State of the Stash 2018

In one of the yahoo quilting groups I belong to, it is customary to do a State of the Stash report around your birthday. Since I recently had a birthday, I figured I'd do a similar post here.

With the intention of full disclosure, I did get birthday additions to my stash.

These are some goodies bought by DH, along with a year of Craftsy Unlimited, which scored me a free quilt kit too. 

I got other quilty gifts from my kids, a Moda scrap bag, a couple quilt books, a specialty ruler, lots of fun stuff. 

When most quilters say stash, they are primarily talking fabric. Since my last birthday, my stash has somewhat increased, but since January 1st, it's likely stayed the same. Why the difference? Well, last fall I hit the motherload at a thrift store, and got over 100 yards of fabric for $30. I also bought quilt backings for the wedding quilts I'm currently working on. That's a lot of increase. Since January first, my fabric purchases have mostly been fat quarters, and as you see above, some charm squares (5" squares) and jelly rolls (2.5" strips). I've still never purchased a layer cake of 10" squares, but I saw a layer cake pattern I want to try, so maybe later.

So far this year I've used just over 100 yards of fabric, but I bought fabric for four specific quilts, along with the fat quarters and pre-cuts I've purchased. Have I bought over 100 yards? I don't think so, but it's probably close. Of the four quilts I bought fabric for, one will be Asian-inspired fabrics, of which I might have had a couple fat quarters in stash, but definitely not enough for the king sized quilt I have planned. One quilt will be made from Civil War reproduction fabrics, of which I likely had a dozen or so fat quarters of before the purchase. The third quilt purchase was some half yards of red to add to the stash fabrics I'll be using. I was getting low on variety of red blenders and tone on tones. The last quilt I bought for is a quilt made for my youngest grandson. He needs a big boy bed quilt, and they want it to be transportation themed. The thing is I've made so many transportation quilts for little boys, I was pretty wiped out and didn't have enough fabrics to make a quilt without buying. 

I'm on target to finish the five wedding quilts I've been working on this year (we won't talk about the nephew newly engaged ;-) ) And really, that's probably almost another 100 yards used. I think I will likely finish 2018 a bit lower on fabric than I started it. If I finish a few more UFO's besides the wedding quilts, I'll definitely use over 100 yards in the second half of 2018. 

Overall, I'd say my fabric stash is fairly steady, which is OK with me, because I'm comfortable with the size of my stash. The amount of fabric I have would overwhelm some people, but now that I have a sewing room again, I can easily see 300 yard usage years happening, just like I used to do. 

I have completely changed my buying habits with fabric. I found I use fat quarters most quickly, because I'm always wanting more variety. I really only use yardage for borders, backgrounds, and backings. I've been piecing a lot of borders or not using them at all, and I do a lot of multi-fabric backgrounds, so really, yardage is for backings. I'll still buy yardage if I find a really amazing deal (Hello 100 yards for $30!) or if I'm buying for a specific project, but overall, I've stopped buying yardage. 

I have a stash of batting too, and I just finished off a roll of cotton batting. I think I have enough batting on hand to finish all the quilts I'm likely to finish this year, and I don't plan on purchasing any batting this year unless I have an immediate need. So, batting stash is decreasing. 

My thread stash is also decreasing. I discovered Sharon Schambers tip of dipping a spool or cone of thread in mineral oil, and it's been a life saver. Threads that had been breaking or causing tension problems are now behaving and leaving a lot less lint. My Tin Lizzie still seems to prefer polyester thread over cotton thread, but I want to make a dent in what I have before purchasing any more thread. 

I am a bit of ruler junkie, I have so many rulers! I still have some on my wishlist, and just got another one for my birthday, but my purchasing of rulers has dropped dramatically. I like specialty rulers, and if I'm making a quilt all from stash, I figure it's a good time to try a specialty ruler that peaks my interest. I rarely buy new fabrics to use with a new ruler. I find watching a YouTube video about the new ruler is a great help in helping me understand the new method. 

One of the reasons I'm buying fewer rulers has to do with my repetitive stress injury. My arm is doing MUCH better, but it's easy to overdo it. Cutting seems to be one of the hardest things on my arm. DH wants me to buy the Go! Big electric cutter from Accuquilt. I already have a Go! cutter, so all my current dies will work with the electric cutter. Right now my focus is on UFO's, and all the cutting is done for those, so until I've caught up a bit, I'm in no hurry to buy the electric cutter. I do think there will be an electric cutter in my future though, Maybe in 2019. 

To put it all in a nutshell, I'm using my stash, so grateful I have it. I'm buying for specific needs, or to add variety to make what I have more usable, but overall trying to shrink the stash a bit. I have a couple totes I haven't unpacked yet, and my goal is to have all my stash in existing storage, no totes. I'm so close to that, and I think I can get there by 2019.