Thursday, July 25, 2019

Lacking Willpower

I either have a huge issue of lacking willpower (most likely), or I was just presented with too good of a deal to refuse.

I've been trying to be no-buy/low-buy on quilting supplies, goodness know I can make a ton of quilts on what I already own. If I need something immediately, I have no guilt about buying it, and I've got a wishlist of Studio Dies I'm waiting to go on sale, which I have no issues with buying. I've mostly been trying to stop buying fabric and thread unless I honestly don't have something that will work in stash. 

I know myself, and I know the more I'm sewing, the less likely I am to buy, but when things come up and I can't sew for whatever reason, I am more likely to shop. 

Guess who has had a constant steam of company for the last month, and has company for another two weeks? It's been like running a bed and breakfast. No sewing time in sight. I've been really good about deleting or unsubscribing from quilt shopping sites, but I stumbled across a sale from someone's ad enabled blog the other day. 


I totally blew no-buy! I bought these two boxes of fat quarters, which are all tonals but from different lines. Each box has 90 fat quarters in it, so I got a total of 180 fat quarters, for a total of $220. That's 45 yards of quilt shop quality fabrics for $220, would you have held out? 

I can make excuses until the cows come home, i.e. tonals will help me use the prints in my stash, I use a lot of tonals as soon as I acquire them, the color variety will keep my stash workable, etc... The simple fact of the matter is that I caved, and I'm not sorry. I refuse to feel guilt over my stash. I use a lot of fabric, and I like having it readily on hand, so I can make a quilt without shopping at all. If I die tomorrow, and other people have to deal with my stash, so be it. I've done plenty for my kids in their lives, if they have to deal with some fabric, let them. 

Even with this purchase, I've used more fabric this year than I've bought. I'm not going into debt to make quilting purchases, and I am regularly using stash. I feel no guilt or shame for my quilting stuff. 

I've downsized tons of stuff in my house. I have two closets that are basically empty, and a couple more that have only a few things in them. I've purged our book collection from thousands to a couple hundred, I've gotten rid of lots of kitchen items, linens, clothes, collectibles, furniture, and yes, I've even purged things from stash. I buy less of everything these days, because I don't really need much. 

I've been reading all these articles lately that seem to want to shame people who have a stash of quilting supplies. Yeah well, I'm not buying into that. If you don't want a stash, that's perfectly fine by me, but don't try to make me feel bad about mine. If I fall off my self-imposed no-buy, that's OK. I have quilting goals, and I'm still heading in the right direction overall, even if I do slip a bit from time to time.

Stash or no stash, no-buy, low-buy, buy ALL the things, take all the classes, self-taught, quilt by check, longarm, quilt on DSM, join all the guilds, lone quilter, whatever, can't we all just enjoy quilting?

2 comments:

Christine Staver said...

How about improv or planning? That’s one I have run into lately. Quilters that feel that the only way to make a quilt is to do it by just getting out fabrics and to start cutting and arranging and hope a great quilt happens! I am a planner. Why do some of those that improv look down on people like me that plan? We all work differently. It doesn’t mean one way is better than the other. Do what brings you joy....enjoy your new fabrics....

Elle said...

Great buy on those FQs! I would have ordered them as well! Dang-I missed it :-(