Thoughts on Stash

I've finished several more quilts.  Here's a sneak peek of one of Charlene's quilts.

And here is Sara's quilt in progress. I'm really pleased with how this came out.  The pattern took a while to line up and stitch out properly.  It was worth the effort.

I'm wrapping up another king size quilt for Amber.

If you have something you need quilted, my wait time is about a week right now--that's the shortest wait I've had this year.  Head over to my long arm quilting business website to sign up. I'd love to work with you.

I wasn't great about taking pictures this week, but I finished the last seam of my For the Love of Geese quilt.  I am now removing the papers.  I made three more masks for my kids. I sewed another charm pack's worth of my Cupcake Mix project that I don't think I've worked on in close to a year. And by sewed, I don't mean finished, just sewed the background and charms to the paper. It will still require cutting the parts from the paper and then assembling the blocks. It might be another year before I get to that.

Which leads me to talking about stash.  A few weeks ago, I saw a Facebook post that I just can't stop thinking about.  I took a screen shot:

I look around my beautifully organized closet in my sewing room and realize that that FB post could apply to me some day.  I definitely have things I've hoarded or saved for a special project. It's time to use all the stash.  Clearly this will take me some time.  I've been pretty good about buying only what I need to fill in fabric requirements and mostly shopping my stash when sewing during the past year.  But as you can see, I could easily make three quilts and not even make a dent.  I could probably not even dent it with 10 quilts.  My stash brings me joy and it brings me shame.  I see possibility and I see excess and sometimes I see failure. Maybe you can relate?

The right side of my closet is all batting rolls and scraps.  I use these for my business, so it doesn't bother me as much as the rest does.

This past year has been so odd.  I've fallen out of most of my good routines.  There's rarely a sense of urgency to get anything done because most every day is exactly the same.  I know I need to get into better routines, particularly with my eating, exercising, and sewing.  Maybe with cleaning and yard work. Eh. I could definitely manage my time better. Anyway, hopefully I haven't been too much of a downer.  

Turning to something more positive...our Baltimore orioles and rose breasted grosbeaks have arrived.  The orioles stay with us most of the summer.  The grosbeaks are usually here for a few weeks.  We have a bluebird nest in the bird house by the vegetable garden.  It has five eggs in it.  We also found a nest on the floodlight on the back of the house.  We can see the nest from the deck, but it's at the other end of the house, so not sure what's in it.  I'm guessing a robin. It's a pretty big nest.

I bought a series of books for my son--Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger.  He's part way into the first one and enjoying it. I'm into book five and ordered six, seven, and eight today.  😊 They're sort of along the lines of Harry Potter, but with a female lead.  I recommend them.

Let's end with some sewing, shall we?  I got out my Grassy Creek mystery and will be working towards finishing it over the next few months (or longer; we'll see). Definitely not the greatest picture, but it's nice to have something on the design wall again.  I had to laugh when I saw that I managed to put them all on an uphill slant.  

Linking with For the Love of Geese and My Quilt Infatuation.

6 comments

  1. I come from generations of [unusual?] women who constantly got rid of things. Ie, I didn't know my grandmother but my mom told me she "never kept anything". My mom always thinned her possessions down because she knew someday we'd have to deal with it. (As I was the one who eventually had to handle everything, I was so grateful that she kept ALL of her affairs completely in order!) Granted, none of these farm women had the time for or the luxury of a hobby but hubs and I find ourselves more and more wanting to thin everything for the same reasons. When it comes to my "stash", I go through it often with a very critical eye and donate anything that I know I won't use. I no longer keep something "just in case I need it" and at the same time, never keep something for the "perfect project"--if it works now, then use it now. Knowing that I've never looked back and said, "Man, I wish I hadn't used that" or "...kept that" makes it a lot easier to keep the stash thin. Neither of my girls show much interest in sewing and I wonder what will happen to my longarm but...maybe time will tell. Maybe a granddaughter will? One thing that has kept my stash down is that I no longer sew anything but quilts (I used to have so much scrap fabric!); and I also keep to just a couple hobbies--quilting and knitting. Gardening too if you call that a hobby...but I don't.
    As for the orioles, we have a pair that I just love! I hang orange slices on a hanging flower basket outside my sewing room window and those two LOVE it! Sometimes I'll put a little peanut butter and birdseed on the top of the orange, too. Entertainment while I sew!

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  2. Hi, I enjoy reading your blog! I lost a dear friend who sewed this winter - long before her time. Another friend helped go through her sewing room. It was all organized but she said there was just so much. A good reminder to try to use up faster than we replenish...
    I'm curious about your design wall. It looks like it rolls up. Can you share any info on it, please? Thanks.

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    1. Hi Kay! Thanks for being a reader. I am unable to respond directly to you (no reply blogger), so hopefully you will see this. Sorry about the loss of your friend. How heartbreaking. My design wall is made from two 4' x 8' sheets of foam insulation. They are each covered with Warm & White cotton batting and they are stuck to my wall using Command Strips.

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  3. My mother was a fabric addict she worked at a fabric store and I don't think she ever brought her pay check home, she spent it in the store! It was so overwhelming when she died. I make quilts but her fabric stash simply blew me away. Now I tell people to use that special fabric, don't save it for a special day. I'm using fabric for quilt backings that mom saved for special quilts. I want to scream when someone tells me the person with the most fabric wins! No one showed up at my mom's funeral to posthumously present her with an award. I won't even talk about the quilting books she had, some of them still in plastic paper, many were duplicates. Then there were the counted cross stitching projects, the needle point projects and the embroidery projects! It's been 15 years since she died, I'm still traumatized thinking about the mess. I won't put my children through a situation like that.

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  4. Oh, I miss the days of reading those fantasy adventure series with my boys! Glad you found a series that your son enjoys reading. That Mike's Swoosh design just looks fabulous every time I see it, and this quilt is no exception. Lovely job on those quilts and don't beat yourself up too much about productivity, time management, and effective scheduling. So much of that has just flown out the window this year! If your lead time for quilting is down to a week, AND you got that gorgeous FPP project of your own completed, that sounds like AWESOME time management during a pandemic as far as I'm concerned!

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  5. Oh I love Sara's quilt and the quilting is beautiful. Jenny Wrens like building nests on top of lights too. The eat a lot of bugs so I hope that is what your mystery nest is, good for the garden. Side note tho, they will dive bomb you if they think you are invading their space, ask me how I know.
    You have not been a downer and while you feel you haven't accomplished much remind yourself what you have. Remodeling, painting and repainting, built shelving and organized all that beautiful fabric (your closet looks great btw), I cant recall how many customer quilts you have finished, you have home schooled, survived teaching Kelly to drive, canned a lot, aaand you conquered For the love of geese. There are many more things to add to the list and given time I will recall them all. You may feel lazy because you are just more relaxed and taking it in stride with the rest of us, GIRL YOU ROCK! I almost forgot why I was here, thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.

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