# Do you all have a "stash" of crafting items?



## jacks'thunder (Feb 3, 2013)

I quilt and sometimes I look at all my fabrics and think I'm a mini hoarder!!




I have 2 dressers and a large cabinet full of fabric!

Just wondering if you all "stock up" in advance or only buy stuff only when your making something?


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## Charley (Feb 3, 2013)

I am addicted to stashing craft items. I wish I had a notebook where I had written down what I bought some things for.

We are moving later this summer and I am so looking forward to having a craft room. Don't know that it will never be truly organized, but just having room to leave things lay until the next day will be like heaven. I spend so much time getting my stuff out and in a few hours putting my stuff away.

I would start a notebook now, but I have controlled my buying lately to buying for what I am working on (but only after searching through "my stash" to make sure I don't have the perfect material already). Not sure how long this will last but maybe at least until we are home on our farm again.

Lois


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## Marsha Cassada (Feb 3, 2013)

Stash? What stash?





My crafting is mostly recycled. I have stashes everywhere of bits and pieces, scraps and trims, buttons and buckles, string and leather, iron and rusty stuff.

Occasionally I go through things and do a purge, and generally regret it afterward. But the purge at least helps me familiarize myself with my supplies!


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## jacks'thunder (Feb 3, 2013)

OMG I'm not alone!!!




I can so relate with both of you!! IF I decide to part with something I also feel regret about it! And it's super hard to use my favorite fabric(which they ALL are



) and usually go buy more"to fit" the project, if I have the cash! LOL! And man, I buy stuff with a purpose and goal in mind but heaven forbid I can remember what that was!! LOL! I should write my ideas down too!! LOL!


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## chandab (Feb 3, 2013)

This quilt was almost completely a "stash quilt", I already had all the FQs used in the body of the quilt, I only added the border and binding fabric. I even had the piece of cream flannel I used for backing in my stash.




I did at one time buy fabric just because I liked it, and now I have a cupboard full of fabric, and lots of it are now "what was I thinking" pieces or too small for many projects. So, I'm trying to only buy for specific projects. Actually, at the moment I'm trying to only use fabrics already in my stash, which is difficult, as nothing coordinates with anything else.


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## Shari (Feb 3, 2013)

Like was said before... what stash? LOL

My main stash is wool, for spinning! Then Art supplies.

I love your quilts Chanda!


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## REO (Feb 3, 2013)

I have bits & bobs here and there. I have one of those plastic 3 drawer things from Walmart full of things to make my show bows. But it's full and I have stuff all over!


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## Marty (Feb 4, 2013)

I totally have a stash in two big dresser drawers filled with supplies. I keep it stocked up as best I can. Every time there is a good sale at Hobby Lobby I am there to stock up and I also keep my eyes open to new products. I have one drawer full of different kinds of glue that Dan calls my glue factory. Bad boy he is! LOL!


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## Annabellarose (Feb 7, 2013)

Oh dear! Do I ever! I just started crocheting late last fall and I already have a fabulous/terrible stash of yarn. :O


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## dixie_belle (Feb 9, 2013)

I quilt and so I have fabric. I used to keep it in a large dresser but found if I wanted a certain color, I had to really dig to find it. I recently went to Wal Mart and purchased four big plastic, see thru bins. Just like the ones Annabellarose used for her yarn, but maybe not quite so big. I seperated all my fabrics into colors and used the bins for the four colors I had the most of. I stored them in an entertainment center that is in the livingroom but that has a huge empty spot (behind doors, which was a big bonus). The rest of the fabric is now in nice stacks (by color) in the dresser drawers. Boy does it make it easy to find a specific color now. No more digging. I'm actually organized!! Who would have thunk it??? LOL


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## chandab (Feb 9, 2013)

I have something similar to this for my fabric stash: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mylex-Single-Door-Pantry-Maple/13012787 Its in the walk-in closet of my computer/craft room. Plus fabric has spilled out onto the shelves in the closet (I removed one rod, and added 2 shelves, those two shelves are full of fabric too).


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## kaycee (Feb 9, 2013)

i started "collecting" for my retirement years ago. my girls even have contributed for christmas and birthdays. i've been retired for just short of 7 years.---maybe i'llwork on some of them when i'll be able to see after i recover from having cataract surgery in a couple weeks.


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## Charley (Feb 9, 2013)

Hi kaycee,

I hope your cataract surgery goes well and you are sewing again very soon. I bet you are planning projects already.

Lois


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## Charley (Feb 10, 2013)

I have my stash of fabric organized by type of fabric...like flannels are all together, cottons are all together, knits together, some by brand, like Moda fabrics as different lines tend to match in color other lines, etc....and also by matching fabrics staying together. Maybe they are not all blue but they match with the green that has the blue in it, etc. Many times these were bought in bundles. Then the remaining fabrics are in categories like children's prints, horse print and matching fabrics, holiday fabrics, and then some of the rest by color. I do tend to forget exactly what I have so I go through my stash boxes (I use clear plastic file type boxes that stack) every so often. I think at this point that I have enough material to last me over 5 years of sewing at my current rate. I also am trying to use what I have already in my stash....but then I see something that I just have to make and so I am also buying new material regularly. So glad that I have my hobbies as I love to keep busy.

Lois


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## MajorClementine (Feb 12, 2013)

Yarn is my worst stashing habit right now. I hoard it. But, on the up side, when someone is having a baby I don't have to run to the store to find yarn to make a hat or headband. It's all right there. The downside is storage for sure.

I have all kinds of other crafts items from paper making supplies to canvas and oil paints. I've got quilting fabric, polymer clay, beads, and now I'm stashing items for kids crafts for my son too.

I actually just cleaned out my stash closet and am getting rid of a lot of stuff. We are deep cleaning the house and doing a big remodel. Some of the things I wonder why I kept them in the first place. The hardest part was going through my yarn. I had to face the fact that some of the stuff I was given just wasn't going to ever get used. I dislike acrylic yarn so most of that went.


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## Charley (Feb 12, 2013)

I too was given quite a bit of yarn that I wonder if I will ever use. Keep thinking I will make something colorful someday just to use it up. But then I find something that I want to make and I don't have enough of one color to make it, so I go and buy for my new project. Also thinking it would be good to teach my granddaughters to crochet with in a few years....just like my mother taught me so many many many years ago.

I keep my stash of yarn in under the bed in clear plastic containers so I can see from the outside what it in there. I think I have about six of those containers now.

MajorClementine ~ What is your favorite cotton yarn? Just wondering as I have some that is softer than the Peaches and Cream (which that I use for potholders).

Lois


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## Sandee (Feb 28, 2013)

Your joking right. Stash? I'm in my 60s. Had Girl Scout troops over the years. Had 2 kids. Have 3 grandkids. I have an entire walk-in closet full of "stuff" and I don't quilt. Well, I do use the clothes rods for other things. LOL


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## Charley (Mar 10, 2013)

My stash is out of control!!

As of today, I am not buying any more fabric unless it is directly connected to the project I am (at the time) in the process of sewing.

As of today, I am making an effort to use fabric that is in my stash.

Lois


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## chandab (Mar 10, 2013)

Good luck, Lois. I'm trying to do the same thing. I'm trying to just quilt from my stash, only buying batting and if I must backing. I'm hoping to not buy any new fabric til I've got a handle on my stash.

This quilt was almost completely stash fabric (I bought the binding and border; as the whole quilt is from FQs, so nothing long enough to make strips from for binding or border; I even had the cream flannel in my stash to use for backing):




This is stash fabric (just took two little strips from store fabric for the pink):




This is stash fabric (its complete now, I only added binding that wasn't in my stash - backing was left-overs from front):




And, these pillowcases are from stash fabric:


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## Charley (Apr 7, 2013)

kaycee said:


> i started "collecting" for my retirement years ago. my girls even have contributed for christmas and birthdays. i've been retired for just short of 7 years.---maybe i'llwork on some of them when i'll be able to see after i recover from having cataract surgery in a couple weeks.


How is your recovery going? Hope that everything is going well.


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## Charley (Apr 7, 2013)

Now that I am concentrating on using my stash fabric....I am buying some long wanted books of quilt patterns. I am really looking hard at appliqué and getting lots of new ideas for the fabric that I bought and now cannot remember what I had planned for it.

Lois


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## kaycee (Apr 7, 2013)

i got my glasses last week and got to DRIVE MY CAR. now i can see all the dust and dirt! still have some meds in my system that i am not to happy about. daughter #1 gave me a pair of my grandsons pants to repair. daughter #2 gave me a couple of kits-one is a pair of boot socks to "color" and the other is a needle work horse head. i better get busy on all of the above before nice weather hits when i want to be outside.

p.s.i participated in a "spook clinic" partially sponsored by the aamhc on sat. wonderful experience for me and my current driving horse-sully. if any of you get a chance to do theis-GO FOR IT.


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## Charley (Apr 8, 2013)

YES!! So glad to hear that you are back to enjoying life and seeing what you were missing. Please share your projects as you work on them.

Sounds like the "spook clinic" was fun!

Lois


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## Charley (Apr 10, 2013)

I am planning another quilt top. This one just popped in my mind and I spent a little while yesterday planning. I have the center block and have planned the placement of the blocks. Picked out fabric for some of it and going to wing it on some of it where I could go dark or could go light. Think I will piece the blocks then lay it out and decide at that point on the rest of the fabric..

Going to use mostly stash fabric but I really wanted to replace a black on black cotton fabric that I plan to use. It is one of my favorite fabrics (black stars on black) and I can no longer get it. It makes a great binding on quilts. I was just disappointed with the current black on black fabrics available. Hoping it is just the fabric sites I am looking at. I bought this about five years ago at a local quilt shop so it is probably not made anymore. Hope I find something similar.

Lois


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