Thursday, May 13, 2010

Am I seeing a trend?

I have been hearing for years about "stashbusting", stash organizing, decluttering the sewing room, etc. Lately though I have been hearing almost a desperate cry for help in the sewing room organization area. For the past several days many of the blogs I have travelled around have said things like..."I can't sew for all of the fabric", "I literally can't find the cutting table", "I'm not having much fun because I have to dig out before I can play", and "I have fabric not just in two or three places in the house, but in two houses".

Now believe me I will NEVER pass judgement on your stash because I don't want anyone passing judgement on mine. I do have a question though...why? Did we just get caught up in a buying frenzy and that is how we became the owners of enough fabric and notions to open our own quilt shops?  I have seen the pictures of the stashes on the Internet and there are a LOT of stashes that are larger than many of the quilt shops I have been in.
For many years the trend seemed to be "buy it all before it runs out" now it seems to be "I own it all and don't know what to do with it".

There are several books right off the top of my head that can help you make quilts that are pretty and quick. Judy Laquidara has two books, Weekend Quilts is her latest


and then there is Nine Patch Extravaganza


I don't know about you, but just because a pattern is quick doesn't mean it is pretty and I am not going to waste my fabric on pattern that isn't pretty.

Bonnie Hunter's books and website are amazing. Her quilts may not all be fast but you can make a LOT of quilts that are not hard. You can devote just a few minutes at a time and be amazed at what you can accomplish.

The biggest issue with my sewing room is the paraphernalia. Six seam rippers, twelve pairs of scissors, eight rotary cutters plus dozens of blades ( I had to try every brand and size, but can't seem to let go of the ones I don't like), a six inch stack of machine needles, rulers...don't even ask about the rulers. I have at least one of every size and a couple of sizes I have two or three. WHY?
I have buttons, ribbons, bees wax, another seam ripper, hand needles, template material, empty thread spools (wooden), marking pencils, etc, etc, etc.  If I could find a way of sorting these items I would be fine as I have finally gotten my fabric, books and patterns under control. It did take a comment from my friend Linda G to help me with that. She once said something to this effect " If I buy it I have to find a place to put it in my sewing room. unless I need it for a specific project let the quilt shop hold it."  At first I was shocked! She even worked at a quilt shop!! Then I had to pack to move and she got smart real fast.

Anyway I was just thinking about this since I have read so much about it lately, any thoughts?

Diane



2 comments:

Linda said...

What a great commentary. I'll come down and help you organize your "things"!!! I'm great with other people's stuff but not so good with mine.

Jo Caglione said...

Isn't LInda good? She's like our quilting GURU:-) I was always hoping you would get my quilting room in order before you moved.....now I have no excuse!