Fabric Hoarding

 Hi, My name is Amy and I am a fabric hoarder. Now I don't know many quilters who don't have a stash. But I am beginning to think my stash is a little out of control.  Today while looking for a particular bin, I found another bin of scraps. How on earth could I not know it was there. I just cleaned under the long arm the day after New Years.  Yet here it is a bin full of scraps of all sizes.

This bin was stuffed full. so I decided I would start pressing some of the scraps and get them ready for trimming this week.  What I discovered was I had a lot of rather small pieces.  Less than 2.5 inches and that is the cut off for scrap sizes for me right now.  I only got about a quarter of the way into the bin and I had this little pile that was just going into the trash. Some of theses were the ends of strips sets that weren't even an inch wide. Some were bits left over from cutting blocks out of fat quarters and were only about 1.5 inches.  I don't know what possessed me to save these little bits.

I did get a few scraps prepped for trimming this week.  I took them out of the bin and pressed them, then put them in my scrap basket. I probably have more than I can do in a week. But I do enjoy cutting fabric and this will go a long way to getting my basket weave fabrics cut.  My son is actually excited by my find because he thinks scrap quilts are the best quilts. I do enjoy making scrappy quilts.

If you recall I just went through a scrap bin a few weeks ago.  I had the larger scraps to cut still. So I put those scraps in with these scraps and now I only have one full bin to process. Well, after I do the ones in my scrap basket.  I will just have to set my timer and work on these a little every night until they are done and then get more out of the bin.  Of course, as I create more quilts the scrap pile will grow, so it's important to stay on top of it.  Any new scraps, I will continue to put in the scrap basket for processing that week. Old scraps will be processed as the basket is emptied.  

Before I know it, I will have this bin emptied too.  I already have 2 empty bins set aside.  I can easily fill them with stuff I have on hand. But that will wait until I decide how to organize things.  One thing I know is that I don't want to be buying any more bins.  I just fill them up and I don't even know what I have. This is not going to be a quick and easy project.

I may be in denial but I've decided that I don't like the term Fabric Hoarder. Instead of calling ourselves fabric hoarders, let's call ourselves fabric dragons.  Fabric Dragons sounds a lot more romantic and fanciful than Fabric Hoarder.  Fabric Hoarder has negative connotations.  I am a Fabric Dragon and my hoard is made up of fabric.

So are you a Fabric Dragon?  Is your stash out of control? How do you organize it?