My stash - what's in it and organisation

Sarah from Sarah Quilts is hosting a linky party so that we can all satisfy our curiosity about other people's stashes.  The linky is open until Thursday 15 August so you have time if you want to join in too.  I'm currently on a self-imposed fabric buying ban for the month of August so this is a good way to get a free fabric fix.

 

I was a little hesitant about sharing my stash - not just because I have an embarrassingly large amount of fabric, but also because I know how it feels to have major fabric envy (not fun!). 

In this post I thought I'd share photos of my stash and a little about how I organise it (because it's taken me a while to get it organised in a way that works for me).  If people are interested, next week I thought I might share some thoughts about stashing strategies, because I have quite deliberately built up my stash over the course of the last two and a half years.
      
First up a little about organisation - I keep my stash organised in four sets of plastic drawers (three drawers in each set) which live in my sparefabric room.  It just so happens that the drawers fit three rows of folded fabric perfectly.  I like storing my stash like this because I can see all the fabric in a drawer at once, it's easy to take some fabric out without disturbing the whole system, and each drawer is light enough for me to lift comfortably, even when full.  Together, these things mean that I actually use my stash.

 

Most of my fabric is organised by colour.  The colour organised drawers hold cuts of fabric between a fat eighth and a metre.  Smaller pieces go in my scrap bin, and larger cuts have their own set of drawers.  These are all my red and pink fabrics.

 

These are the yellow and orange fabrics.  I need more orange.

 

Navy, purple and mid to dark greys.

 

Aqua, turquoise, light and medium blues.  I don't need any more of these!

 

White, cream, light grey and other light neutrals.  Looking at this photo, I can see that I could really move some of the greys to the mid/dark greys section - that's useful and I hadn't really spotted it looking at this drawer in person.

 

Black (this part of my stash is looking healthy after I made a concerted effort to stock up), and green.

 

The fabrics on the left are all for one quilt, the ones in the middle are pulled for another quilt, and the ones on the right are my brown fabrics (these get used surprisingly often).

These multi-coloured fabrics don't fit neatly into any of the other colour categories so I keep them together in their own drawer.

 

Solids on the left - I've found it useful to keep them all together while the Simply Solids Bee is underway.  In the middle are a couple of fat quarter bundles I decided to keep together - Timber and Leaf and Heaven and Helsinki.  On the right is Anna Maria Horner's latest collection - Hand Drawn Garden, and a selection of co-ordinating solids.

 

These are my large cuts of fabric - more than 1 metre.  Sometimes these are for quilt backs and sometimes they are for borders and sashing (or just things I think I'll use a lot of like neutral solids).

 

More large cuts.

And the last of the large cuts.

By the way, my stash is looking super organised at the moment because I just tidied my spare room and put away a bunch of fabric that had overflowed off the bed and onto the floor.  If you follow me on instagram you'll know what I mean.  It definitely does not always look like this and the rest of my house is nowhere this tidy or organised (gotta have priorities!).

So what do you reckon about my stash?  Are you interested in my thoughts on stashing strategies? And do you think I will make right through the month of August without buying any fabric?

Caturday Wisdom #31

This week's words of wisdom come from Adrienne at Chezzetcook Modern Quilts.

"If you drink a glass of water with every cocktail, you will not have a hangover." Penny

Jeez, look at her wee mittens! 

If you would like to see your pet featured on Caturdays (other pets are also welcome!), flick an email to adrianneonthewindyside at gmail dot com. Have a great weekend!

The adventures of Mama Mouse and Papa Mouse

Once upon a time there was a Mama Mouse and a Papa Mouse.

 

At first they look like ordinary little mice.

 

But if you look more closely, you will find that they are actually rather special.

 

With a pretty coloured band around their tummies, they are Fair Isle mice.

And now they have come to live at my house and entertain my cats.  If you follow me on instagram, you will see that they are popular additions to the household.

These very cute little mice were knitted by my mum using this pattern (there is also a pattern for teeny tiny baby mice).  Wasn't she nice to make a present for her grand-cats?

Linking up with finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.

WIP Wednesday

I've got lots of bits and pieces to share with you this Wednesday.  First up are these two blocks I made for the guild block of the month.  The request was for Oriental type fabrics so I was able to pull these gold-highlighted japanese fabrics out of my stash - I think they do the job nicely.

 

 

Next up are wonky crosses for Amira, made as part of the Simply Solids bee.  Comments on these blocks have been funny - one friend thought they were not wonky enough, whereas my Dad was worried I'd made a mistake!

 

 

This cute little New Zealand block is heading off to represent me in a quilt far away.  I think the blue and white print from Sarah Jane's Out to Sea collection makes a perfect background, and I managed to get the square out of an offcut from a quilt back - bonus!  Of course the Flea Market Fancy print is just the right green, as always.

 

 

A sewing day with friends on Sunday gave me time to cut strips of lots of different blue and green fabrics and start making these scrappy log cabin blocks with fussy cut centres.  I've actually finished the quilt top which is made out of 9 of these blocks - I love super quick projects like this!

 

 

I've spent a bit more time on the couch than usual over the last couple of weeks, but the break has done me good and I'm looking forward to spending a bit more time at my sewing machine!  Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced:

Stash Matching

Today I'm delighted to be participating in the fun Stash Match game over at Ali's blog a.squared.w.  

You know I don't need any excuse to put a bundle of fabrics together, especially when the inspiration is this lovely Anna Maria Horner print.

 

It's also really interesting to see the different bundles people put together starting from the same inspiration.  That said, I've found it devilishly hard to work out whose bundle is whose, so I thought I would give you a little hint... 

At least 6 of the fabrics in my bundle have already featured in past projects of mine.  This pillow even features two of the fabrics in my bundle.

I hope that helps - and good luck if you are playing the Stash Match game this month!