Saturday, April 16, 2011

How to inventory fabric stash and quilt projects

"I was surprised at the result."

How I did it:

I am a member of Stashbuster Yahoo Group. Members are expected to give a stash report during their birthday month. I did a report last year, so I’ll compare as I go.

Most of my fabric stash is made up of smaller sizes, fat quarter to 1 yard. I keep them in gallon zip bags by color family. Total: 35 bags (down 4 bags from last year). Many of the larger pieces, up to 2.5 yards, are in 2 huge zip bags (4 bags last year). About half of this fabric is likely to be made into charity quilts. There is a "paper" box of what amounts to about 2 yards of fabric set aside for charity.

Scraps 1" to 13" wide of various lengths, organized by width and cool/warm colors: Six 12" x 12" drawers plus 1 small lunch bag--all very full. I do not keep all of my scraps. I have a grocery bag near my sewing machine where I deposit the scraps that no longer interest me. When the bag gets full, I donate the scraps to my daughter-in-law’s Mothers of Preschoolers group, who hold a couple of yard sales each year to raise money for their group. In the past I have donated to Project Linus but the nearest chapter has disbanded. During the past year I donated to another local quilting charity but the lady had an attitude and I won’t be giving her any more fabric.

PIGs (Projects in Grocery Bags): 23 (10 last year), with about half of those set aside for charity

UFOs (UnFinished Objects): I tend to do my projects start to finish, so I have just 7 items that sit unfinished (up one from last year). Of those, three just simply need to be finished. One can be finished and given to charity. The remaining three projects I am quite proud of and would like to be quilted
professionally with the intent of displaying in a quilt show someday.

WIPs (Works in Progress): Pipes and Piperoni, which I am working on for my granddaughter Piper. Cathy's Southwest, which is actually two quilts. Quilter's Playtime, which I will continue working on during my at-home retreat in May.

I weighed all of the above to have something to compare to this time next year. All told, my stash weighs 138 pounds, up five pounds from last year. I was surprised to find that my stash had increased. Some explanations: I didn’t make as many charity quilts this year. I try to use stash only for charity quilts. I made 22 quilts last year, many of which were from new fabrics. I’m not in Stashbuster’s No-Buy group but my fabric purchases would have been okay since the projects were gifts. I am guessing that the leftover yardage from those projects increased my stash.

Lessons & tips:

Use a "paper" box or other container to pile the fabric into for weighing. A simple bathroom scale can be used to weigh the fabric. Place the empty container on the scale, then adjust the scale to zero so you're weighing only the fabric. Keep track of each weighing, then add to get the total at the end. You can keep track of each category of fabric, too.

Resources:

"Paper" box or other container
Bathroom scale
Paper and writing instrument

It took me 1 day.

It made me

1 comment:

  1. I really need to do an inventory as well... Thank you for the tips. I think I will surprise myself too.

    ReplyDelete

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