Introduction To Stashbusting

Welcome to my Stashbusting blog. I have hundreds of yards of fabric that I need to use up in quilts. I was inspired by the Stashbuster's List' challenge to use 100 yards of fabric in 2006. Since my regular blog (www.WayTooMuchStash.blogspot.com) has been so helpful for finishing projects for all my needlework, as well as sharing my old and new skills and discoveries, I thought I would have a second one that simply documents my stash usage. This blog will not have frequent entries, but hopefully regular ones!

My previous successes come directly from two sources: The Stashbusting Yahoo List and Bonnie's Quiltville.com web site. If you have lots stash or scraps to use, these are wonderful sources for tips and ideas to get that stash used rather than insulating your closet or bed. If you want to join the email list, join YahooGroups and search out Stashbuster. The amount of mail is overwhelming, so select DIGEST. Take some time to look around the site and at some of the past messages. Many obvious things are answered. For tips, hints and patterns, Bonnie's web site is Quiltville.com.

I used to have all my fabric sorted by color, but two moves, illness and many fabric purchases later, my stash no longer fits into these neat categories, nor can it be contained in those 12 boxes that fit neatly under my cutting table (a little larger than a large sweater box). I have way too much focus or feature fabric that don't fit and don't have accompanying fabric to blend in. I have already eliminated all the poor quality and fabric-I-now-hate from the stash. Still have boxes and boxes left! Stashbusters currently challenge requires actually finishing a quilt. I'll get a couple of those done done, but I'm just trying to finish tops, particularly those with one directional, fabulous novelty fabric. So, this blog mostly will document using yardage as I finish tops. It will inspire me to use more! Since I have to start somewhere, stash is defined as fabric purchased in 2005 or earlier and doesn't include scraps.

Stash use so far this year:
Diamond Scrap Quilt: 1 yard binding (black)
Floral Triple Irish Chain: 5 yards backing (shamrocks)
Eye Spy Reversible: 2 yards Mickey Mouse plus solid fabrics, 1.5 yards Eye Spy swap
Maple Leaf Quilt: 2 yards leaf fabrics (swap), 3 yards border + binding fabric, 7.5 yards backing fabric (pink paisley flannel)
Total stash use as of August 30: 22 yards