Journey of Quilting

Quilting Without Obligation {Part Five}

Stop hoarding your fabric! I'm not yelling at you, I'm yelling that at myself... :) You know that TV show Hoarders? I wonder when we are going to see a quilter on that show buried under her fabric. LOL

Fabric is a funny thing. It is beautiful, not exactly cheap, and most of the time it is pretty plentiful. Most of us are confessed fabric addicts and the rest of you... well, you will get out of your denial at some point.

I hated going to the fabric store when I was a kid. DESPISED it. I read other bloggers talking about their life-long love of fabric starting when they were little girls. Not me. The only thing I liked was hiding under the bolt racks; that and the bribe of candy or ice cream if we were decently behaved.

My husband is probably reading this and just about now is wondering what the heck happened to his fabric-hating wife. This is the same man who likened my fabric buying tendencies to a cigarette habit the other day. The nerve!

So, I have a fabric habit but I wouldn't exactly call it out of control after seeing some other quilter's stashes. Yes, you know who you are. But I have a nice cabinet and some plastic bins full of fabric. Beautiful fabric... {sigh} that I miss when I'm at work... {bigger sigh}

When I started quilting I had no idea what the difference was between Joann's fabric and Amy Butler fabric. I know, I was very naive but I also quickly learned and thus began my love affair with fabric. For some time I would buy stacks of fat quarters from various designer lines. I would open up the mail envelope, touch the fabric, smell it {weird}, and neatly put it away in my cabinet never to see light until I was ready to make a quilt or at least "play quilt".

I accumulated quite the collection, using special prints sparingly, and then I did it. I cut into some of my Heather Ross prints. And then I cut into my Hope Valley collection. I even packaged up some of my favorite fabrics and sent them out to my Fresh Modern Bee members to make another quilt. I'm making quilts out of the fabrics I had been hoarding! Sometimes I'll get comments about a quilt telling me that I'm brave for cutting into a certain collection and I have to giggle a little because I used to feel the same way. But really, what good are my beautiful fabrics doing sitting in a dark?

We buy these fabrics presumably to make something beautiful and then we hide them away on shelves?? Perhaps because we haven't found the perfect pattern but sometimes I wonder if it's more to say that we have such-and-such line that becomes hard to find, out of print, or collectible out of obligation to the "in crowd" of quilting.

Forgive me as I'm about to border on fabric blasphemy but... I'm tired of Flea Market Fancy! Phew! I said it. I think I heard the air being sucked out of blogland but I feel better. :)

Fresh and modern are the new buzz words in quilting. But really, what's fresh and modern about using the same old prints over and over in quilts? That sounds a lot like obligation to me. Don't get me wrong, these sought after fabrics are truly beautiful and I've even splurged on a few pieces for myself. But $40 + for a fat quarter? Really??

Quite honestly, I'd rather spend $10 a yard on some new, truly fresh and modern fabric lines and instead of hoarding them, make a quilt out of them. I did this with my Hope Valley fabric and I made a quilt for me that I truly love. The best part is that I use it every night and I see it every time I walk in our family room. That beats the heck out of it sitting in my dark cabinet or in a plastic bin in the closet! I did the same with my Heather Ross fabric and I laugh at myself for taking so long to make a quilt that I will get to enjoy every day.

So, do it! Cut into your fabric that you've been hoarding! I know you can!

What fabric have you been hoarding? OR what new line are you dying to buy and actually make a quilt out of??

Edited to add: And just so you know, I have no problem with a nice stash of fabric... just don't get to the point where you won't cut into your fabric because it's so-and-so designer! :)