2017: Taking Stock and Re-Grouping (Fabric Diet 2017)

This is the complete picture: my newly sorted stash, the new smaller and emptier scrap bins on the floor, and the die-cut squares in bins over to the right on the floor. This is my new sewing room and I love it.

In August of 2016, we moved out of our house so that we could have it renovated. Moving and packing up everything was a chance to really look at everything we have and assess what we really like or even need.  I took the opportunity to give away a lot of stuff. 

The remodel process lasted through the holidays and in to the new year. It was a stressful time between living in a temporary space, making big construction decisions, trying to sew and still carry on with every-day life.  I took my sewing machine to our temporary home, along with 1 tub of fabric.  Sewing with just 1/5 of my stash and having to store it and work in our bedroom made me think about what I really liked, needed, and used.

It made me think that I wanted to regroup before moving back in to my "new" sewing room, and re-think habits and how much fabric I own. In fact, I've chosen "Regroup" as my word for 2017, and I'm calling this whole process my "Fabric Diet 2017" (#fabricdiet2017).  I'm starting this (sewing) year off with a few goals:

2017 Sewing Goals

1. Stash 
     My stash is large, and I would like it to be smaller.  I love being able to make a quilt simply by pulling fabric out of my stash, but it's to the point where I don't care for a lot of my fabric anymore, and it would take me 10 years of sewing to use it all up.  Going forward I would like to be more deliberate and thoughtful in my fabric purchases.

2. Tracking
     How much fabric do I have? How much fabric to I use in a year?  I would like to know the answers to these questions, and I would like to use more fabric than I purchase this year.  Here on my blog I will be documenting and sharing what I own, buy, and use.

3. Scraps
    All of my scraps are sorted by color and are in individual bins.  I would like to be able to store them all in smaller bins, and actually have extra room in the bins. I would also like to have my scraps in a form where I will be more inclined to use them.

Just over half of my stash is shown here in its new permanent home.

Action Items

1. Stash
Jeni Baker gave me the idea to start tracking my fabric purchases and usage, but to start off, I wanted to know how much fabric I already owned.  So as part of unpacking my sewing room, I inventoried all of my quilting fabric. I measured and folded every piece of quilting fabric that I own.  Lots of it went on my new shelves, and about 1/3 of it went in to bins for a de-stash (stay tuned for that). So here it is: I currently own 544 yards of quilting cotton. Wowzer. (The picture above shows about half of it).

2. Tracking
Using Excel, I plan to track fabric usage by project and month, and fabric purchases individually.  At the end of each month, I will publish a blog post giving a summary of my fabric usage and purchases.  By destashing a lot of fabric, and focusing on using what I already own, I hope to be down 100 - 200 yards of fabric by the end of the year (over all).

3. Scraps
I die-cut most of my scraps in to 2 1/2" and 3 1/2" squares, and plan to donate the scraps that are too small to be die-cut (strings). All of my scraps are currently in smaller bins with lots of extra space in each bin and I hope to keep it that way for the rest of the year.

I spent hours die-cutting scraps on a borrowed Go! Accuquilt machine over the holidays.

Here are my new (smaller) scrap bins. Look there is even extra room in each of them.

This is what 8-10 pounds of die-cut squares looks like.

Destash
I plan to have a large destash in Mid-March to pass along a lot of nice fabric to people who will use it. I will be selling cuts for $5/yd or less.  I have created a destash profile over on Instrgram. Follow me at @goosequiltsdestash for more info on the destash.

This is the fabric that I will be de-stashing in Mid-March.

January Tracking
In January, I didn't buy any new fabric, but I did make up some blocks to start off my quilt for the "I Wish I Could Go Too" Traveling Quilt Bee. (#iwishicouldgotootravelingquiltbee)
Fabric Purchases: Zip, Zero, Zilch
Fabric Used Up: 1.75 yards
Net: -1.75     

I feel like I'm off to a good start for 2017!

The tree block for my traveling bee quilt was inspired by Svetlana Sotek (@sotakhandmade). The pattern for the paper-pieced snowflakes is by Amy Friend (@duringquiettime).