Stash Reduction Report

I’ve noticed several quilting bloggers keeping track of “stash in, stash out” – that is how much new fabric they acquire vs. how much of existing stash that they use.

So I decided to do the same thing for my fabric stash. Based on January numbers, I’m not doing too well as far as using up stash:

Added to stash in January: 22-1/2 yards
Stash used in January:        5 yards
Net:                                  -17-1/2 yards

Yep, I added a lot of new fabric to the stash in January. But when you consider that I hadn’t purchased any fabric for probably 10 months (other than the two block-of-the-month programs I was part of that have now completed), that really only averaged about 2 yards per month.

I will be updating my “STASH IN/STASH OUT” report every week or so moving forward, so here is February through today, as well as year-to-date numbers.

Added to stash Feb. 1 through Feb. 8: 10 yards (40 fat quarters of Bonnie and Camille’s fabulous new “Bliss” fabrics.

If you haven’t seen this wonderful fabric, here are a few photos. I’m loving the aqua and red, which has become a quilting standard hearkening back to the 30s.

Because I have 5 quilts being quilted, that definitely bumped up the “stash out” numbers. I’m counting quilts that may have been completed in the past, but that I finally got around to getting quilted (as well as their binding and backing fabric). So far I haven’t had to purchase new fabric for the backing – I had either already purchased backing fabric or was able to make do with something I had on hand (or even pieced the backing from leftover fabrics from the quilt).

Stash used Feb. 1 through Feb. 8: 30-3/4 yards (yes, those 5 quilts that are being quilted helped here!)

Year to date:
Stash added: 32-1/2 yards
Stash used:    35-3/4 yards
Net:               3-1/4 yards

Yippee! I’ve used 3-1/4 more yards this year than I’ve purchased. We’ll see how well this trend continues.

PS: don't miss out on the giveaway in the previous post!