Friday 28 September 2007

The Best Laid Plans...


It wasn't meant to turn out this way. I said I wanted to reduce the piles of fabric around here to manageable levels, but I don't think I really knew what that meant. It means that your fabric gets used up! Gone! Just little itty bitty pieces left. This is not good.

When a piece comes home, it is because it is loved. There are very few strictly utilitarian fabrics around here. Somebody at one time put a lot of thought into the pattern, the colours, the effect of each of these pieces, and I really do regard them as a kind of art collection. The swatches above are some of the last bits of favourites of mine, and so I'm starting an ark. A fabric ark of squares. I just can't bear to part with them.

Maybe I'll make an ark quilt someday. What do you do with your favourites?

3 comments:

Christina.B said...

i do the same thing, building a stash (unintentionally)of favorites,even keeping scraps... to potentially use them for some applique in the near future.

Anonymous said...

It really is OK to use them all up. Really. Mind you, it's taken many many years of fabric hoarding, crazy bins full of scrap, and practical resignation to arrive at this conclusion, but there you go. The trick is to find a project or technique that you can actually use wee bits in. Then when you finally use up that last little bit, you will at least have used it up rather than tossed it (horrors!).
And remember, there will ALWAYS be another great piece of fabric right around the corner. (I need to have that made into bumper stickers or something.)
I dig the idea of a fabric ark quilt, though...hmmm...

www.alexsings.ca said...

I cut one 2 inch square and one 6 inch square (if possible) of every piece of fabric I bring home. I keep those squares in stacks and fondle them. Eventually, I will make 2 quilts out of these pieces, and then I will continue collecting.

The second last time I moved, I read an article that said you should only move things that you love. As I packed up 15 boxes of fabric, I fondled and loved every single piece!