How to Quilt>Use Your Stash of Fabric for Quilts
Using Your Stash of Quilting Fabric
Fat Quarter Quilts
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Using your stash can be like making a quilt with fat quarters.
Get the inside track on choosing fabrics, designing blocks and planning your fat quarter quilt.
Your friends and family will be amazed to see what you can do with small bits of fabric, and Penny will guide you through planning your quilt to make the best use of your fat quarters.
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The only thing quilters like to talk about more than quilting is their quilting stash – all those pieces of fabric bought because they’d be absolutely perfect for some quilt, some day. If your stash is outgrowing its space (and whose isn’t?), there are lots of fun and beneficial ways to start putting that fabric to use.
- Find something and make it. The popular athletic shoe motto of “Just do it” applies here. You bought the fabric because it would be perfect for something. Find that quilt pattern and just do it.
- Make lots of little, fast projects to make a dent in that stash. For instance, make pillows and wall hangings instead of a queen size quilt. If you’ve already got a quilt made out of some of the fabrics, use the leftovers from your stash to make the coordinating accessories.
- Quilt for a local charity. Many nursing homes and hospitals welcome the gift of handmade quilts to be given to their patients. Call on your friends to use up their stash by joining your cause. Your army of quilters will quickly whittle down their stashes and will be helping people at the same time.
- Make quilted postcards. Plan your holiday, birthday, special occasion, and sympathy quilted postcards and get to work. After you’ve created them, categorize them for easy storage. It’s true that you will still have something to store, but you will have a product that eliminates purchases of mass produced paper cards. You can also use your postcards to encourage troops overseas, cheer up hospital patients, give to teachers during National Educators Week, etc.
- Donate part of your stash. Oooh, that’s a touchy one for most of us. But the idea is to donate the stash to a group to whom you will give quilting lessons. Many local libraries offer crafting workshops. Check your local community center, too. Be sure to check with your local schools. Many offer after school or summer programs that would be full of kids who would learn to love your craft. Area senior adult centers are another good place to check with. They may already have a quilters club established and would love to have you and your donated stash be part of their program.
- Try something new. If you’ve never tried appliqué, use some of your stash to begin your first appliqué project. If you don’t like the technique or are not satisfied with the outcome, at least you haven’t invested more money in fabric. On the plus side, if you love the outcome of the project you will also have the personal satisfaction of knowing you helped eliminate some of your stash.
- When in doubt, yo-yo. Use up your smaller stash pieces by making yo-yos. Fabric yo-yos have so many uses! There’s the obvious yo-yo quilt. Other yo-yo projects include pillows, wall hangings, place mats, mantel and table runners, tree skirts, stockings, holiday décor, items for appliqué onto garments and even soft sculptured jewelry.
- Make quilting kits. Use your stash to cut quilt pieces for small projects (or large ones depending on the size of your stash). Seal the fabric pieces in a resealable plastic bag along with directions, diagrams and a finished photo if possible. Sell the quilting kits at area craft shows.
- Sell it. Sort through your stash and determine which pieces you will likely never use. Get online and auction those off! Be sure to familiarize yourself with auction rules and don’t get caught by any hidden fees.
- Organize a stash bash – a party in which you and your fabric-loving friends bring pieces they want to trade. Keep it small and invite only those you know, or make it a big community event by sending an announcement to your local newspaper and radio stations, hanging fliers at local craft stores, etc.
And if you have fabric in your stash that is so old, you don't really know whether it is a high enough quality to include in a quilt, here are a few tips: Buying Quality Fabric for Your Quilt
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren
www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com
©2009, Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 27 years who seeks to interest new
quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create
beautiful quilts.
This article courtesy of http://www.How-To-Quilt.com.
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