How much is TOO MUCH? { life with scraps} | Go-Go Kim

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Sunday, January 26, 2014

How much is TOO MUCH? { life with scraps}

Over time I have accumulated fabric.  In the beginning it was mostly children's prints since I was sewing mostly for babies but then I discovered Heather Ross and Denyse Schmidt and that is where my real stash began and my scraps!

So, how much is too much?

If you are a scrappy quilter it is a good thing to have many fabric scraps to choose from. I love scrappy quilts like the scrappy Courthouse Steps Quilt. There is not a repeat fabric in any of those blocks. I LOVED making it.



When pulling fabric for the Baby Love quilt I realized how terrible my stash had become.  It was not working for me, I was fighting with it.  It has been a long time coming but in the past four or so months I have not had the time or energy to keep the disaster at bay. It took me forever to go through ALL the piles to find what I needed. When I had the quilt top completed, I folded and fabrics and placed the correct scraps in the correct bins...IT WAS AMAZING!  So I did what any crazy quilter would do...I went into my sewing room and started DUMPING all the fabrics on the floor to sort through them.

**** WARNING****
*You may want to cover your eyes, this is NOT a pretty sewing room photo*


This is my sewing room TOSSED!  It was easier for me to just yank everything off the shelves, throw it down on the ground and sort through it.

I put my piles O Pellon in the corner for safe keeping and then went to folding and sorting.

 By this afternoon, I was here.  I have some colors sorted and stored properly.  I still have many to do but am pleased with the progress I am making.



My collections that I want to try to keep together are on this smaller shelf.  I still have Heather Ross to go through. She may get her own spot ;o)

I had to enlist help at the end of the day to tackle the biggest job.  I had five bins of scraps that have been accumulating for over four years...

We already had to upgrade to larger bins for the blue and green scraps and we have a ton to go...YIKES!



The best part of all of this is I am also going to be destashing. I will not be selling or trading but I will be having a series of giveaways.  The one caveat is that you are a friend ( follower) here on my blog. This is a sample shot of some of the giveaways. There is TONS of great fabric here that is not getting love and I believe ALL FABRIC should be loved!



So stay tuned for news on the giveaways. They will hopefully be this week, if I can get the weather to cooperate.


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51 comments

Tiffany said...

Wow. That is definitely a lot of scraps. I'm a little jealous. ;)

Sue said...

I've been doing the same thing this weekend, except mine was a lot worse, it was a catch all for all the family junk :( I am able to see the floor now, that's a bonus! Still have to sort my scraps though. I may actually be able to sew in there this week!

Sally said...

I love the crazy pile of scraps! Earlier this year, our guild has a workshop with Victoria Findlay Wolfe and she brought in two or three white garbage bags of scraps for us to use. It makes me wonder if she brought that many for us, how many/how often do those scraps accumulate? (and then I don't feel so bad about my three little rubbermaid boxes of scraps) Anyway, you giveaways will be fun to watch for!

Kim said...

WOw!!! I love that picture of you with all of the scraps! Though the shelves of pretty fabric look great also. Good luck finishing up the scraps!

Alison V. said...

YAY I CAN'T WAIT

Paige said...

Oh my word. That's a lot of scraps! The shelves look so happy with rainbow-y goodness!

Debbie said...

I thought I had a lot of scraps, but mine do not even compare. That's a lotta scraps!

Hayley said...

Holy Dooley!! Good on you for cleaning / destashing. I have trouble getting rid of the smallest pieces in case I need them...

Margaret said...

Now I know who has all of the Katie Jump Rope I've been wanting.... Good thing I don't know where you love. ;-)

linynp said...

Great minds thinking alike! I'm doing the same thing. Except you're way ahead!!!!!! It's looking great and thanks for the inspiration.

needle and nest said...

Wowza! If you happen to have too many scraps and feel the need to... ahem... re-home them I'm sure you'd find plenty of scrap addicts (myself included!) willing to take them off your hands. I can't wait for the giveaways!

Kris said...

Now is that a big bunch of scraps or what? wow
The cabinet looks great with all those folded pieces in it.

Allison said...

I can't imagine how great it felt to dump everything, look at it all, and then have time to sort and store realizing what you will really use. Now you have beautiful shelves and wonderful scrap bins/buckets to show your hard work paid off!

Ella said...

I try to pretend I don't have too many scraps....after all, if I spread them out over 4 rooms in the house, there's less...right? Also, my sewing room looks like yours when you tossed it...that, ahem, it mine's natural state.

Jayme said...

omg! omg omg OMG!! I see lizzy house!!!

Kathy said...

You can never have too many scraps smile

Arita said...

Love scraps and could always use more. Good for you to sort and clean up.

Linh said...

Wow you got a lot of fabric good job tackling it! I love your courthouse step quilt. I wish I had as much scrap!

DeborahGun said...

wow - what a job! Well done for getting some of it so neatly sorted and so generous to be giving some of it away too :-)

Julie said...

Wow - an amazing amount of fabric. Love that cabinet arranged by colour too,

Fran said...

Your courthouse steps quilt is lovely. And your scraps are amazing! Good to have a little helper for tasks like this.

margaret said...

you sem to be having a great time with your sort out. Like the way you have the fabrics on shelves, I store my in drawers but much prefer your way. See what you mean about scraps, I have very few but no doubt the pile will grow as I quilt more.
Love the quilt, so colourful. Wonder if you have gone back to sorting again today, now you have started there will be no stopping you

Jo @ life in lists said...

Wow, what a sort out! I have been forced into clearing my stash a bit recently as we moved house, but it wasn't quite as bountiful as yours! Love the way its displayed in the shelves.

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Going to show those pics to my husband to prove I do not have a problem!!

justacraftymother said...

Around Christmas time I did the same thing! I had all my scraps of many sizes in ziplock bags by color and then some in bins. I went thru them all, ironed them out and followed what Lori Holtz does, cutting them to 1"-4" pieces. That way they are all ready to go for any scrappy quilt or logcabin, or any other project. It was very cathartic! And now everything is neater and like you, I got rid of some very very old fabric, that was also of a lesser quality since I've become a fabric snob. ;)

New Salem Homestead said...

You are an inspiration to get mine done! I just have not wanted to spend the dumping 3 closets to reorganize them. On the other hand I think of the time I waste looking for something I know I have.

Kerstin said...

Not so long ago, I did the same. It took about three days to clean up my sewing room, but when it was done it felt amazing! Good luck finishing yours!

Dorian said...

Oh wow, what a mess. LOL. Looks kind of fun though, sorting and making it all pretty :)

CurlyGirlMom said...

There is nothing that I love more than bringing order to chaos! I love how you stored some of your scraps in large mason jars on top of the bookshelf. :) I'm going to have to remember that idea. ...If you can find a way for the weather to cooperate, we'd ALL be grateful!! I think the entire country is tired of hearing about or living with this horrible, cold and snowy winter already!

Elsa said...

Oh Wow! you've got lots of fabric and scraps ~ me too. I went through some of mine the other day and sorted out some I don't want any more. What a great idea to do giveaways!

Mary Caldwell said...

I love that you have the Little People silo in your fabric cabinet~!

Lisa Lisa said...

You did an amazing job of sorting yesterday! Wow! I didn't get nearly as much accomplished because I kept getting distracted. Looking forward to the giveaways :)

knottygnome said...

ahh yes. it feels good to organize doesn't it? though i too ended up making a huge mess along the way.

Leah said...

looking good. I have been going through my scraps as well. It is nice to get things organized.

Jan Baker said...

My guest room is where I store my fabric. Hopefully no one comes to visit fir a while as my dusters and I trashed it when we were working n Christmas projects.

Donna said...

Love the before and after pictures! I've started going through my scraps too and it's a huge job, but worth it. Enjoy the result!

Sleepy Cat Hollow said...

We just moved this weekend...and the loft/bedroom/sewing room is big enough for more books shelves...ie: I get to have my pretties out with me instead of shoved into a closet!

Awesome job you did there!

Anonymous said...

Looks great. What size does you smallest scraps have to be before you keep them? I think I am keeping too many. Also, do you square them up or do that when you use them?

Jodi said...

Ouch, you must be tired! Thanks for the warning - I better get a grip before I'm in the same boat!

Katy Cameron said...

One day I want to come and visit, just to ooh and ahh over the collection of fabulousness!

Am L said...

Good job tackling that project. My sewing space and fabric need a major overhaul. I'm trying to only purchase to add to a project, and not for an entire project, if that makes sense. Both of my current projects are from my stash. I tend to stuff my scraps in a large plastic Ziploc, but I haven't sorted them!

Katherine said...

Cheering for you, Kim! It makes a world of difference to sort it all out and make the tough decisions (what stays and what goes) with your stash, but it's so worth it. I had to do this myself, recently and it felt so good afterwards (to not only be able to find what I wanted, when I wanted but to pass on fabrics to others that would love them). Bravo!!!

Cecilia said...

That is a major undertaking! But, don't you love the feeling of having an organized and clean sewing room? I did this not too long ago and it is so much nicer having everything organized and in its place. Although I don't have as big a stash as yours. :-). I'm looking forward yo your giveaways, so maybe I can add to my stash.

Sooli said...

Look at all those scraps! You will definitely use them more now they're sorted into colours. Best thing I ever did with mine and I don't have quite as many as you! I just got a new set of drawers and have just put all my fabric in them after having had to store it in plastic tubs for years. So much easier on my back!

jeifner said...

Lizzy House, Halloween and Aurifil?! How exciting :) That is a huge pile of scraps. I'd like the think I don't have that many but methinks I protest too much. Except I usually end up with tons of small triangles.

Carolquilts1 said...

Cuteness, don't feel bad about my room, more importantly, no matter what your room looks like, you have those fabulous windows to look out of everyday. Super stash, super giveaways in the future!

Lisa C said...

It is so hard to take the plunge and begin organizing but it feels amazing about half way through and then totally exciting when you're done. Good luck and great job!

Jackie said...

I've stored my scraps according to size regardless of colour but after seeing you on the floor with all the colour baskets I think I may change my storage system. Thanks for sharing.

Michele said...

I think we all understand. I couple of months ago I dumped out all my scraps too and sorted them by color. This year I'm going to actually use some of them up.

Chiska said...

You've inspired me to sort mine. Your quilt is beautiful.

The Calico Cat said...

Officially, my son would love that fire truck!

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