my other stash part 2 and folding

I showed Neo-Man all the other sites and the stashes out there and then showed him what I posted. He just kinda laughed and said "you were a little light on YOUR stash weren't you?"

He's right- after looking at everyones stash I realize that all the scraps I have accumulated from friends DOES count as part of my stash.

So, like Kare in OH I have to revise my original stash posting. Here goes...

These tubs are full of scraps of fabrics given to me by my friends- since I do alot of charity quilts, I tend to make them scrappy- and these tubs fit nicely under my LA frame. Stacked on top the tubs is extra stuffing donated to me- I'll probably use it for the dogs beds.

These bags have FQ that were part of the scraps that were donated to me. I have them sorted by color or theme. I also have scraps of batting that I use for baby quilts folded here.

Since my original post, I have received many emails asking how I fold my fabric so neatly. So I figured I would post a pic tutorial on the benefits of folding this way. Here goes.

FOLDING FABRIC 101

Take your long ruler, some are 6 inches mine is 5 inches wide. You lay your fabric out folded with the selvages together. Start by flipping the fabric over the ruler, and repeat, over and over and over....

once finished, pull your ruler out of the fabric and fold it over- there you have a nice neat stack.

Now you can add more pieces you have folded and they all line up evenly.

Now to answer the question- "HOW TO GET ONE OUT OF THE STACK?" This really is easy.

Say you want the blue fabric out of the middle of the stack in the shelves.

insert your ruler into the fabric stack ABOVE THE BLUE FABRIC you want

Then gently lift up on the ruler, releasing the pressure on the fabric and gently pull the blue fabric out of the stack.

OR

You place your ruler UNDER the fabrics you want and place your fingers in the folds of the blue & purple fabric and gently pull on these while pushing back on the rest of the stack.

Now say you have a fold of fabric you want to place into the stack- here's how.

Slide your ruler into the stack where you want the fabric to go. Pull the fabrics ABOVE THE RULER OUT ON THE RULER.

Place the blue & purple fabric on the ruler and then stack the others on top of these. Slide the whole stack back in place ontop of the ruler- they will glide easily into place. Then pull out the ruler and you are done!

I recently went to a friends house to help her organize her stash that was OUT OF CONTROL. She had no idea what fabric she had because it was all in tubs still in the bags from the LQS.

Here we have it all out and are beginning to fold it and organize the half yards and FQ's

Here is the finished room all cleaned up.

and this is what she owns- her pride and joy! And luck her- she has a hugh cedar closet to store it all in... nice!

and all her jelly rolls unrolled and folded filled this rack.

It was a pleasure being able to fondle her stash and help her get it all organized. We had fun...

Neo-Man is waiting for me to get that enthusiastic about cleaning mine up.... maybe I will hold out for a cedar closet.... good excuse for me!

Lesson over!

Later Darlin'

my stash...

Judy L over at Patchwork Times wants us to show our stash, to take pics and then use the fabric and in Jan 2010 take another pic, and at the end of 2010 another pic... hopefully showing how much we have used. The objective is to use our stash...

So here goes... this is my shelves in the front sewing studio. I folded all my fabric a couple of years ago when I learned to fold it over the long ruler, that way making it all the same size and it stacks very nicely. In the bins between the shelves is more fabric, mostly FQ's. The small bins on the top shelves are full of small novelty strips for the baby quilts.

This is the second shelving unit with my stash in it. This is mostly all backing fabrics and my christmas fabric. This is in the other room near my frame. I have a few tubs with fabric in them but they are spread out- too hard to take a pic of.

Now for the reality check................ My sewing table!

Neo-Man says that a small Portuguese family is living under the pile of fabric in the corner of the table.

That is zip bags with blocks in them... most are projects to finish or baby blocks for love cover quilts. The corner seems to be a catch-all of everything I want to keep out and will use. The bulletin board is where I pin notes and patterns...

Neo-Man has told the firemen he works with that if our house catches fire- just bring a chair- pack a lunch and sit outside and spray water on it... with all the fabric in one main area it will smolder for days.........

I guess is time to organize my table.... and time to get busy sewing.

Since I am finally done canning!!! I put up beets, green beans, corn, tomatoes, applesauce and apple pie filling & peach filling.

later Darlin'