Exploring the Basics - Using Your Stash

You have your perfect project.  Check!

You have decided why you are making it (for you, for decor, for a gift). Check!

You have a color scheme in mind. Check!

You have considered your options - do I head the fabric store and support my local quilt shop (awesome!), or do I shop my stash??? Screech....everything just ground to a halt. Dilemma! 

Perhaps your budget is tighter than your desire to stitch up something new. Or perhaps your shelves are overflowing - onto the floor, the couch, and every other surface (ahem....I may be projecting just a bit here...sorry). In any event, shopping your stash is always an option.  Besides, if you reduce your stash, now you have an AMAZING reason to go shopping for more new fabric, right?!

So let's chat stash.  

How do you store your stash?  I know, I know - this isn't a post on storage (that's MUCH later).  But let's be honest.  How you store your stash can directly impact your ability to USE your stash!  Do you have a system - an order to how your stash is stored?

Some suggestions for making your stash more "shop-able":

• organize by color
• group by theme (terrific for novelty and themed fabrics)
• store by type (flannel, batik, double wide)

• label closed storage, such as boxes or totes (in the picture above, I've used some adorable labels I found in the scrapbooking aisle of my local craft store)
• easy access to stored fabrics, boxes, bins, baskets
• scrap horder?  Great - me too!  Group scraps by color, type or theme, again for easy access

You are looking at your stash, and considering your options.  You BELIEVE you have all the fabrics in the colors you need.  Great.  So any issues? Perhaps.

Because you are using your stash, and haven't shopped specifically for a certain project, you may discover (yikes!) that you don't have EXACTLY the amounts you need. Awesome (heavy sarcasm here!).  So do you scrap your terrific plan to reduce your stash, grab your keys and head to your local quilt shop?  

Hold on.  Here are some suggestions for making adjustments - either to the pattern or to your approach to what fabrics will work.

Consider some of those lovely vintage quilts many of us drool over.  Most of them have a somewhat scrappy approach, as the quilter had to use what she had, rather than drop into her local quilt shop and purchase all matching fabric.  

Let's look at this example above.  I took a closeup picture of a few blocks in this charming, very very scrappy quilt.  Look at what the quilter did.  While the overall quilt is very scrappy, she stayed fairly consistent with her placement of light and dark value patches.

And just to empower you a BIT more, look at this block from the quilt.  She ran out of the lovely soft blue - so bravely (and charmingly) substituted in what was probably originally a super light blue (but now has faded to almost white).  It works!

And here's one of my absolute favorites (and not JUST because my Great-Aunt, Mama Turner, made it).  Look at the use of two different (but very close) greens and the sprinkling of royal blue and red as backgrounds.  Awesome!

For a more modern approach, let's use this simple NinePatch/Hourglass mock up for discussion.

Here is a simple quilt, using four fabrics (light blue, dark teal, gold and cream).  As is, you would need 1 3/4 yards of the cream, 1 yard of the dark teal, and approximately 3/4 yard of the light blue and of the gold.  Terrific.

But....you view your stash, and you don't have those quantities.  What to do?  Look for SIMILAR fabrics that you can mix in and use in the same places.

Let's look at this version.  Still the same color ways, but with more fabrics mixed in.  I kept the background cream the same (but of course you could substitute in more creams).  Now I have TWO dark teals/greens, FOUR golds, and THREE different light blues.  The overall effect is very similar, but scrappier.  

Here's a practical example for you using some fabrics from my stash (grin!).  The top two fabrics are SUPER close in value and how they "read" BECAUSE the base color is the same (darker teal) AND the print (the grid type print and lines/dashes) are in cream and lighter teal.  The third, bottom fabric, while in the teal family, reads lighter.  If I wanted a completely scrappy approach, I could throw it in the mix as well.

Wait - you don't like scrappy?  The closer the fabrics are to each other in value (hue and intensity), the less scrappy the overall effect will be.  Consider working with blenders - fabrics that have a print, but read as a solid.  Without the addition of other colors in the print, such as varied florals, the more similar the fabrics will appear.

I'm not going to sugar coat it - you may have to break out the calculator to figure out just what you will need when substituting multiple fabrics for a single fabric in a pattern.  Some considerations:  

• How many subcuts or units can I get from a single WOF strip?  
• How wide is my fabric (many patterns assume 40", which means if you have wider fabric - say 42" or 44" - you can get a few more cuts from that strip)?  
• Is ALL of my fabric prewashed or NOT prewashed - you'll want to have all fabrics handled the same to avoid any shrinkable and bleeding issues.
• Do I want to make the full version of the pattern?  Or can I make a smaller size and perhaps get a less scrappy look with the smaller project?

Here's the same project (nine patch/hour glass), but as a table runner.  Since it is MUCH smaller, the yardage requirements are significantly less: 1 yard of cream, 1/2 yard of dark teal, 3/8 yard of light blue, and 5/8 yard of gold.  Much more doable if you are working with limited yardages.

In any event, the choice is yours - which is one of my favorite aspects of quilting.  The ability to make a project uniquely mine and to express my vision for the project.  My last piece of advice:  relax, enjoy the process, play with color options.  You may just discover a new appreciation for a color, for working with scale and value, or for a new color/print combination!

A little bonus for you (for reading all the way to the end AND for being an awesome quilty friend!)  Here's a chart you can print out to keep track of which fabrics YOU are using when making a pattern.  There's room for you to glue or tape a snippet of fabric and help you remember which is YOUR Fabric A, Fabric B, etc.  Enjoy!

Head over to Kate's blog.  She has, as always, great insights for you on the pros and cons of precuts.

Like what you see here, and want to hear more from Tamarinis? Like me on Facebook, follow me on Instagram, and sign up for my newsletter at www.tamarinis.com!  Following is one way to demonstrate your interest in my projects, patterns, and partnerships.  Your comments are also GREATLY appreciated, and provide valuable feedback regarding what inspires you, as well as what you'd like to see explored in future posts.  And did you know?  I travel and teach!  Contact me to schedule a trunk show and/or workshop!