In my time, I have made several quilts that are totally solids. I have made a few more that are mostly solids, with a few prints sprinkled in. I am taking a workshop this weekend with Maria Shell, and am so excited to be experimenting with her techniques with solids. I had to put together a bin of fabric to take to the workshop, which provided me a great reason to start to take stock of the solids in my stash.
I have been keeping my quilt fabrics in bins in my laundry room, organized by colors, primarily, with a few bins for solids by color family. As time went on, more fabrics were just folded on shelves, or tucked away. As I work on setting up my new sewing space, I have been moving only the fabrics for current projects upstairs. Time to haul the solids up.
I did not take before pictures of the mess, because it was embarrassing. Although I had, years ago, regularly ordered half yard color bundles from a now-defunct on line store, I didn't really think I had many solids, and was wondering if I needed to get more before the workshop. Now that I am done with the sorting process - the answer is NO!
So, I unloaded the bins, and started pressing. I made half yard cuts from one yard pieces, and folded up the neutrals where I had more than a two yards. Cuts that were about a quarter yard were separately pressed and folded. I have a smallish bin of smaller but still usable pieces.
I started by putting together a bind of primarily half yard bundles of different colors of fabric, to which I also added some quarter yard cuts in other colors. Turns out, this bin has 35 yards total of fabric! I truly had no idea!
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| Workshop bin! |
But, that wasn't the end of it. I made up a separate bin of half yards that were duplicates of the ones in the workshop bin. Another 12 or 13 yards total.
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| Extra smaller bin! |
I folded the neutrals (light tan, white, grey, black, and some yards of a deep navy) to put on my shelf. Probably another 12 - 15 yards.
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| Neutrals on the shelf! |
I have a much smaller bin of bits and pieces. I am not going to worry about how many yards are in this bin. I just am going to figure out what to do with these bits!
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| Bin of scraps. |
As I was writing this confession, post, I realized that I didn't photograph a bin of solids that is still in the basement. Last year I got organized to make a pixelated quilt, and chose a gray tone photo to work with. I carefully ordered about 8 yards of various colors to work with. However, my two current art classes are focused on black and white and the value scales, so I am getting my fill of all shades of gray and have put that project aside until classes are over in May! Next semester, painting and color theory - can't wait!
So, when I add those numbers up, it is really a shocker! I have at least 70 yards of solids in my stash! I'd better get cutting and quilting! (and better stop shopping!) (and I don't even want to think about how much printed fabric I have).
How much solid fabric do you have in your stash? Take care,
Gretchen
OMG Gretchen! I only have about 2 bins of solids... and one bin is only reds....... I'm bringing the other bin to the workshop for Catey and me.
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ReplyDeleteI have very few solids, although I am adding slowly. I bought some fat quarter bundles in shades of gray, blue and yellow for a blue/gray/mustard baby gift. And a few brighter fat quarters for a Bright Birches quilt in the future. That is all, unless you count the solid red 18" from framing few counted cross stitch pictures for my then fire fighter husband. So shopping is in my future!
ReplyDeleteI do not have many solids, but I do have a lot of totals that read almost like solids. Your blog post is not a confession, it is something we can all agree with and assure you that it is perfectly okay to have that many solids. :)
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