Managing fabric

Okay, let's just put this out there at the beginning ... If you quilt, you have a fabric obsession, and probably a fabric overload and storage challenge.  You've seen my fabric stash sorted by color, and occasionally by collection.

This is the collection section.

And by color.  

Most of my stuff is in the cottage -- where I sew and longarm.  Before I moved over here, my sewing room was our guest bedroom upstairs in our house.  Some of my stuff remains still in that room, including plastic boxes full of unfinished projects.  I will not show you that picture today!  Haha

So yesterday I was looking for a kit I know I have, and started going through those bins.  I grabbed a lot of projects that I keep passing over ... I also pulled out two blocks of the month I have been pushing around for about 8 years.  Here is what I asked myself:

1.  Am I EVER going to finish this project?  Really????

2.  Do I LOVE it enough to finish?

3.  Will it make me happy to finish it, or is it something that I can let go of and pass along?

4.  Is it so old and out of date that anyone would really want it??

In answering these questions, here is what happened ... Two blocks of the month were disassembled.  The patterns were tossed and I sorted and folded the fabric, adding it to my stash.  Wow ... That was easy to do and I have a lot of useable fabric now that was sitting in a kit.

There were a lot of pieces that were larger than a strip, but an odd size to add to a stash if fabric.  So I decided to make several stacks of squares:  7 1/2", 6 1/2" and 5" (charm pack size).  From there I had strips left over, so I trimmed those down to file away in my strip baskets:

Before I did the fabric reorganizing, I took out the projects that I thought I wanted to keep; decided what they needed; put them in individual bags with only the fabric that was absolutely necessary to finish, and then wrote them all down on a list.

That is a group of 12 --- yes 12! --- projects that I am going to finish by the end of the year.  I am so excited.  

Here's part of the list .. In no particular order.  They range in age between 11 years old and 1 month old.  So excited to start getting the rest of my sewing projects under control.  I will blog about them as I finish them.

Now here's my challenge to you ... Pick one thing you are going to finish before the end of the year, and leave me a comment.  I've never done a giveaway before, but that is what I'm gonna do!!  I'll have a random drawing and the winner will get a kit for Scaredy Cat by Little Bits by Joan

A wool appliqué project that fits in a 14"  x 7" frame.  The kit will include the wool, and pattern.  Please leave your comments by Monday, October 7.  I'll pick a winner on Tuesday.

Good luck and dig out those projects!