Stash Report: January 2014

Rather belatedly, I have decided to keep track of fabric bought and fabric used this year. So this post will include all purchases in January. Although this is supposed to be my year of sewing from stash, a couple of special needs and some really good sales have prompted more fabric buying than usual. 

January 4: Whittles was having a sale of Civil War Fat Quarters for the enticing price of $12.00 for a bundle of 10. So I bought four bundles (blue, green, brown, and neutrals) which comes to 10 yards. 

January 14: I'm making a Storytime Stars quilt for my grandson and I really needed some novelty prints for the center squares, another type of fabric I don't usually buy. So I bought six FQs: 1.5 yards.

January 21: Another sale at Whittles! This time it was wide fabric for quilt backings: 7.5 yards; as well as a bundle of red Civil War fat quarters: 2.5 yards. (The backings were very nice Civil War prints.)

January 22: A local quilt store had its Christmas fabrics marked down to 60% off! And I went kind of crazy here. Normally, when I'm stash building, I buy fat quarters or 1/2 yards because I'm a scrappy quilter and so variety is usually more important than quantity. But some these were stripes which I might want to use as sashings or borders. And some were not overtly Christmassy, such as the turquoise, blue, lavender and some of the greens. And I'm planning on starting a red and green quilt soon. So I ended up buying one yard, two yard, and even a few three yard pieces. The only half yards were the really Christmassy fabrics. My total was 37 yards!

January 24: At Road to California I only bought 1 yard of black on white print, and that only because it was marked down 50% off.

What projects did I finish? Only a dolly apron and dolly potholder. Even though it's lined, it probably took a little less than a fat quarter. 

I don't normally buy this much fabric -- especially not in such a short period of time! But if there's a really good sale I'd rather stock up now than pay full price for less fabric later.

Bought this month: 59.5 yards

Used this month: .25 yard

My goal this year is to use at least as much fabric as I buy -- preferably more. I wasn't quite sure quite how to figure my usage since most of my quilts are scrappy. But today, on Michelle's Romantic Tangle, I read a post titled "How Much Fabric?" which explains how to figure that out.

Now to finish one of my many projects so that I can start posting some negative numbers.

(I'm linking to the weekly Stash Report on Patchwork Times.)