As I was pulling fabrics to try and find something to go with my orange fabric, I noticed a strange phenomenon. My collection spans lots of years of fabric buying, but I seem to buy the same fabric over and over.
I looked at the orange stack…
Really, really similar and there were more I could have added to this stack!
Everyone collects black and white, but does everyone have a collection of black, gold, silver, graphic? And, of course, there were more that I could have added!
And in the orange category again, I love rusty, terra cotta colored fabrics, too.
It isn’t limited to the oranges. Oh, no–blues, greens, yellows…turquoise, too.
I often say that if I’m making a two-color quilt, I use 47 shades of each color. I guess that’s how I buy fabric, too. And mostly mediums, of course. Very short on the light end of the spectrum and not enough on the dark end, either.
Shall I use this as an excuse to buy more fabric or work harder on using up what I have? Remember what I showed you the other day, with all that fabric on my shelves?
My answer should be obvious, but can I really resist the new fabrics I see whenever I go into a quilt store?
I guess I’m just starting a collection for the next generation, ’cause I’m sure not going to be able to use all this up in my lifetime!!!
Quirks Ltd. 
I need to organize also… Have fabrics from a different life time in the 80’s.
I keep thinking I can just “paint, dye ” over them. It is good fabric..Not buying more, working through what I have, if it does not work it will go out!
Charity Quilts are a good way to recycle, or maybe the little flowers will come back!
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I’m not holding my breath for the little flowers to come back…or the big flowers, either. It IS good fabric–just not for me anymore. I think I’ll feel better about myself if it’s recycled through charity quilts.
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You can always recycle it to someone else to make charity quilts if there is too much.
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I’ve done a tiny bit of that, too and I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing a lot more of it. I DO have too much!
On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 11:47 PM, Quirks Ltd.
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How about donating some of your “medium” fabrics to a local thrift shop and then treating yourself to some new “lights” and “darks”? I’ve donated so many fabric/sewing/craft items to a shop that supports a wild animal sanctuary that they had to create a Craft Corner! I love to see it disappear from their shelves – I’ve made someone else happy and I’m happy – it’s win-win!
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I am trying to de-stash, but not much for local thrift shops in this area. My guild makes charity quilts and really doesn’t need the fabric so much as they need finished tops. I think much of it will be going that direction, especially some lovely “What was I thinking?” yardage! And I really need to get some more lights and darks–really, really, I do!
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I think you should use AND buy! Who is it that created that “scale” of color with numbers for each color? I know you know this intuitively but some of us have to “cheat”. The idea being to balance the colors; so yellow got the most points and therefor you just added bits of it and blue got the least so you could dump in mountains of it. I love your oranges and it seems like fish or cut bait-either go with a piece that shouts ORANGE or just add glorious bits of it throughout. With your hand it will all be fab!
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I think I’m going to end up shouting orange. That fashion voice that whispers that orange should be an accent holds me back, but this is quilting, not clothing and I need to just go for it! I think I have a new plan evolving for the orange circles and the other oranges are going to live in a quilt of their own.
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I can see a lovely quilt coming from the orange and the black/grey/tan collections combined. But, I think it would be important to make one or the other of the groupings the dominant color of the quilt. You don’t want a Halloween nightmare to evolve! Perhaps shading the oranges out into the pale yellows would round out a palette for this emerging idea. Then the black, used in small amounts could be the accent. The more fabrics in a quilt, the less important any one fabric has to be. Maybe your circular orange can become one of many…..rather than a highlight.
I am so enjoying hearing and watching your process. Keep the posts coming, please! And good luck!
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All the different combos I played with were separate groups–never thougth to combine any of them. You are right–no Halloween nightmares wanted. I have a whole other collection for that!!! And you used that word “pale”—I am so woefully short of anything pale, that I think I might need to go shopping again!
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When we get the wake up call that we have a tendency to just keep repeating the same ideas over and over, it is time to stretch or horizons. This is something you can add to your classes.
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I keep trying to stretch my horizons but I feel that I’ve been going down the wrong road…or taking the scenic route. I’m ready to dig down a little deeper and think more about good design factors before I start cutting into fabric. What goes around, comes around and the graphic and geometric that first attacted me to quilting are calling to me again.
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Kathy, my stash looks the same. I’ve known for years that I buy similar and sometimes the same fabric, and no you can’t resist the new fabric.
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I really do need to de-stash, one way or another. Maybe it’s time to make lots of charity quilt tops, so I can enjoy getting that new and irresistible stuff!
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