Stash Use Recording

This year I am going to keep a record of my fabric and thread stash use. I'm not going to try and record all that is currently in my stash, but I want to make sure that by the end of the year there is less than there is at the moment. I've created a spreadsheet to keep a record of the amount of quilt fabric I use, buy, or am given; plus the same for other types of fabrics (dressmaking, furnishing, etc) and also of threads.

My first spreadsheet entry for fabric use was cutting the binding for this quilt:

It is a start!

Earlier today I read on Jo's blog about butterfly blocks she is making with her scraps, which she can use in kid's quilts or in donation quilts. The block appealed to me a lot. You can find the tutorial for the block at the Canuck Quilter blog here: Butterfly Blocks.

After I had finished machining on that binding, I dug out my "Magic Pudding" basket of scraps, and using off-cuts from quilt backings and bindings that have been accumulating there recently, I put together a butterfly:

And then there were two:

Fabric pulled out of the scrap basket will not be recorded in the spreadsheet. I will only record fabric I cut from stash, such as with my binding above. Then any left-over pieces of binding are added to the scrap basket, for use without being counted a second time.(Although I've just realised that the brown body pieces were not from the scrap basket - oops! I may need to fine-tune the record keeping procedures as I go.)

I also emptied my first spool of thread for the year while I was joining the scrap pieces together, so that went into the spreadsheet too.