Thursday, January 3, 2019

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.

8 comments:

Pink Rose said...

Hi Vireya beautiful work my friend,love those butterflies,hope your stash pile goes down quickly xx

Pamela said...

Those butterflies are so pretty! I might have to try a few, too.

Jo said...

You did enjoy making those butterflies. They look good.

chrisknits said...

Cute butterflies! It does get tricky to know what to count and what not. I tend to just count what was used up, not what necessarily was cut. But it's all an estimate anyway. Good luck on your recording!

Julierose said...

Very pretty butterflies--good luck with that fabric record keeping...hugs,Julierose

Jeanette said...

Oh goody! You will be able to create lots of graphs comparing rate of use by the week etc. Much more interesting than the ones in the news stock market report.

chris said...

I checked out the site for the butterfly blocks, but I'm not being drawn in again, Vireya!!!! You got me once with Wild & Goosey - not being caught again!!!! Btw - must take a photo of the completed top.

gayle said...

Your butterflies are really sweet! What a great block to play with!
Good luck with the record-keeping. Just figuring out how to do it looks like a big job to me!