Stash infusion
Now, I love my mom. I love her A LOT. So, I want to be careful not to sound judgmental or ungrateful in what I am about to say. In fact, as a licenseable psychotherapist, what I want to do first is sound clinical.
My mom is an obsessive hoarder and a compulsive shopper. I mean this in the most diagnostic and clinical sense. I’m sure that most of the people reading these words could stand up at the microphone and pound at the pulpit and express some level of embarrassment about the state of their “stash.” There’s a reason that groups and projects exist specifically for stash-busting and stash diets and blog giveaways and all sorts of other modes of stash regulation.
As a family, we’ve had to come together and stage an intervention recently. Mom has been slowly filling up their 8-bedroom home with sacks and sacks of creative potential for years — art supplies, unused paints, pristine stacks of scrapbook paper, and the fabric. Mostly fabric. An estimated $12,000 of fabric.
See? It’s gotten a bit out of hand.
Recently, she’s felt a drive to clean out and simplify her life. Seizing on this opportunity, several of my siblings descended on the house a few weekends ago to help her sort through and purge. My understanding is that they only hit the very tip of the stash iceburg. Between me and my two sisters, we split up the wares. Mom brought the first installment of stash stuff last weekend, and I spent this weekend trying to assimilate it into my small apartment.
But what a chore! This photo is deceptive because it doesn’t account for the quantity of fleece, felt (Oh, goodness — the felt!), patterns, notions, and kits that accompanied it. This photo only shows the quilters cotton. It doesn’t even show any of the fabrics too ugly to give away. But I loaded up my car and dragged all of these “acceptables” (mixed with many “very, very cutes”) to the laundromat on Saturday for a huge, tri-county pre-washing event.
What you see above are the results of $30 of quarters, 6 laundry carts, and 5 hours of work. The stack closest to the camera — which measures over 13″ high — is comprised entirely of fat quarters, 1/2-yard and 1-yard cuts. With rare exception, these fabrics are pristene — uncut and untouched. The basket contains pieces smaller than a fat quarter, which will all need to be ironed and sorted into scrap bins. Behind them are two stacks of large cuts — one of whites and neutrals, the other of colors — which will also need to be ironed.
I saved myself the pain of ironing the fat quarters, though, by taking time to right them as they came out of the dryer. I painstakingly smoothed them out into a uniform pile. Some of them came out of the dryer so terribly wrinkled and cinched that I thought they would never untwist. I tried to catch them before they were bone dry, and while still a little warm, and with determined smoothing, tugging, and shaping, they came out nearly as good as new!
Below you see the stack of smoothed-out pieces:
…and compare them with a few of the sad, wrinkled fat quarters that didn’t make it to the smoothing stack:
I am amazed at how much good that little bit of work really did. It is going to save me so much ironing time.
Someday I will have a house with a yard and a craft room. I’ll have a fabric stash which is accessible and turns over frequently. Shoot, someday I’ll have a washer and dryer of my own and can do this kind of chore in small bursts over a span of time rather than in one explosive flurry under the eyes of curious onlookers.
For now, though, I’ll be grateful to my mom for her generosity (and little bit of craziness) and vow to never, ever buy another piece of fabric again. For as much as I love my mom, I hope I don’t inherit her tendencies along with her cast-offs.
I envision some major giveaways in our future. If you’re not already subscribed, might I recommend you do so? You won’t want to miss it as I slowly give away the spoils of the war we are waging with my mother’s stash.
Do you have thoughts, tips, websites, patterns, or recommendations about stash busting? Please share!
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That is an unbelievable bounty! I see no problem with your mum’s shopping and hoarding. I live for moments like those
There’s plenty of hexagons in them there piles… Any other inspiration strike you while you’ve been washing, smoothing and sorting?
Comment by Emma — 31 March 2009 @ 8:18 am
@Emma: What scares me about this bounty is that we are just getting started and I live in a small apartment! But I’m with you and have already started snapping up the scraps for subway hexagons.
Other inspiration? All I can think is maybe if I make 50 condom cozies, or a bunch of zipper pouches or totes or SOMETHING that can be sold, maybe I won’t feel weird for having so much fabric in my place!
What I am REALLY going to need are recommendations for using up fleece and felt. Thoughts?
Comment by Mal — 31 March 2009 @ 2:30 pm
I live in fear of becoming a hoarder… fabric being my greatest weakness. It starts out so innocently, but my it does build up over the years! Maybe you could donate some of the fleece and felt to your local school art department, or to a local girl scout troop… they are always in need of supplies. Good luck! xo
Comment by Victoria — 31 March 2009 @ 4:30 pm
@Victoria: EXACTLY! My ex-boyfriend, who is a notorious bargain shopper, thinks this latest infusion is just wonderful. All this stuff for free!? It’s the ultimate bargain!
It’s also just two steps closer to me turning into my mother. Eek.
Comment by Mal — 31 March 2009 @ 4:41 pm
Mal, please don’t ever get together with my daughter and compare notes
My stash is her worst recurring nightmare!
Comment by Erica — 31 March 2009 @ 8:00 pm
@Erica: It’s a wonderful inheritance for a creative-type, but there is definitely an element of fear!
Comment by Mal — 31 March 2009 @ 9:05 pm
I am glad your mom collects beautiful things which can be used and not just trash as I sometimes read in the newspaper. But I understand this is a more than a little bit overwhelming because there is so much more at her house.
There is one blog with the topic felt that I visit regular and that is http://blog.betzwhite.com/
She makes beautiful things and written 2 books with felt projects. Than there is also Anneli from http://www.bockfilz.blogspot.com who also made a number of felt projects and than there is my blog with several several felt projects.
Hope you will find something you like.
See you!!!
Comment by Elizabeth — 1 April 2009 @ 1:14 am
$12,000 of stash!! Although i’d hate to add up the value of my own stash I know it is nowhere near that amount. I think I inherited my Mum’s hoarding tendencies in that I can never throw away scraps no matter how teeny tiny. For stash busting tips try
http://www.quiltville.com/index.html/
I am in love with that site!!! Good luck!
Comment by aneela — 1 April 2009 @ 3:08 am
@Elizabeth: Thank you so much for the links and the suggestions! I’m with you. I’ve always thought it was kind of neat that instead of hoarding old gum wrappers and twist ties, she hoards potential. She collects things that could be turned into other things! It’s sort of nice.
Comment by Mal — 1 April 2009 @ 7:04 am
@aneela: THANK YOU for the link! I’m going to spend some time on there. Wow.
Comment by Mal — 1 April 2009 @ 7:06 am
I understand your concern, it can be overwhelming. And I know about hoarding too. My MIL had closets FULL of shoes in boxes, clothes with the tags still on, drawers full of jewelry still in their gift boxes, cases of paper goods, linens stacked to the tops of the closets. The family has moved them 4 times in the last 10 years and gradually it’s gotten pared down. But there’s a psychological weight to it that’s a little frightening. Yeah… daunting to process, take it in stages.
Comment by Leslie — 1 April 2009 @ 11:41 am
I have no help to offer but I do have sympathy. We had to do this twice with my mother-in-law, and what she had was clothes, along with (appallingly ugly and certifiably antique) craft materials. The clean out process was horrendous. Congratulations to your mom for getting her stuff under control NOW, and good luck to you finding homes for it.
Comment by lee — 1 April 2009 @ 4:47 pm
As for the felt and fleece, I second contacting schools and Girl Scout troops. Many teachers have craft programs as part of their curricula. My kids’ third grade teacher, in particular, made fleece blankets and scarves with the kids for the local women’s shelter and homeless shelter. If the teachers are unsure, you could volunteer to lead the class in the exercise – I can email you separately with directions for both fringed blankets and scarves. Unless there is something in particular that you want to do with it, having it sit there takes up psychic space and it will LOOM at you until you use it or get rid of it.
Comment by lee — 1 April 2009 @ 4:52 pm
I too am guilty as charged. I’ve been a garment sewer for 30 years and have thousands of yards of lovely fabrics in my “collection”. And I’ve recently begun quilting! I used to feel terribly guilty about it all but I do have a handle on it and maintain a complete fabric inventory so that I am actually able to use my stash. I try to keep things under control by culling the herd once a year to rid myself of those “what was I thinking pieces?”. I just think it goes with the territory.
Comment by Gigi — 21 April 2009 @ 2:34 pm
Sadly, I can identify with your mother. I developed a fabric hoarding habit while suffering from a disabling illness that ended up including some mild depression. Shopping (for fabric and craft books) made me feel better, if only for a little while. I recognized that I was in trouble when I was buying fabric for quilts I don’t need and putting off buying necessary things like clothing or shoes (I kid you not). I have done much better since joining the Stashbusters group at Yahoo Groups.
One project that gives enormous satisfaction fast is making pillowcases, especially from novelty fabrics. You can easily get a couple of pillowcases completed in just one day, probably faster once you have the hang of the pattern. There are basically two types – one that just uses all of the same fabric (I did this) and one that uses 2 complementary fabrics. Free patterns on the internet. Saved me a lot of money because I have king sized pillowcases and I could just sew from something I had ALREADY and actually like better.
Comment by Stephanie in MN — 14 June 2009 @ 10:23 am
What about making (with the felt and fleece, or even the material) some small bags or hats for a charitable organization. Amanda Soule of Soulemama.com has something like that called Mamatomama. That might be a good way of making something good come from something that maybe went a little awry.
Comment by Jen — 9 July 2009 @ 4:12 am