So is anybody else doing their spring cleaning? Since this is my 30th year of quilting, I thought it would be a good time to downsize the stash that I've been collecting all this time. Recently we did over our dressing room/fabric closet and this is as far as we've gotten.
The Before
The So-Far
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| Notice what great shelves the upcycled church pews made? |
AND I still have some more bins to fill for the bottom shelves and the small boxes are going into the closet. From the looks of it, you'd never know I donated 8 13 gallon garbage bags of fabric to my favorite charity, Erie's City Mission's Urban University. The program consists of variety of classes in all sorts of interesting (including sewing!). Through these new pursuits youth can develop leadership, academic and faith skills. Yeah never know where the next great quilter is going to come from right?
With that I want to encourage you to clean out your stash (it was one of those bad habits) and donate to a worthy cause. WHERE you ask?
FABSCRAP If you're in the NYC or Philadephia, I highly recommend you check this program out. You can donate, volunteer to sort and even shop at this recycle/reuse charity! It's an amazing idea and a great use of fabric that would have just ended up in the landfills!
Donate Directly to the Cause
Quilts of Valor The mission of the Quilts of Valor Foundation is to cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor. They will accept quilts and fabric. Their website shows how to donate easily or connect with a sewing group!
Project Linus provides homemade blankets to children in the US who are ill, traumatized or otherwise in need. The President Patty has a monthly zoom call that will help anybody get started in working with the organization.
Days for Girls increases menstural care and education world wide with sustainable solutions. They
accept fabric donations as well as menstural supply bags. Talk about women who have empathy for other woman!
accept fabric donations as well as menstural supply bags. Talk about women who have empathy for other woman!
I'm sure there are many more out there. You can also donate directly to your favorite charity/thrift store. I know there are many a little sewer that will comb through the shelves of the local salvation army looking for fabric to use! For that matter, you can contact your local women's shelter and see if they need fabric. Then there are schools, church programs, summer programs...geesh ...you get the drift!
The one thing you don't want to do is hoard it! Keep what you need and will use and donate the rest!
So What Do You Do with Fabric You Don't Need?
4 comments:
Oh my goodness, you have one seriously impressive closet/dressing room! Why, I could fill up that space without even trying, really. =) I love that you donated so many of your fabrics to charity.
I have been doing a stash clean up as well. I also have been quilting for 30 years and I don't know how I have accumulated SO MUCH FABRIC! I have donated to QOV, Project Linus and more recently to Dress a Girl Around the World. I would love to sew up quilts for others, but I know that time will be short, and fabric will be long. Great that you have a place to donate.
Like most quilters/sewists I am swimming in fabric. I don't hesitate to buy more at thrift also. I use my scraps in an unusual manner, I wrap my eBay orders in fabric. Makes sense because most of my orders are sewing patterns.
I keep all of the cutesy, higher-end fabrics for my own projects.
I've not yet begun spring cleaning yet. Living in central Alberta, with snow melting and freezing, and only the tiniest signs of Spring, I'm not ready. That said, I use my the racks that hold the baskets that store my fabric, for my booth at the up-coming Art Show/Sale in mid-April. Thus, in the 10 days or so before set-up, I'll be removing the baskets, sorting and re-folding the fabrics (it looks like scrambled eggs right now!) and putting them to rights. I'll take down the racks and move them to where they'll be packed in my car, and move the baskets to the spare room. I'll vacuum and dust the empty space left behind, and as much of the rest of the room I can manage...and it'll all get put back together in the week after the show. I give fabric I don't need either to the local thrift shop or to a guild in a nearby city that does charity quilts. I also make charity/comfort quilts from my stash. I have 2 on the go at the moment, plus a postage stamp top that I hope to use for curtains here at home. :-)
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