- Hi there.
It's Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts.
As quilters, we all have one fundamental problem.
There's the rate that we quilt at,
and then there's the rate that we acquire fabric at.
So, our consuming and our purchasing
is always out of whack.
Today, I'm going to talk to you about five strategies
that we can use to help keep the equilibrium.
So, stick with me,
and I'll show you how to do it.
(upbeat music)
We live at a time when we have more choice
of more quilting fabrics than any other time
in the world.
It is a truly great time to be a quilter.
Fabric.
Filled with possibilities,
it's filled with hope,
it's filled with colour that can make our mood better,
make us feel happier.
But, then it sits in our stash.
Before we start,
you need to know how much fabric you've got.
So, take a look around,
add up your yardage,
add up your fat quarters,
add up your charm packs.
It doesn't need to be an exact science.
It's an estimate.
One of these scrapbook containers
can contain up to 60 fat quarters.
This is no judgement .
And you need to look at it
in terms of how many quilts you can make.
But, don't worry about the math.
I've done all the hard work.
I know that you can make a basic, twin sized quilt
with 4.5 yards of fabric
or 2 layer cakes
or seven charm squares
or 34 mini-charm squares
or 20 fat quarters.
So, this is what a quilt looks like.
Take a look in your stash, and figure out
how many quilts you can make.
And divide that number by how many quilts
you can actually make in a year.
If you started quilting today, never buying anything more,
how long can you quilt for
til you're in a spot where you're comfortable?
Is it one year?
Is it two years?
Some of us it may be more than five.
The trick is to know how much you have.
Know your limit and quilt within it.
And remember, everyone's different.
Make sure you have some fast and easy, go-to patterns.
All of your quilts do not need to be complex.
In fact,
it's usually nice to have
a palate cleanser
in between two heavy projects.
Something fast, something simple,
something you can put together in a weekend.
And if you don't have some patterns,
let me tell you about a great new app called, "Prequilt."
Often when we look at our stash,
we just have no clue where to begin.
I've had this Kona charm square pack in my stash
for about two years.
It's time to Prequilt it.
This is the home screen.
And we're going to start a new design.
So, this is where you would hang out if you wanted
to start from scratch.
But, we're going to head over to Community.
And we're going to play with the HST grid.
And here we have a grid already made for us.
I'm deleting these blocks 'cause I'm not using them.
These are the Kona colours in the charm pack.
And I'm going to make six different HST pairs.
To copy an HST, I just click on it and hit Clone.
To change the colour I click on Edit,
and it brings up this screen.
This is the Free Spirit pallette.
I want the Kona pallette.
I chose the colour that I want.
Then I click on the other side of the triangle,
and I chose the colour that I want for that side.
And then click Done.
I'll continue this process
until I have six HSTs.
Most charm packs come with 42 pieces.
So, I'll eliminate some columns and some rows
til it's 6x7.
So, this is where the magic starts to happen.
So, I click on this little square in the top left corner
of the grid, and then I hit Randomise Blocks.
And Prequilt automatically randomises
all my HSTs.
You can also do the same process and Randomise Rotate.
And you can do it again
and again.
And you can rotate individual pieces.
You can change colour of individual pieces
until you come up with a grid that you like.
And then you can download a picture of your design
with your colour scheme of what you want.
Prequilt really helped me see the potential in these colours.
And it checked all my boxes.
And under the Learn tab it got all sorts of tutorials
to teach you how to do it too.
If we're wanting our stash to go down
we have to consume more from our stash
than we're buying.
So, shop from your stash first.
It's so important for you to handle your fabrics often.
You know what's there.
When you handle fabrics,
it triggers your memory
and your creative juices.
So, you can come up with new projects
or you remember ideas that you once had,
and that's why you bought the fabric.
We end up having to buy containers for these fabrics
to go into.
And then we buy more containers 'cause we buy more fabric.
And then the ones on the bottom we don't see anymore,
and it's out of sight, out of mind.
If you shop from your stash first,
you get those older fabrics
to the front
and incorporate them in your new projects.
Destash your fabrics.
As you're going through your fabric, there's something
that you don't love, get rid of it.
We live in the age of the internet.
There are so many destashing pages on Facebook
and Instagram.
And if you don't even want to go to that hassle
donate to your guild or donate it to Goodwill.
There's always somebody who wants more fabric.
Don't overbuy.
When the pattern calls for half a yard,
buy half a yard.
Do not feel the need to buy 3/4
or an extra yard.
Most patterns have overages built in.
Part of you might be panicking.
"What if I read the directions wrong,
and I make a cutting mistake?"
Ten years ago, this might have been a problem.
But now, you can just put a call out on Instagram
or Facebook and, most likely, somebody else
has this fabric in their stash or something very similar
that you can sub in.
Or, you can do like me, and just piece the fabric together.
Here's a quilt I cut one of the fabrics wrong.
Can you find the block that has the mistake?
(calm music)
Shop with a budget.
Budget is not a four-letter word.
And so many people associate it with denial
and having no fun.
But, truly it's exactly the opposite.
I'm not judging anyone.
If you want to buy fabric as a hobby, go for it.
But, you can't take it with you.
And though we dream of having a stash that looks like this,
it's much more likely our stash looks like this.
There's two real benefits from a budget.
One, you don't overspend.
And debt is a four-letter word.
And two, it makes you value what you purchase more.
And knowing that you're only able to buy a finite amount
of fabric
makes you think twice,
to be sure
that that fabric is exactly what you want for your project.
If you have a budget you can chose to be intentional,
or you can chose to be impulsive.
But, you have a limit to what you can spend.
I'm heading off to Nashville on the weekend
for Quiltcon.
I hope I see some of you there.
If you found this information helpful, please take a moment
to like this video.
And if you haven't yet,
please subscribe.
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Take care, and I'll see you next time.
(calm music)