This is the time of year when many of us clean, organize, and purge in our homes and our workspaces.<\/p>\n
If you are a quilter, that may also mean that you take out your stash, reorganize your fabrics and color stories, and find more efficient ways to store and display your threads, cutting tools, and notions. It is very satisfying after a few hours or even a few days to look across your table or your studio space, and see neatly stacked clear plastic boxes with color coded labels, or your 200 color thread collection symetrically organized into a visual color wheel, or all of your quilt marking pencils lined up in a neat row like little lead soldiers.<\/p>\n
Don't get too attached.<\/p>\n
Creating is a messy business, and no matter how much you stop and clean up as you are designing, cutting and stitching, let's face it…that magazine-perfect creative space is not going to stay clean and neat for long.<\/p>\n
Then there is the question of HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH FABRIC?<\/p>\n
My own personal fabric collection was really getting out of hand when we decided to open eQuilter, and then it became not an addiction but a business. *smile*<\/p>\n
I still have a textile collection that is spread out in 4 locations between home and work, although I do a yearly purge and try to get rid of things that are no longer tantalizing. But most of it is still impossible to part with, so I focus on organizing and compartmentalizing all my notions, embellishments and other creative doo-dads.<\/p>\n
So when does collecting become hoarding?<\/p>\n
When you have a tiny little path through the room between stacks of fabric that go from floor to ceiling. (and you never share or give away anything)<\/p>\n
When does cleaning and editing become obsessive purging and subsequent obsessive regret?<\/p>\n
When you wake up in a cold sweat at 3 am and realize you gave away or threw away something that was PERFECT for a new project… that you just thought of at 2:59 am.<\/p>\n
A lot of quilters make jokes about how they hide their stash from their spouses, but I really do know people who keep their fabric in the trunk of their car and then sneak it into the house late at night.<\/p>\n
Well if collecting fabric is a guilty pleasure, I say it is much better than doing drugs or becoming an alcoholic.<\/p>\n
Even though we have a warehouse full of 20,000 fabrics, I still collect textiles when I travel. I can't display them all, so I store them in an antique chest and bring them out to "play" when I need a picker-upper. Exquisite embroidery, hand-loomed ikats, hand-tied tiny shibori dots, embellishment with metallic threads and glass beads, and 3-dimensional applique… I don't cut these up, but I use them as design inspiration. It is my personal textile petting zoo.<\/p>\n
Our Hand-Painted Batik Panels, collectible Kona Bay panels, and Japanese Noren Panels are a great way to start your own textile petting zoo…but these can be cut and stitched into wallhangings and wearable art if you want to do more than just pet them!<\/p>\n
This is the time of year when many of us clean, organize, and purge in our homes and our workspaces. If you are a quilter, that may also mean that you take out your stash, reorganize your fabrics and color … Continue reading ![\"PragueXmasMkt550_W\"](\"https:\/\/www.equilter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/6a0120a82c6029970b0147e17f4dda970b1.jpg\" "\\"PragueXmasMkt550_W\\"")
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