talkin' 'bout the stash

I have mixed feelings about stashing (yarn & fabric mostly). On the one hand, I don't have a lot of room in my apartment at times I feel like my stashes are taking over. It also feels decidedly impractical to have significantly more fabric & yarn than I have projects going on at any given time. But on the other hand, I love shopping, I love sales, and I'm covering all my bills, so if I want to go a little crazy at the fabric store/ yarn shop/ craft fair... no big woop. However I do sometimes feel guilty about how much 'stuff' I have. I've had some serious cognitive dissonance about it. But after this weekend, I've finally made peace with my stash.

I got up on Saturday with the intention of going downtown, to get some work done at the library, then maybe visit a new yarn shop. As I blogged about earlier, it was snowing, but I know that Tri-met has chains for the busses and generally keeps going, even in the snow. So I got ready and went out to my bus stop.

I was comforted by the bus-tracks I saw on the road, wrapped my scarf around my face & settled in to wait. When the bus finally showed up it just kinda stopped a block away just before turning onto my street (where the white car is). After a minute or so a bunch of people got off the bus and started walking down the hill. One of them told me the bus was stuck. =( I went up and saw that there were no chains on the bus, and the driver (clad in shorts & a polo shirt!!!) said they hadn't expected the snow & he was sliding all over the hill. Oh well. Rather than wait for the someone to arrive with chains, I just went back home.

But what to do... what to do? My hand is feeling better, but I still want to give it a day or two before I try knitting again. And it occurred to me that it's been mighty cold lately, and ever since I made the Little Boy Blue quilt I've been wanting a similar one for myself. Of course, mine would have to be in my signature color scheme!

So, I went into my stash and pulled out a stack of 2 1/2 inch squares, most of which I'd trimmed down from leftovers from other projects.

But a couple of these fabrics I picked up at the Fabric Depot outdoor sale this summer for no reason other than that they are pink (surprise) and they were 50% off (or better... this is really a great sale). Pure stash fabrics. Sure, being pink, there was a good chance I'd use them eventually, but I had no project in mind at the time.

Now, there were already nearly enough squares to make the top of the quilt I had in mind, but with these three one yard cuts I knew I also had enough for the borders, backing & even binding. I was so thrilled about being able to get started on a quilt (and in theory finishing it) without having to go to the fabric store that I made peace with the idea of stashing, and as soon as the snow melted I made my way over to the Fabric Depot Superbowl Sale to do some guilt-free stashing.

Happy little batiks are good to have on hand in case of future snow-storms. ;)