Fabric Use, Fabric Purchasing and Spreadsheets- Cheryl’s 2017 edition

At the December Sew Day/Party/Meeting I forgot to share my 2017 spreadsheet at Show and Tell.
I know you all missed it terribly, so here is my summary.

IN YARDS	jan	feb	mar	apr	may	june	july	aug	sept	oct	nov	dec	YEAR IN TOTAL
difference	24.75	-10.75	-5	7.5	-1	-5.25	4	13.75	-2	5.25	1	-29.75	2.5
in	31.5	3	0.25	10.25	11	7.5	13	18	14	17.5	12	12.5	150.5
out	6.75	13.75	5.25	2.75	12	12.75	9	4.25	16	12.25	11	42.25	148

I know Jaye has reported on her use, and Michelle also. Those of you who are reluctant to start tracking,
let me remind you that you can make up your own rules. Foreign travel purchases, for example, may not count.
Or anything bought during the “limbo” week between Christmas and New Years may go on either year depending
on how the math is shaping up (I use this one). Likewise free fabric may not count for you if you are interested
more in the financial "burden" of fabric stashing. Or any purchases made after midnight, or anything pink...
whatever. It's your spreadsheet!

AND REMEMBER, you don’t have to tell anyone. This is not meant to make you feel bad, it’s meant only to
make you aware.

Final tally for 2017: 150.5 yards of fabric purchased/won/given; 148 yards of fabric used/given away.

Final tally for 2016: 121 yards of fabric purchased; 122.6 yards of fabric used.

Net increase of 2.5 yards this year! Not bad. Like last year, I did some panic December sewing of gift bags,
etc to help reduce the gap. And finished 2 baby quilts in the “limbo” week in order to put my limbo
purchases on 2017.

A few things that happened this year to increase my intake:

Participation in destash: one in person when Kelly (previous BAMQG president) moved to Scotland and
what are friends for if not to help out with that?? And another one on instagram where someone was
destashing solid “neutrals” at an excellent price. One of my goals this year was to increase my solid stash,
so in addition to that destash I also joined a Solids of the Month Club whereby 1 yard each of four solids
in a certain colorway were sent to me each month. So these three things added 51 (gulp) yards to my stash.

Thankfully I also finished 4 larger quilts, 8 baby quilts (2 in December!) and 5 charity baby quilt tops.
(I am motivated by a finish, and by the Spreadsheet!)

Next year, I am also planning on using the spreadsheet to Plan out a few things for the year. For example
all of the WIPs from 2017 moved over onto the 2018 spreadsheet and those with a deadline (ie baby quilts
for babies due, graduation quilts, teachers gifts) have a highlight for the month in which I would like to
finish them. This spreadsheet has become a good (and my only way besides Instagram) of tracking what
I have made. So it works for me.

Don't be afraid to try it! It has helped me really focus on fabric I will use, and not just buy because it's on
sale or I am bored (it is notable that the months I was traveling and not sewing are also the months I bought
more fabric this year!). Still working on the hoarding factor if “too good to use” though. Also, I have been
doing more hand-quilting and other hand work. This slows things down (in a good way) but may also need to
slow down the purchasing…

Here’s to a creative 2018! Go out there and buy make something!

Destash Party at the May Meeting

by Erin M.

It's happening again: the annual BAMQ Destash party will be May 20th at our meeting.  Come one, come all, It's really fun!

Details:
It’s spring cleaning time in your sewing room, craft drawers, and quilty bookshelf. Bring along the items that you no longer need. Bring as much as you like but at least a small bag of stuff.

When you get to the meeting, there will be a table designated to drop off your bags and boxes – no peeking! We will have a couple of non-participating volunteers empty all of the containers and return them to you (so label your bags and boxes with your name – taped or pinned on is fine).

When everything is ready we will do a count of three and then participants get to sprint to the goodie pile to load up containers.

Stuff to bring:

• Fabric of any kind and style. If pieces are small, it works better if you bundle them together or place them in a clear bag (see scraps below). You don’t really need to make ‘em pretty but a rubber band or string would be helpful to keep things from getting too out of control. Upholstery weight fabric is fine too.
• Fabric scraps packaged up so that they don’t make a mess – a ziploc is fine.
• Patterns
• Craft/sewing/quilting magazines & books
• Notions
• Other crafty stuff that you are done with: yarn, paper, felt, scrapbook supplies, etc.

They say “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” but please refrain from bringing things that are everybody’s trash. No tiny, loose scraps of fabric or batting – bagged scraps are great. No damaged, stained, or worn fabric unless it is usable vintage. If it’s not in donatable condition, just toss it rather than bringing it.

Again, you can bring as much as you want, or just a small bag of stuff. Folks who brought items will get first go at the table, but when they are satiated, peeps who forgot will also get a chance to help themselves. We have a couple of volunteers who will be taking the leftover items for donation.

Help Needed:
1.  I would appreciate up to 3 more attendees who aren't bringing fabric to help set out fabric during the first half of the meeting.

2.If anyone is interested in being in charge of taking home the leftover items, please let me know. I ask that you do something responsible with them but am not picky about what you do- donate them to another organization, use them all yourself, share with another quilting group or whatever else you'd like.

Thanks to the St. Louis MQG for this awesome idea! And to Ruth for creating the original post.

Fabric Use, Fabric Purchasing and Spreadsheets

At the December Sew Day/Party/Meeting I shared my spreadsheet at Show and Tell.

Cheryl's Spreadsheet of incoming fabric for 2016 - she uses this to keep track of recent purchases, with the intent of keeping a zero-balance of incoming/outgoing fabric. Photo by Diana Lubliner.

Although this may not be everyone's idea of a good time, I wanted to track incoming and outgoing fabric, with the goal of not increasing my current stash. Whether or not I have "a lot" of fabric depends on who you ask. Certainly there are folks with far more than me who find my paltry stash not enough to work with, but my daughter insists that I am a hoarder. All in the eye of the beholder.

Don't get me wrong, I like to buy fabric. I like looking at the tiny pretty squares of fabric swatches on my phone when fabric shop newsletters come in my inbox. I do not wish to deny anyone that pleasure! But I overheard someone in line at PIQF a while back saying she had more fabric than she could possibly use in her lifetime. And I just didn't want that to be me. I want to use what I have, and use it while I still love it. And then I want to buy more of it to continue the process. Fabric that excites us is what keeps the creative process going, amiright?

Jeni Baker of In Color Order has a post talking about her process, which is similar to mine. She tracks her use of specific fabric by projects, which I don't do. I have a simple IN (by shop) and OUT (by project) spreadsheet that tracks by month and adds everything up for a final tally. I was really just interested in a total number. I guesstimated yardage for projects and tried to be conservative about it. A finished baby quilt was 4 yards, for example. I did not worry too much about exact numbers just tried to get it close. Another bonus to this spreadsheet is it tracks what you make in a year.

Final tally for 2016: 116 yards of fabric purchased; 121 yards of fabric used.

So I did use more than I bought-which was a goal- no net increase! Hooray! I admit to making lots and lots of gift bags in December, both to boost my out-yardage and to make reusable gift bags for future use. It was eye-opening to me to see how much fabric I purchased (and won, and got for free, I counted it all) and also how much I used. If anyone had told me I bought and used over 100 yards of fabric in a year I would not have believed it.

One thing this process has led me to is less buying of fabric just because it is on sale or just because I am trolling around for interesting stuff on the internet. I know have another filter to run any purchase through: IS IT SPREADSHEET WORTHY?

Here is my spreadsheet, in case anyone is dying to see it. I can share the google spreadsheet if you really want it. Just let me know!

IN YARDS	January	feb	march	april	may	june	july	august	sept	oct	nov	dec	YEAR IN TOTAL (should be negative!)
difference	-6	0.25	7.25	1.5	18.2	4.5	-5.5	-11	1.45	0.25	-6.25	-9.75	-5.1
in	0	9.25	11	12	23	22.5	2	7	10.25	14.5	4.5	0	116
bloomerie		1												1
hawthorne		3			7	7								17
fabricworm/fabric dot com		5.25	6					2						13.25
fat quarter shop				9					3					12
intrepid thread				3					7.25					10.25
stone mtn					8									8
OR/HI					8		2							10
restash (free!)						2				2				4
fabric depot						10								10
birthday+prize; retreat, BAM free table, prize								5		7				12
PIQF, japanese fabrics										3.5				3.5
ilovefabric											4.5			4.5
moona (etsy)/cia's palette/nimble thimble			5			3.5				2				10.5
out	6	9	3.75	10.5	4.8	18	7.5	18	8.8	14.25	10.75	9.75	121.1
2.5 inch purple	4
21 12.5" squares		7
rainbow top		1.25
wheelchair top		0.5
seal bag			1
gift & zipper bags	1.5							0.25				1
stash bee block	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.3	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.3	0.25	0.25	0.25
D2 donation quilt				8
Harper's window seat			2.5
slabs				0.5
charity binding				0.5		0.5
CH for Aja					4.5
Alison- bag				0.25
Kath- +2 pixie baskets				0.5
13 12.5" squares								4
photo mini for BAM						0.5
Eric and erin						5
blue ombre charms						4.5
destash						5
MLQG	0.25			0.5		0.25	0.25
wine/gift bags						0.5						2
DT bag						1.5
charity red and white, top plus binding							7
Steam punk								10
cargo duffle								3
pot holders								0.5	1			5
housetop-Gavin									4
Amanda									3.5
Steve and margaret										6		0.5
sew together bag											1.5
pillow case, harper
scrappy 9 patch top to BAM										3
grey strippy scrappy top										5
8 zipper bags											4
5 for Xmas											5
fmq practice												1