A Word on my Stash

Last week I promised Susan (you know who you are!) that I would have a chat on the blog about my stash of white and cream fabrics. If you've read Quilting: From Little Things you would know that I blather on a bit in there about my fabric - what I buy, where I buy it, how much of it I get - and also that I make no apologies for my vast stash.

When you walk into my studio you go through two shelves of equal size either eide of the door, floor to ceiling, that also go along the top of the door frame. The very top shelf has bags of quilts stored along it, then all my whites and creams, then all the other colours down the shelves. Each colour has a shelf (or two), and the fabrics are divided by spots, stripes, small pieces (FQ on down - anything smaller than 5" is a scrap and goes in the scrap bin) and large pieces (1m and up). 

There's also a shelf that has precuts, ranges I've been sent to work with, bundles I bought at Spree that are too pretty to take apart. 

I used to keep all my little animal fabric together but now there;s so many of them that I store them in colour. Did you know that all my quilts have an animal in them somewhere? I hoard them like a crazy person.

Now don't get all horrified. I didn't buy this fabric all at once! I've been quilting for a LONG time and this fabric has built up over about 20 years. Plus I inherited my Mum's stash when she passed away, so there are bits of that in there. And you also have to take into account that I make upwards of 30 quilts a year. That's a lot of fabric.

But I digress. I keep my whites and creams seperate. You can probably see from some of the shelves that there are a few whites and creams in there - that's usually because I've been working with them and shoved them back into the colour shelf instead of the neutral shelf. Every few months I go wild in the studio and tidy everything up, and refold all the messy fabric. It's due for a tidy at the moment but I'm making book quilts so there is a fabric explosion going off right now.

The whites and creams are seperate for a reason. I don't see them as colour, I see them as space. I love using whites and creams in my quilts because they create "air" - places in the quilt that are a place for the eye to rest, or that create their own movement and interest from the negative space they generate.

You will notice that not many of my creams and whites are plain fabrics. I don't use a lot of solids. In my opinion solids often create a hole in the quilt rather than a negative, expecially if you are using a lot of other patterned fabrics with them. There might be times when I WANT a hole, but mostly the play of lots of different patterns in loads of different sizes and shapes is what does it for me with a quilt. And so the backgrounds or neutrals have to be patterned too.

So what makes it a white fabric? Here's a (slightly extreme) example. The Amy Butler on the left is a purple. The spot on the right is a neutral. Even though they both have light coloured backgrounds the Amy reads as purple to me and the other as cream.

I love these two fabrics together. It's hard to tell from the pic but the Amy has a white background and the spot a creamy off white. That doesn't bother me in the slightest. I often use whites, off whites and creams all in the same quilt. If you get the balance right, this can make for awesome subtle background patterns rather than the creams making the whites look dirty.

These are just my opinions. I am well aware of the current passion for solids in the quilting marketplace - they just aren't really my thing, although you will find a few quilts in the new book (due out April 2013) where I've done a Sarah Fielke on some gorgeous Kona cottons! More on that later :)

 

Comments

[amy]

Lovely and inspiring and edifying!

[pam]

I love print backgrounds. Totally agree with your take on solids! Love your stash, envious of the space and all the delish colors in one spot!

[Laura Jane]

Crushing hard on your greens!

[Jan]

I've just spent several days pulling out and sorting all of my fabric in new configurations. Dots, stripes, colors, designers...I always think I've figured out the best way to organize but nothing ever works as well as I envision. I might fine tune a bit after reading your post!

[Sally]

Gosh. Thanks for doing that, Sarah! As much as I love putting different patterns together, I've had a hard time with the white vs. cream thing so loved hearing your take on that. Makes me feel I can take a deep breath and relax about it. Your quilts are totally responsible for making me braver about putting different prints together and loving it.

[Amanda Bergamin]

I am so glad you said what you did about solids I have always been of the same opinion which bucks the current trend and I am wondering if I was wrong to think so.. Having said that I think my next couple of quilts will have solids in them but I am making them to sell in my Etsy shop so trend is a better option there but creatively apart from what I use to embroider on my stash looks pretty much like yours.. Maybe not quite as large lol

[Digna]

Ohhh, my God, how many and wonderful fabrics. In a place like your studio is where I would like to spend some hours looking for a new project.
Greetings from Barcelona.

[Deb R]

Ohhh I love the reds and oranges....a wonderful stash for creative inspiration :)

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[Marie Cheesman]

Now that's a great Stash! And I'm glad that you don't feel that you have to apologize for it. I find that whenever you go looking for a specific fabric it is often difficult to find it so why not buy what you like when you see it and then work that into the projects that you want. And my stash has built the same way - only I think I have about 15 years on you. Yours is better organized though - gotta get on that.

[Chris Moon]

I'm so glad to hear that there's someone else who isn't so crazy about solids! I think they are very unforgiving.

You have a lot more figured fabrics than I do, although I can compete on overall quantity! I find it difficult to incorporate high contrast prints in my quilts and stick with prints that read as a solid from a distance.

Thank you for a lovely blog -

Chris

[Marisa]

What a great stash you have. I'm going to add a link to this post in my next post to inspire folks to get organized! Love that you are into animals on fabric. I like them too.

[Jem]

Great collection of clothing in your closet made up of greens.

[zeia]

I enjoy reading your post specially if it is about clothing.