How’s your stash looking?  Are you adding more than you’re using?  I had to laugh at a lady who is in our local quilt group.  I am no longer able to attend the meetings but the group lives on and this friend is still part of the group.  Anyway, after two or three years, I realized she had never made a quilt block, never a quilt.  She showed off a number of projects she’d done such as cross-stitched Christmas stockings and dresses for her granddaughters…but no quilty projects!  I started teasing her about it.  She maintained she was still in the ‘gathering’ stage.  Okay, I can respect that.  I get in that stage sometimes, too.  I know what I want to make but the fabric that I have on hand just doesn’t speak to me as a fabric to go into that project.  So, I gather.  I find a fabric here and there and everywhere, buy small quantities (maybe just a fat quarter) and once I have all of the fabrics together, I test a block to see if my vision is actually coming through with those fabrics.  I may feel all is well and complete the project.  I may feel like I am missing one or two fabrics, so I keep gathering.

Then I have all of these small bits and pieces of fabric and they end up in a stash basket.  And I fill up my stash basket and have to go purchase more.  And then I realize my stash baskets are taking over my sewing room…my house…the world!!!

On the other hand, I have this block that isn’t exactly what I want for the quilt in question, so the block goes on another shelf, waiting for me to do something with it.  After six months, I notice the dust on that block so I pull it down, shake it out…and put it right back where I found it.  Wait a minute.  That’s not how this is supposed to work!  I am not doing anything with those misfit blocks except adding to the pile and dusting them off.  I need to either pass them along to someone who can do something with them or put them to use in a quilt project of some sort.  As embarrassing as it is, I have blocks I made five and six years ago that STILL don’t have a quilty home – except for the piles on my shelves.

NOW what do I do?

I turned to my longarm quilter, Meloney Funk, to find out how she deals with her stash and her UFO’s.  Surely I’m not the only one who has been overcome with more stash than are needed and more UFO’s than are wanted.

Meloney says, “I belong to a number of Yahoo groups. Stashbusters has been the one to help me focus on not buying material and using up what I have.  They have a yearly UFO challenge which requires me to be accountable to the group on what I’ve accomplished.  This year they are having us make our UFO list and then they pick 2 numbers from the list for us to work on.”

“The Sampler Society UFO challenge is a little different.” Meloney continues, “They have you pick 6 UFOs to work on and then draw numbers of which one is to be worked on.  This caused me to complete 6 UFOs last year that might never have come to the top of my list.  The accountability makes me want to focus and finish.  I’ve finished 14 small UFOs in the month of January.”

Aha!  It appears that the key is to be accountable to others, to help motivate you to tackle both your stash and your UFO’s.  You don’t want to look bad to your fellow quilters and you want to make sure you are using up the fabrics you probably won’t use in the near future as well as finish your UFO’s.  Meloney has wisdom.  I need to learn from her!

Well, I would except – do you remember that “Jack and the Beanstock” book?

Yeah, that’s the one – plant the special bean seeds and it’ll take you to the giant in the sky.  Ummm, well…I can’t see over my shelves because my stash and UFO’s have grown so high that they’re pushing against the ceiling.  I’ll see you l…a……t…….e……….r……………