Fabric Buying Moratorium

In April 2007, a woman showed me her "fabric room". It was a good sized room, completely filled with shelves, which were totally filled with folded pieces of fabric. She proudly showed me all her collections of Asian fabric, truck fabric, daisy fabric, turtle fabric, striped fabric, etc, and told me how she was planning to make a quilt out of each collection.

I left there feeling troubled. I could see that she was a compulsive purchaser of fabric. I felt that she was delusional in thinking that she was going to live long enough to make all those quilts. I didn't want to be like her.

This is how much fabric I have. Three cabinets full. But she had more than 30 cabinets this full.

It made me take a second look at all the fabric I had collected. I made a vow to buy no more fabric for ONE YEAR and see if I could finish all the unfinished objects (UFO's) that I had, using only the fabric I already owned.

I am proud to say that for the past year and 8 months I have kept my bargain with myself. I spent no money on fabric from April 2007-April 2008, and completed 9 quilts in 2007 and completed 8 quilts and 5 quilt tops for future grandbabies in 2008. One of the quilts I finished just last month was one I started in 1992--it took me 16 years to finish it.

After April 2008, I allowed myself to purchase fabric, but I have spent very little, and it was just what was necessary to finish UFO's.

I only have 2 UFO's left, and then I will be free to start whatever new quilts I want. I think it was a great challenge, and I really enjoyed coming up with ways to use the fabric I had, instead of constantly running out to buy more.

(On second thought, I have to put a disclaimer on "spent no money on fabric from April 2007-April 2008". I did let myself buy second-hand from yard sales, thrift shops, and from the guild silent auctions. I knew I would never be able to pass up something unusual and cheap.)