Stash busting projects! One down, some number to go...

I came to the realization a couple weekends ago that I have an entire sotrage bin of fabrics. Those can be broken into two sections:

Stuff I have projects planned for

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Stuff I have no plans for

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Not pictured: The bin I had forgot about that had felt and fleece left over from a project three or more years ago.

Notice how the the "no plans for" is much larger? Most of them are fat quarters and bolt ends I picked up because they are cute, or extra yardage that I had from other projects I've finished.

After trying to find projects that would all use the scraps, thus justifying saving them, I decided it was time to look for smaller projects, that could use partials of various things. Without having to buy anything more.

I spent about three hours scouring the internet, and then found this sew along from 2011. Ditching the napkins, and after looking at the cuts, I was able to get all the cuts needed from one fat quarter. And one set of 4 fat quarters will make 4 placemats.

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These are the four fabrics I went with for the placemats:

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My colour guide:

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This is about the time is clicked that H was supposed to be some other fabric, but I couldn't find a contrasting fabric to go with, so I adjusted the colour plan slightly to work out of the cut fat quarters.

The final products:

Forgive the bad lighting, it was late at night when I finished.

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All in all, I ended up using:

  • 8 fat quarters (I had two of each colour)
  • 40" of fabric cut into 2.5" WOF strips for the binding (roughly 65" of binding per placemat)
  • 60" of fabric for the backing (I did three 20" strips, then subdivided those into three 14.5" pieces)
  • 60" of fuseable interfacing (I could only get 2 cuts from the width of the interfacing regardless of how I rotated the backing pieces).

I'm learning that fabric stash is less useful than yarn stash. It's easier to find a project for a single skein of something than a few fat quarters.