When Mom passed away, she left behind enough fabric, sewing machines, books and notions to stock a small quilt store. When we cleaned out her house, I wasn’t able to convince any of my brothers to take some of the stash. My one sister-in-law that also quilts, did take one sewing machine, a few unfinished projects, and some notions. Everything else was boxed up and moved to our house. Just getting it all organized took most of the summer. There is a previous post about that; but, these pictures show all of the nooks and crannies I stored fabric in.
The last picture is of the boxes of fabric and miscellaneous sewing supplies I donated to the quilt guild. There was just soooo much fabric!
Over the years, I have used up a significant amount of fabric by completing all of Mom’s unfinished projects, making and donating baby quilts, lap quilts and pillow cases. I even sewed countless masks during the COVID pandemic! Still, it felt like the stash wasn’t really dwindling away fast enough. Eventually, I conned Leslie into joining me in one last ditch effort to sew up fabric by opening an Etsy shop and setting up booths at many craft shows.
Admittedly, I often felt like the little ant trying to move the rubber tree plant. I had “high hopes.” It paid off because I can now say the fabric stash is a normal, manageable size. All thanks to this beast of a cabinet.
I spied this massive gem as Ron and I were driving through the neighborhood. It was sitting in the garage of an empty cottage that our maintenance guy, Cody, was painting. At first, I thought he might be adding a pantry to the kitchen, but, it didn’t match the cabinets. So, we stopped and Ron asked Cody about it. He told him the previous residents just left it when they moved. He gladly hauled it down to our garage; just to keep from having to bust it up and haul it to a dumpster somewhere.
It turned out to actually be an entertainment center. After consulting Scott about putting shelves in it, Ron gutted it and installed shelves. I used shelf liner on the back and shelves just to give the fabric a smooth surface to avoid accidental picks or snags.
Once the cabinet was finished, Ron and I muscled it into the bedroom and I gave the fabric one final, thorough purge.
Here are pictures of what remains of Mom’s fabric stash. The fabric is sorted by color, with yardage folded and stacked in the rear. The remnants that were of usable sizes were wrapped around comic book boards, then stacked in front of the yardage.
The bottom drawer holds all of the fat quarters; and, all machine embroidery materials are in the upper compartment. Sadly, not all fabric fit into the beast. So, I am in the process of lining the remaining plastic containers with shelf liner. That will keep the sun from fading streaks on the folded fabric.
I am hopeful that this organizational system will help me see which fabrics work together in any quilt I decide to make. Plus, I now feel like I can actually buy coordinating fabric when needed without feeling wasteful. So… mission accomplished, goal met, and rubber tree plant moved!
