A lot of quilters have a stash. Heck my mother was a garment sewer and she had a stash. I distinctly remember a piece of turquoise velveteen that she had for a good 20 years before it became something. I have a stash, and much like my tastes, its kinda all over the place in terms of style and lengths of cuts but I have one nevertheless.

One of the fabric lines I have loved for ages is anything by Jo Morton. What she does with colors is warm and inviting to me and I literally drool when she releases anything new. For YEARS I would buy everything she put out, usually fat quarters, although I’m noticing there is yardage in there too, and I would put it in a bin “for later”. One thing moving will do for you, is show you clearly just how much “later planning” you have been doing. I moved last year and realized that my “one” bin of Jo fabric was, actually, THREE bins of Jo fabric. Ok well I’ve been busy.

I am realizing more and more that I want the things I love out where I can see them. I’ve been working on this over time, and a lot of things are on display in my house: my antique sewing machines are in a china hutch in the living room, and all my Steiff stuffed animals are in a curio cabinet in my bedroom, both allow me to see things I love while keeping them orderly and safe from the cat. I’ve been working on getting my quilts out of the UFO bin and finished to a state where I can use them and love them, and it’s time to put my Jo fabric out where I can enjoy it.

I started the hexie quilt – you have seen posts on IG about it, and I very naively thought that would take the bulk of, if not all of my Jo stash to complete. Oh, sweet summer child. That queen size quilt will maybe use 1/3 of the Jo fabric. Maybe. So I did what quilters do, and talked to some good friends and got some ideas, and I’m planning another quilt with those fabrics. More to come on that later.

The main point of all of this being that I’m really making plans this year to sew my stash and get the fabrics I love so much out where I can see them and enjoy them. I do better when I have a plan, so rather than just talking about it, I have two quilts planned. I’ll see how far that gets me through the stash. There may be some other smaller projects with what is left, but my goal is to use it all up and get it out in my house where I can enjoy it!