June TIF Challenge and Stashes

I'm hanging in there folks trying to keep up. I really would like to have the whole year done in TIF challenges but....

Anyway, the concept for this month's TIF challenge is all about stashes. Here's how Sharon B describes it: "Stashes are either purchased or scavenged materials that have accumulated over time and as such they often have a story to tell........So this month, the idea is to think about stories that are, and stories that are possible."

My Stash Story

Because I've been retooling, revamping, revising myself as it pertains to my artwork, my stash (much of it is commercial fabrics I no longer use regularly) just sits there for the most part.

I feel guilty...lordy, lordy yes I do...because I went out and bought all it of, no one else helped me (well maybe a friend or two persuaded me to get more than I thought I would get at the time...no names of course but you all know who you are!!!).

For the most part though, just like the rest of you just starting out (and some of you who've been at it for years) I too went thru a "gotta have it" phase.

So for me, my stash represents my greed phase, the "I CANNOT live w/o that loud red/orange/blue psychedelic number or that it-just-jumped-into-my-bag green to match all the other greens I have. I feel guilty for hoarding all this fabric but I do have some cool ideas on how to use it all up.

My working stash on the other hand includes:

...my hand dyes which are yummy, yummy. I used to belong to a monthly hand dyed club run by Judy Robertson but regretfully had to quit that and it broke my heart.

(Judy produces some of the most beautiful hand dyes around and it was like getting a big box of chocolates every month when that mailer came with the 1 yd cut);

...my batiks in all those drop dead gorgeous prints. I came to batiks later than most because I didn't see what the craze was about. Boy was I wrong. NOW I have a batik stash to die for and funnily enough it's not that large at all. I didn;t go crazy with the buying (mainly because the guilt from all the other fabrics I had was already eating me up);

...and my black and whites. Don't know how I started this collection but now love working with a bl/wh background pallette (bottom shelf above).

Now I do have to confess (yes...here she goes you say). The top picture clearly shows my nicely folded stash of commercial fabrics, the 2nd pic my working fabrics. What I have not told or shown most people is the stuff that I haven't laundered and therefore is not folded as nicely. That's the stuff that really stirs the guilt right up.

This 3rd pic is of that "stash". Those fabs that haven't been touched since I moved to the room I now use as my studio...4 yrs ago (What shock! What horror!)

In a space, off to the side (you can't see it when you enter the room thankfully) is this plastic tub full...and I mean FULL...of the last of my commercial fabric purchases.

I periodically rummage thru it looking for that perfect piece to add but, for the most part....it just sits there......staring me in the face.

So now you know my story. I'm gonna have to think about how to put this into a quilted piece.

What about you?...what's your stash story and what's it tell about you? I would love to hear your stories.

See ya next time "In the Hayloft",