December's Stash Busting

Good news, I used more fabric than I bought this month! AGAIN. 
Fabric In Nov.        12.5yards            Fabric In 2012       113.545
Fabric Out Nov.      12.75                  Fabric Out 2012     108.97
Used In Nov:           5.25                  Used 2012             +4.575

A great month!  But, it was a great month for bringing in fabric also.  Sigh.  The good news is I have a fairly large quilt and a baby quilt ready to quilt. If I am lucky I'll get both of them done in January. 

I spent a few minutes seeing how I've done stashbusting over the last few years.  Not so good actually. 

2009  +      .750
2010  +    5.250 
2011  + 114.500 
2012  +     4.575

Yikes, so far I haven't busted any stash and I went totally wild in 2011.  Not so good but yet I keep trying.  What I found interesting is generally I use about 80 yards of fabric in a year. This year I used nearly 109 yards.  That in itself is great!  I've decided to continue to report my fabric usage because it does motivate me to finish projects.  Not a bad thing even if I go wild buying fabric. 

Here are my rules:  
1) the project needs to be done. (Ok, sometimes I add something and I'm still sewing down the binding by hand but basically it is done.)
2) blocks made and given away count
3) if I buy wide backs, I count it as the yardage in and when it is used the whole amount is considered used.  (hey, I just don't want to get any deeper into figuring little pieces.) 
4) gifts count either coming in or going out.
5) I figure my ins and outs one time a month.  I'd show no results if I did it weekly!

Feel free to join me if you want a bit extra motivation to FINISH. 

I was looking around the internet this morning and I visited Angie's Free Block of the Month 2012.  She has updated it a bit but her previous posts were about moving so I am sure she is focusing on that rather than updating her list.  However, I did run across Peck's Pieces. Go take a look but remember to come back here.   . . .   ok, wasn't that a great site for applique?  I've downloaded the Halloween ghosts and the snowmen and Santa Claus.  I would love to make either of them but I'm not committing to any thing for the time being.  I did want to share her great designs though.  

Come back tomorrow for a new feature, Triangle Thursdays.  For the next few months (or maybe the whole year) I'm going to be sharing patterns to use up excess triangles.  You know the ones I mean -- when you use a square on the corner of a rectangle to make flying geese and cut off the excess triangles.  Yep, I have a whole basket  of them and I want to USE them rather than collect them.  Check in tomorrow for the first Triangle Thursday.  


Happy sewing all!