De-stashing

On New Year's Day, I cleaned up my shelves in my sewing room.  I went through every piece of fabric, refolding large pieces and separating out the scraps and the strips.  I pulled a giant pile of fabric that I knew I'd never use again. 

Most of the fabrics were calico prints I'd purchased when I first started quilting twenty years ago.  I stocked up every time the fabric store had 1/2 off sales.  Some of the fabrics I'd used, but many of them I simply carted around from city to city thinking some day I'd get around to making something with them.  I considered making quilts to donate with these fabrics, but I knew I wouldn't enjoy making them since I didn't like any of the fabrics anymore. 

Today, a sweet lady who volunteers at a local senior center picked them up.  She was overjoyed at the range of fabrics and thrilled that most were at least a yard if not more.  She works with a group of ladies who make lap robes from donated fabric and she'd mentioned how rarely they get larger pieces to work with.  It felt great to get rid of those fabrics that were cluttering up my sewing room and pass them along to a group who will make some beautiful quilts from them. 

Now I can really see what I've got left that I truly want to sew with.  It's a freeing feeling.