The Dear Jane quilt is not the only big project I’m working on. I’m also on a mission to “de-stash” my stash of fabrics.

My plan to de-stash was formed when I came across a light green fabric that was the perfect sage color for this quilt … a fabric that I didn’t even remember that I owned. Watch for it in a future block!

This got me thinking about a recent triangle block that needed a little something different, and how I found the perfect striped fabric for it in my stash.

Which reminded me about another block where I wanted a cream print that would work with a block that had a large square in the middle, and I re-discovered a couple of sample squares of the perfect fabric.

I’ve clearly got more than enough fabric stash, if I can’t even remember what I’ve got. And I’m definitely not having any trouble finding bits of excellent fabrics in my stash when I need them.

I’ve been trying to follow Dana K. White’s container rule: set up a container that, when filled, contains a reasonable amount of that item to have. When the container is full, if you want something new, you have to take something out to make room and get it out of the house.

Of course, in my case, it’s “containers”, not “container”, but I’m trying to keep the stash to a reasonable size. And the annual fabric sale of the local Clothing & Textile Advisors chapter is coming up this weekend, so I want to be sure to have space in my containers to add new treasures.

So, I’ve started to go through all my fabrics, reorganizing them and weeding out the pieces that just don’t spark joy anymore. Here is the before picture of my green fabrics, overflowing the allotted two bins:

De-stashing is a tough process, when they’re all “gems of potential”, but I’m making a little bit of progress. I moved the handful of pieces that are larger than a yard to a separate bin, and was even able to let go of some fabrics. Now all my small green fabrics fit in the totally-reasonably-sized containers once again:

And it definitely helps if I can find a new home for the discarded fabrics where they’ll get the love they need – with quilting friends or family members, or even donating back to the CTA so they can use it in next year’s sale.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, so there’s also a non-zero chance that I will buy that same piece of fabric again a year after donating it. I figure it all goes to a good cause, supporting the CTA’s charity projects.

But the article title mentions sashing as well as de-stashing, so I figure I should at least spend one paragraph talking about my sashing efforts.

I don’t really want to, because those appliquéd melons at the corners of Block J8 went right up to (and basically into) the seam allowance, and it was a real struggle to get the sashing stitched on without catching the edge of any of those melons in the seam allowance.

But this batch of sashing is done now, and my de-stashing efforts have cleared up some storage space. Now I’m all set to find new treasures at the sale this weekend!