{"id":36871,"date":"2017-05-29T06:57:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T13:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/?p=36871"},"modified":"2017-05-27T13:41:25","modified_gmt":"2017-05-27T20:41:25","slug":"fabric-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/fabric-usage\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabric Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first mentioned tracking my fabric usage formally on a V&S post a few months ago<\/a>. Peg recently asked about it, so I thought I would write more about it.<\/p>\n

First, if you are a beginner, stop reading and go sew. You are too young a quiltmaker to be worrying about fabric usage.<\/p>\n

Second, if you are prone to anxiety, stop reading. Fabric usage is not something you need to add to your list of anxieties. Go sew and enjoy your quiltmaking.<\/p>\n

Everyone else may continue reading with the understanding that this tracking system is not to judge<\/em>, but to understand how much fabric my projects actually take and my fabric usage over the course of a year.<\/p>\n

I have been tracking my fabric usage since 2015. I did it all last year as well. Having more of a handle on how to use the spreadsheet helped me to understand what fabrics I was using and how much. I made much better choices about fabric purchases and continue to do so. I am not perfect, but getting better and fabric is so yummy that sometimes it is hard to resist. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

I use a spreadsheet that I originally got from Pam of Hip to Be a Square podcast. I have modified to suit my needs. Pam has a blank copy of her fabric usage spreadsheet available on a post<\/a> from a few years back. It is a good way to start tracking your usage as long as there is no guilt involved. Cheryl, a BAMer, wrote a great post<\/a> about her spreadsheet for the BAM blog. She talks about her theories around it, why she does it and how she does it.<\/p>\n

While there is no shortage of fabric at my house, this spreadsheet is not intended to keep me from buying fabric. That would be a effort in futility and acknowledging that fact feels like a victory. I started so I would know how much fabric I am using per year as well as how much I am adding to my collection. I have a good idea of how many different fabrics I purchase in a year based on the Fabric of the Year quilts<\/a>, but quantities were always a mystery.<\/p>\n

Knowing that I used:<\/p>\n

2015: 107.16 yards
\n2016: 181.34 yards
\n2017: 62.48 (YTD)<\/p>\n

There is no adjustment for how much fabric I have purchased and that changes the numbers a lot. The numbers above are gross, not net. I have to say that knowing how much fabric I used in 2015 spurred me on to sew more in 2016. Using a 100 yards is not out of the realm of possibility and if I made goals like that, that would be my goal. Less than halfway through the year, I am already well on my way.<\/p>\n

I find the statistics interesting, but I don’t think you should track your fabric usage unless there is no guilt involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I first mentioned tracking my fabric usage formally on a V&S post a few months ago. Peg recently asked about it, so I thought I would write more about it. First, if you are a beginner, stop reading and go sew. You are too young a quiltmaker to be worrying about fabric usage. Second, if … Continue reading “Fabric Usage”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[315,188,345],"class_list":["post-36871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-434","tag-fabric","tag-podcast-sew-in","tag-tools"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}