Repurposing Fabric for Lutheran World Relief Quilts

Last week, I applied for a Thrivent Action Group microgrant (for lack of a better word) for our next quilting Sunday at church on Nov. 22.  If it comes through, I'll have a Visa card to buy supplies, like fabric and thread and batting--which can all be surprisingly expensive.  I suspect our grant will be awarded because it's the kind of project that they like to fund.

That hasn't stopped me from thinking about the big pieces of fabric that I have on hand that might be repurposed for LWR quilts.  Last year I bought a piece of fleece for a tablecloth.  I was hoping for a butterscotch color, but it's really more of a bright orange than I want.  I only use it a month or two a year, and it's just not the color that I want.  So, it's on its way to becoming part of a quilt.

I have a set of sheets that I almost never use, but I keep the set, just in case I need to change sheets without having time to launder the set that's on the bed.  Perhaps I should use those too.  If the day comes when I regularly find myself wishing that we had an extra set, I can buy an extra set then.

I like the idea of using the fabric while it's still in decent shape.  I like the idea of having less to store.  I will still have plenty of supplies to buy when the Visa card comes--the batting alone can use up much of the grant.

I also think of my younger self who was so proud of creating quilts and placemats and art that would have a use. I want to use the fabric while it's still in one piece, before it decays.

Once I bought a lot of fabric.  I haunted the fabric stores and bought all sorts of remnants, along with fabric that I bought through projects.  Through the years, I've used the fabric, but I've given far more of it away.  I don't want to stockpile too much--but I also want to look at other stockpiles, which aren't as obvious to the first glance:  the extra sheets, the tablecloths, the cloth napkins that I so rarely use these days.