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Purge-Along this summer

Purge button Are you ready for The Purge?  To turn those unloved fabrics into something you're proud to call your own?  Clear your sewing cupboards of those hairy bits and bobs that clutter up your space?  You could make anything with your unloved fabrics - small or large - or even just destash/donate your goods.

Share your progress here in link-ups every two weeks.  Each link-up is a chance to win some goodies sure to be more useful to your stash!

It's our summer purge-along. This is for all you peeps who bemoaned un-matching fabrics, dowdy stash and uninspiring scraps, when I asked, "What stops you from enjoying this hobby?"  Let's move what we've got!

Step 1:  Claim your Purgeables

From my humble beginning sniffing out unloved fabrics, I've now amassed a nice pile of not-so-inspiring duds.  Honestly, en masse they scare me a bit... but I guess that's the point. 

  my Purge

So go through your stash and/or your scraps and sort out those fabrics that you just don't love anymore.  Size doesn't matter.

Also, feel free to grab random things you cut, but never sewed or poor little orphan blocks.  Basically anything you'd rather not have, if only you could find a good way to send it off.

Step 2:   Make some Commitments

Ok, so what can you do with your pile of purge?  I offered lots of suggestions in this post, and you'll find some more from readers in the comments.  Now let's set some real goals.  This July and August, what can you do, given your time limits, given your purge pile, the size of your cuts, etc.?  I find it really helps to jot my ideas down:
  • Make a scrap quilt ("the Purge", tutorial this week)
  • Sew 5 little dresses for Africa
  • Quilt up 2 orphan blocks for Soy Amado charity quilts
  • Make bright, braided fabric pull handles
  • Bundle and destash what I don't use up
What are your goals?  I'd love to hear what you're thinking to do or make in the comments!

Step 3:  Do, Make & Link-up

The Purge is a process, not a one-time endeavor.  I'm allotting all of July and August, plus the first weeks of September.  I plan to make small incremental progress over the next weeks, so that by the end of the summer I'll have met my goals.

To keep momentum going, I'll host Purge ideas and link-ups every-other-week on Fridays.  Share a photo of your Purge progress to enter to win some very helpful prizes!  Here are those link-up dates:
  • July 18th
  • August 1st
  • August 15th
  • August 29th
  • September 12th
The September 12th link-up, being our last, will be for finished projects only.  Anything you've made, however large or small, with purge fabrics that is totally finished will qualify.  I promise to arrange for a very special prize.

If you'd like to sport a button, be my guest.  You can pin the Purge button (above) or use this html code to embed it in the html portion of a blog post.  Thanks for spreading the news!

the Purge


How do you plan to purge-along?