Barbara Schutzgruber – Storyteller & Weaver

‘STASH’…. Webster defines it as “a secret store of something”. Fiber artists are famous (or infamous!) when it comes to our stash because you never know when you just might need that specific yarn, color or fabric. Granted… sometimes our houses do look like an episode of ‘Hoarders’ as the yarn, roving, fabric…. whatever our passion involves takes over our houses as most of us can’t afford to rent separate ‘studio’ space. My friend Jean had a loom instead of a dining room table. Others have taken over garages or basements and plastic bins are our friends.

For me… my looms have always been in the living room. They’re the first thing someone sees when they walk into my house. (What can I say…. it’s got great natural light and I get the fireplace!)

Our daughter’s former bedroom….. is now my sewing room.

One of the things I love about fiber artists is the sharing of our ‘stash’. When we realize we are not going to be using something we put it out there for other fiber folks to acquire. This way it can go on to have a new life… plus we all know we can now acquire more stash! So, when a fellow fiber artist decided to liquidate part of her stash, I was given the opportunity to acquire some beautiful wool roving for felting, in an amazing range of colors, at an excellent price… of course I jumped at the chance. As it turns out…. I now have 23 1/2 lbs of beautiful wool roving, in an amazing range of colors!! OK… now my challenge is where do I put it??? It’s taken me a week to organize it all into color bins (so I can find what I want) and rearrange (yet again) my basement storage but it is done!!

Now…. back to the fun work of creating!!