One day I was helping my grandmother, and I looked in a dresser drawer. She had a beautiful handbag, two lacy slips, and a photo album, all brand-new and neatly wrapped in tissue paper. I said, “What are these? Are they yours?” And she said, “yes, but they are too good to use.”
I’m my grandma’s girl. I have fabric that I can’t bring myself to cut for the same reason. And there are lots and lots of quilters out there just like me!
My quilting friend Katie told me that if I make a quilt from my 1997 Hoffman Challenge fabric, then she will make a quilt from her most-cherished fabric, as well.
We would like to invite all of our online quilting friends to join us in a “Too Good to Cut” Challenge. The rules are very simple — mainly because there aren’t any! 
We’ll start on January 1, 2010. Choose a beloved fabric that you have been saving for a long time. You select your own pattern and work on your quilt at your own pace. There’s no pressure and no deadlines. This will be just friends sewing together and comparing notes if they want to. If you have a blog, we can visit each other’s blogs, and if you don’t have a blog, it doesn’t matter. I will see about getting us a flickr or Photobucket site where we can share photos.
January 1 is a Friday, so we can post our progress on Fridays without interfering with other weekly blog reports that many of us participate in. And we just need to finish our quilts by the end of 2010. At the end of the year, we’ll figure out a way to judge our little quilt show, and I will give prizes, like gift certificates for online shopping that can be honoured in most countries.
If I have forgotten anything, please let me know! This is my first time to host a challenge.
You can email me at
rosewillow at rosewillow dot org dot uk
Happy Quilting! 
The plan looks good –
I like the idea of setting up a new category or tag, so it will be easy to see everyone’s progress through the year. I’ll set one up too.
Fridays are good – though you may want us to commit to posting at least once a month – say the first Friday of every month. That way, if we are still in the thinking stage we can talk about why we are stumped. Then, as we get moving, we can post more frequently.
And, will we be posting a link to our blog on your Friday post? I can’t remember if you are able to do a Mr. Linky box. I can’t use that widget (wordpress doesn’t support it, at least if you have one of the free blogs).
Now to go look as to which fabric I want to use….this could be very hard!
Liz
LOL–I too have some “favorite fabric” I hoard. I often cut a bit off to put in scrappy quilts, simply because it is my FAVORITE PIECE EVER and I smile whenever I see it. I will have to think on this, never thought about using it in a BIG quilt. Maybe as a focus fabric for borders, and in some blocks? Hmmmmmmm
I have way too many favourite fabrics but I’ll have to pick one out and join in. It sounds like a lot of fun. The first cut will be the hardest for those who are cherishing that certain fabric.
This is a challenge I need…I’m in! My fabric is some Hoffman (I think) that my Hubby gave me at least 10 years ago…lots of stars and planets and the Universe. I think I have a pattern in mind…thanks for this challenge!
[...] at Rosewillow’s Unfinished Business is starting a challenge for 2010. It’s the “too good to cut” challenge. You know, that certain fabric that you never want to cut. Or you’ll never find [...]
Oh girlfriend… you’re bad! LOL And I mean that in a very good way! OK… I’m thinking I can do this – especially if we don’t have to get going on it right away.
I may just pull that batik out and start pondering it… of course I could go through my stash and pull a couple other fabrics out too and then go looking for a pattern – better chance of matching something up that way…
or I could get that fabric I’ve been drooling over at the shop…
Did I say you were bad? LOL
I am REALLY EXCITED about this challenge. I may have to break down and get myself a blog.
I’ll have to dedicate this quilt to my dear mom who died in 2001 at age 93 still saving the damask linens she received as a bridal shower present in 1936. After she died I opened the package wrapped in crunchy yellowed cellophane started to disintegrate in my hands (some of you may be too young to remember what real cellophane was like) and took out the table cloth which was now stained from the acids in the gold seal that said, “made in Italy.”
[...] quilting friend Katie and I would like to invite all of our online quilting friends to join us in a “Too Good to Cut” Challenge for 2010, starting on Friday, January [...]
I have lots of pieces of fabric that I think are too good to do anything with, hopefully this challenge will get me to actually cut into some of it.
http://shaulap.blogspot.com/2010/03/sweet-thimbles-update.html
Here’s my Too Good to Cut update!
Shaula