The Great Instagram Destash

Two weekends ago, I got involved with a little thing called an Instagram Destash.  Let me explain:  A whole lot of patchwork and quilting people who live in the UK and Europe all decided that on Friday night, starting at 7pm they would post photos of fabric from their stash that they'd like to part with, onto Instagram, along with the price they'd like for it.  If you followed the hashtagged group and you saw anything you liked, all you had to do was comment under the photograph with your PayPal affiliated email address!  The first to comment was the successful buyer!

Well, I am fairly new to Instagram, so I decided to plan ahead.  I typed my email address along with the words 'Yes Please' then copied it (by holding my finger down on the words until they were selected and a command box popped up asking me what I wanted to do with the words - of course I chose COPY)  Whenever I refreshed my photo stream, if there was anything that I liked all I had to do was put my finger in the space where you add a comment and hold it down for a couple of seconds to paste in my comment.  I was so pleased to have been the first to comment on eight lovely things and have been happily receiving fabric pieces in the post all week!

The Americans had one first, the previous weekend under #greatfabricdestash, but unfortunately most of the people who posted photos said shipping to US only, so the next weekend we were lucky enough to have one over here under the group name of #greatukfabricdestash.  This then made all the Australian patchworkers feel left out, as postage costs can sometimes be prohibitive, so they had their own Instagram fun last weekend under the tag #greataussiefabricdestash.  If you happen to share photos on Instagram, there are still a few things up for grabs, if you're interested.

Here are some pictures of the things I was able to buy, mostly for a green quilt I am hoping to make for my sister, the others were just because I liked them!

Hunky Dory Jelly roll from Trudi Wood  

Padstow 5" charm squares from Emma

Leafy fat quarter from Emily

ikea fat quarter from feefeefifi

Green scrap bundle from hannlib

Mendocino mermaid small pieces from Fiona

Etchings jelly roll and charm pack from Katy

I am still waiting on just one more to arrive, it is half a yard of grey with white flowers, from Sarah at duck egg threads.










This Destash was a lot of frantic fun!  Every time I clicked the refresh button, 6 or 7 photos had been added that I had to examine and see if it was something I'd like, and then the mad rush to try and be the first to add your email address in the comments.  Sometimes it looked like nobody had commented, so I thought I was the first, but then once you send the comment, the photo refreshes itself and you actually see that your comment was third in line instead of first!

It was also lovely to see some people who have big collections of fabric be prepared to part with some of their special and rare pieces.  Sometimes someone would comment that they were disappointed to miss out on something, and then another commenter would offer up a piece that they had at home!  Some people would even feel sorry for others missing out, and so offered to have their winning piece cut in half in order to share the good fortune.  It really was an experience, an outpouring of the shared love for fabric.

If you'd like to know about anymore that I hear of, I'll post a newsflash blog post to provide some advanced notice.  It seems the people with large fabric collections found it cathartic and those - like me - who have a small stash enjoyed finding new treasures and new blogs to read too!  If you joined in with one of these Instagram Destashings, what did you think of it?