What came first ?
 

My husband made a joke tonight about how sometimes I buy fabric and THEN find a pattern it would go well with and other times I have the pattern and then choose fabrics for it, and how it reminded him of " What came first the chicken or the egg ?" and I wanted to see what you all do !

LOL not sure I do the same as you!

I probably would say that I fall in love with the fabric and then pick a pattern. BrendaK

Sometimes I have a pattern in mind and search for the right fabric. Sometimes I see a fabric I love and search for a pattern to use it with. Sometimes I just buy fabric and add it to my stash for someday.:D

I do the same. But I'm on a fabric diet, trying to use up all the stash. It's going to take years. Someday I hope to get back to the point where I can pick them both together, make the quilt from start to finish. Having a stash it's to easy to get bored with a quilt, push it aside and run to the stash and start another. 14 tops are waiting to be quilted, 20 or so UFO's collecting dust. Oh the good ole days when I didn't have a stash and all the books and the internet convinced me I needed one. Well they were wrong. most of the fabric I purchased way back when is ugly to me now. Even before becoming obsessed with quilting I saved my fabric after making curtains or kids costumes. That's what I made my first full size quilt with, all those leftovers. Now it seems I'll never get to the bottom of the stack...

I buy fabric because I want to buy fabric, rarely do I have a particular pattern in mind. I usually only buy a yard or less though because I'm really enjoying scrappy quilts these days. I keep telling myself I want to use up my stash, but I go find new fabric to replace anything I use from my stash. It's quite counter productive....

most of the time If I am purchasing new fabric (besides backing) I buy the fabric because I see it, love it, and believe I can use it in a number of different projects...generally if I find a pattern I want to use I start in my stash looking to see what I have that will work well for that pattern. I tend to make up my quilts as I go, don't use that many patterns- so I seldom shop to fulfill the need of a pattern- I shop to fill holes in my stash. :)

i usually quilt from my stash when i see a pattern i like

I normally purchase my fabric in the following: Who is the quilt for, pick the pattern and then purchase the fabric. Unless I find a fantastic sale that I can't refuse and only if they have fabric I really like, and only have done that twice and the first time the fabric was $1.00 a yard and the second time it was buy one yard get one free.

I do a little of both. If I find fabric I love, I'll buy it. Sometimes I have a pattern and will buy the fabric to go with it, in which case I copy the pattern from the book and include it with fabric so I don't forget what I bought it for. Not that I couldn't use it for whatever ;-)

Back when I used to sew my own clothes I used to do the same thing - buy fabric and then figure out what to do with it.