I usually buy three yards of fabric I really like, and I often buy a lot when it's own sale. My stash has grown so that I almost always have fabric when I see a pattern I like. It's great! I usually have to supplement a little, but I like this way better than going looking for fabric to fit the pattern. It seems to me that if I have a fabric I like and want to use, the pattern for it comes around eventually. Even my sock monkey fabric eventually found a pattern it liked.