I forgot one thing (probably I forgot a whole lot of things, I just haven't remembered them yet).
I bought un-used pizza boxes from Domino's. 25 boxes for $5. I store my fat quarters in them, sorted by color. I printed out colored squares on my pc and taped the appropriate square to the outside rim of each box.
Now I can easily just pull out the color that I want from the neatly stacked boxes.
Well...they WERE neatly stacked. For some reason DH has moved the stacks into the basement shower. Not so easily accessible there.