I read somewhere that if you see a fabric you like, but at least a half yard, however, if you really love it and might want to use it as a focus fabric in a quilt, buy 2-3 yards. My girl friend took me to a quilt shop where they had "sale" fabrics for $2.99/yd. as they were just making room for new fabrics in their shop. Some fabric I only bought a yard or two, but if I really loved it, bought 6-7 or even a little more to be used for backing fabric. I must admit that I am a fabric-aholic, and sometimes let my fabric "age - like fine wine", but I also make quilts to be raffled off by my church. I often let the fabric "speak" to me and I made a quilt recently where my backing fabric wanted a featured role in the quilt, so I did, and we raised over $1200 - it was a beautiful quilt, if I do say so myself. Now that we're both on Social Security, I'm glad I bought the fabric when I had the money, so now I have a great stash to support my quilting habit. Hope this helps.