About 5 years ago I attended my first quilt guild meeting and they were having a "Scrap Therapy" workshop. I was a guest and didn't own as much as a swatch of fabric. One of the ladies in the guild said "you need to buy some fabric, honey". I remember buying a few pieces and diligently practicing my cutting it up into 3,4 and 5" squares as the teacher taught us and storing it in the shoebox sized tote provided to us at the class.
A short while later, I started piecing my first quilt and found I was a 1/2 yard short of one of the fabrics I needed to complete this quilt so I made a promise to myself to never run out of fabric again. It was then that I started buying yardage...yards of everything I could afford.
Needless to say, I now have a stash beyond my wildest dreams.
Now had I started out with a simple kit which provided everything I needed, I doubt that I would have the fabric collection I do today.
Sometimes it pays to come up short!