90% of my stash is fat quarters. When I started quilting I just bought what I liked and didn't have much money so I bought FQ's. When I got some "play time" at home I'd make my own "kits" and take note of what I needed to complete the "kits" on my next shopping trip. I learned early on to pay attention to the quilts I saw at shows that really "sang" to me. It was always the ones that used a lot of fabrics, not just 3 or 4. I don't mean real scrappy necessarily but controlled scrappy. If I were to make a red and white quilt, I would use 8 or 9 white fabrics (or white with red) and that many red fabrics (or more). So for me fat quarters work. I have also learned what type of fabrics work well for borders, and backgrounds, so I would buy more yardage of those. I don't live in a town with a quilt store so I love having a stash that I can pull from when I have an inspiration, I don't have to wait until I can get to the store. Yes there have been many times I didn't have enough fabric to do what I wanted, but that really forces you to be creative, and wonderful surprises can happen in those times. There have been times that I have bought exactly what I needed for a quilt, and as I did the first couple of blocks i realized it wasn't what I had imagined it would look like. At those times it is nice to have a stash to pull from so you can "try" lots of different colors and prints to see what might work. Even if you don't have enough of the one you like, it pointed you in the right direction, so you know what to shop for. I never follow a pattern as it is written, I have to play with it and make it my own so I've had to learn to "guesstimate" the fabric requirements also. Learn what you like, it will make fabric buying much easier. I also love applique and if I am making a pink flower with six petals, I will use 5 or 6 different pinks to add some dimension. A fat quarter goes a long way for applique.
Last edited by roselady; 05-23-2012 at 08:57 PM.