I look at stash pictures on here and just want to drool. My fabric stash fits in one bookcase. It is all stored by color and anything bigger than a yard is folded and kept on a couple of shelves in the cupboard. I am not working anymore so I am not earning money for my hobby like I used to. I usually only buy fabric if I have a project in mind. I try not to buy books anymore unless I JUST HAVE TO HAVE IT - I probably have almost 200 books and over 900 patterns I have pulled from magazines - not to mention pictures of quilts I have seen and want to make. I will never live long enough to make all the quilts I would love to make ...
I went to a quilt show recently and walked out with four friends who had their arms full - I had purchased a fat quarter! One of them asked me how I could control myself because she had heard me oooh and aaaww over several patterns and/or fabrics. I told her that no fabric came into the house without a specific project in mind, no kits would be purchased unless they would be made in 90 days - she admired my self-control. It's not that I didn't want them. There are just so many hours in a day and with a new longarm in my family room, I have a full plate.
I do save leftover fabrics from projects. I usually cut them into 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 inch squares for scrappy quilts if they are less than a fat quarter. Fat quarters and yardage get saved because they would be enough to do something with. I love making a scrappy quilt and seeing all the memories in them. One of the ladies who used to do my longarm quilting said she always loved doing a scrappy quilt for me because they held memories for her of quilts she had done before.
I don't usually save anything smaller than 1.5 inch squares - I don't have a use for them. I am sure there is someone out there who would use them, it's just not me. I save my leftover binding pieces to use to bind scrappy quilts - there is no reason to make them from yardage, I just pull out my leftovers, sew them together and am ready to go. Someday, I will sit and sew them all together so they are ready to go (then I could just add to them as I go along).
I am the only quilter in my family - my daughter has an appreciation for it and would not just toss all my stuff - she has quite a few of my quilts stashed for use when she moves out.