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Old 09-12-2012, 01:44 PM
  #13  
Jan in VA
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Piedmont Virginia in the Foothills of the Blue Ridge Mtns.
Posts: 8,562
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Like many shops, I shelve my folded fabrics by color, in horizontal stacks about 12"-15” high: Red (and any hue thereof)/Purple (etc.)/Pink/Orange-Yellow/Green/Blue/Black/Neutral, and so forth.
Only the reproduction fabrics (1930s, mid-1800s) and collectible Mary Ellen Hopkins fabrics are shelved separately.

I do also have a large bin of multiple-yardage pieces (over 4 yds) that I use for backings. These are generally too thickly folded and unwieldy to go on the stacks-by-color shelves.

The shelves (behind doors to limit light exposure) hold fabrics that are fat quarter, 1/3 yard, or larger. I can open the armoire doors and see half my stash in one glance - the rest is behind the first, they are stored 2 stacks deep.

Most anything else is stored in clear plastic 8x12x14" boxes on wire shelves, labeled by size:
8 separate boxes for cut strips sized from 1" up to 3.5"
A box for usable pieces of fabric (from which I can cut a few strips or several squares, etc.),
Boxes of 4" squares (hundreds and hundreds!) by color (leftover from a project years ago in my shop, but incredibly valuable to use!)
Boxes of triangles (usually leftovers from another project or flying geese trades)
4-patches boxes
9-patches boxes (many from trades)
Box of strips sewn together (from other projects and which can be taken apart should I need that color)
Box of leftover pieced blocks
Boxes of random pieces (oddly shaped cuts, leftover rectangles, miscuts from previous projects)
Box of leftover pieces of binding
And a few boxes of "pulls" for projects to be

I've stored this way for so long I'd be lost in any other setting. But the benefit is that I literally 'know' every fabric I own even though there are probably 5000+ different prints/fabrics in some amount in my stash. If I need a pink, or a green, or a certain blue, I know whether there is such in the stash and can nearly put my hand on it with my eyes closed.

Sure helps the design process for me!!

Jan in VA
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