cricket_iscute

I think you have to start at the beginning, as I did. I thought about how I would look for fabric when I wanted to make a quilt. For me, a student of color, that was by color. I distinguish between orange, yellow-orange, and red-orange, for instance, so I had banker's boxes for each. I also have several boxes by theme, for instance, country or kid's or outdoor themes. I have a small collection of reds, whites, blues and those are set aside as a patriotic collection. So it's either by color or by theme, but mostly by color. I know that I will be consulting a color wheel when planning a quilt.

I stand the fabric up in the box so I can see everything at a glance. That's easy to do if the box is on it's end when loaded.

I have shelves on which the boxes live, and those have labels by color.

Fat quarters and everything but scraps go into the boxes. It's easy to find what I need.

I make clothing also, and that fabric has it's own storage area. For that, I store fabrics that will work together, color wise and by fabric content.

The above is for my own fabrics. I make a lot of quilts for homeless families, and have donated fabric. That is also in boxes on another set of shelves, but not as finely sorted. For instance, a box of reds might have red-orange, reds, pinks, red-violets, etc.

I keep in the sewing room only those things I am currently working on (multiple projects at any time) or plan to work on within 3 months.