Originally Posted by
dunster
I'm also horrified when I look at my stash. But then when I start to pull fabrics for a quilt I wish I had more to choose from, because I make 99% of my quilts from stash.
I understand completely. The same thing happens to me in my stash in general.
However, about 9 years ago, I found a focus fabric I absolutely loved and knew I would continue to love. So I bought fabric to go with that, and now have a nice collection. I can go to that collection when I am ready to make the next quilt in that series. I keep it separate from the general stash.
Now there's an interesting distinction I just noticed: I call fabric bought just because I liked it, but without necessarily matching it with anything, my stash. But I call planned fabrics, centering around a focus fabric, my collection. The collection is easier to use because the matching is already done, whereas the stash might require looking in each box, pulling out a lot of stuff, auditioning all of it. Stash would be less defined potential, then. A collection would be a highly-defined and pre-auditioned fabric group that goes together and is restricted to a certain color scheme and theme, in this case, blue-greens, yellow-greens, and other blues, greens, and blue-violets (and red-violets) - all batiks.
So how many of you have stashes, and how many of you have collections?
Cricket