Your story sounds a lot like mine. I started out just buying fabric for projects and then I bought a few things that I fell in love with..... not much. That's not my style. Then I started finding fabrics at estate sales I'd go to..... $2 for a piece of fabric that would measure 1-2 yards. I would pick the ones I liked but the stash started growing. Last summer I bought several small boxes of fabric at an auction..... the woman had been a quilter and had lots of fabric..... good fabric. I think once I washed and folded all that I counted about 140 yards. So, now my stash is getting pretty big..... not as huge as many I see but I kinda feel like you.... what to do next?
I just finished a baby quilt that I finished up using all that stash. I bought 1 yard of an animal print but the majority of the fabric came from stash..... Yeah!. I'm thinking of cutting 2 1/2" squares with some of the pieces that I'm not in love with to use for leaders and enders.
When I want to make a quilt I'll first shop my stash..... It really bothers me when I have the perfect thing in the stash but there's not enough.... Then, I have to start adapting things and that can be a problem.