I don't have a set number either, and sometimes the number is dictated by what I have in my stash. Once a year around my birthday, I go to my local quilt shop for a "spree." The owner gives us a discount of half our age, so the older I get the better the discount! Anyway, I usually buy neutrals to last the year, but I usually throw in a few other fabrics for which I have no plans. When I start a new quilt that's going to be scrappy - and most of my quilts are - I pull one of those fabrics out and then look for things to go with it. That usually ends up being 10 or so different pieces of varying amounts (from FQ to a yard). I also have boxes of 2" and 2.5" squares that are leftovers that I throw into the mix. The Bonnie Hunter mysteries have been heavily mined from those boxes but I didn't do one this past year.