dunster

I buy muslin (bleached and unbleached) by the full bolt when it's on sale. I'm just starting to use it more, so will have to buy more soon. When I find other good background fabrics at a terrific price, I buy as much as there is. We're all naturally drawn to the more colorful fabrics, so whenever I'm at a fabric sale I make an effort to search out the neutrals.

Caswews

My fabric purchases depend on if/what/how ..LOL if I mess it up what will will I do to fix and how much more do I need to fix it? If I don't do any of those .. then I have extra fabric for something else later on !LOL Oh and if I like the fabric; then there is lots of extra .. LOL

Dragonomine

I go to Joann's and buy a bolt of 120" white muslin with my 40% off coupon. Nothing goes to waste and it will last me about 1-2 years.

Scissor Queen

Personally I like to use a whole bunch of different neutrals when I do something with a neutral background. I generally don't buy more than a yard of a white on white, cream on white, white on cream, etc, etc and then I'll use a mix of at least 10+ in one quilt.

Pieces2

I like to buy assorted tone on tone fabrics for my stash. When I piece a quilt I don't use a solid white throughout the entire quilt but use the assorted tone on tone fabrics. This way I don't run out of 'a' fabric when piecing becuase I always have a lot of tone on tone on hand. I think this makes a quilt more interesting than using a solid white fabric. And you do always run out of a solid white fabric, and every white fabric is always a different color, impossible to match.

quilterpurpledog

I understand your problem! Most LQS give a substantial discount for buying 'what's left on the bolt' so I keep an eye on the bolt size. As a result I have perhaps six pieces of background fabric stashed on their bolt boards. I have off-whites, creams and a couple that are almost tan. They can be used alone as matched backgrounds of mixed up for a different look. But, I do keep an eye on those background colors.

quiltmom04

I don't typically stash " background" fabric. If I want to make a quilt with a large quantity of one color for the background, I assemble the other colors I have and want to use and buy the background fabric for just that project.

quiltin-nannie

A few years ago when Walmart was getting rid of their fabrics at my local store, I bought tons of really nice quality tone on tones. I think the biggest piece I got was 11.5 yards. The rest were 6 or 7 yard pieces. I don't think I will ever run out of tone on tones! I never purchased much from Walmart because of the quality, but these were all as nice as what I buy in my LQS.

bunniequilter

Thats an easy one for me. I dont buy fabric unless its on sale, so I buy a min of one yard. If its a really really good sale I buy 3 yards.

tessagin

I just love quilting board. I get so many tips. Thank you all!