I have alot of yarn, cause I want to make a few shawls. Suddenly, I have 2 shawls I need to finish and my yarn is put away, or taken to the FabricRecycle store for store credit...when I left the store the other day, I noticed they have charm packs. So today I am going back. It's snowing tomorrow...I'm sewing.

If for instance, it calls for 2 1/2 yards, I buy 3. I still have some left over from watercolor quilts...but no yardage per se.

I started collecting fabric so if I wanted to start a project at 10:00 at night I would have fabric on hand to work with. Just before I retired I found a wonderful sale where I bought a bunch of fabric in the same genre (does that word apply to fabric?). I purchased 85 yards for less than $200.00. A couple months later I purchased another 20 yards of neutrals that would work with that fabric. I'm still working on that fabric and will be for a long, long time. My advice would be to purchase fabric in the same style, color, etc to make a couple quilts. The rest of your stash will build itself when you have leftovers from each quilt that you make. Sometimes too large a stash can be as crippling as too small a stash.

Unless you like to make scrappy quilts, I do not recommend just buying random pieces of fabric just because they are on sale. I made this mistake when I started, thinking I needed to have a stash. Well I still have most of that fabric!! I have learned now to buy for a quilt pattern I have selected, and you will built a stash from those leftovers. The other random pieces just never seem to fit into a project. I keep thinking I will figure a way to use them, but after 2 years it still hasn't happened.

I have quite a large stash and wish I didn't! It would be more fun for me now to buy new fabrics for a quilt. Storage and maintenance of a stash can become burdensome, and fabric is something that usually does not appreciate in value over time. Unless you are buying designer fabrics, fabric automatically becomes worth only half what you paid for it. I have seen quilter estate sales where fabric is sold pennies on the pound.

A stash can be a creative resource for some quilters, but for many of us it becomes something of an albatross.

Just yesterday I went to the new JoAnn's about 20 minutes from here. Looked at their prices, $8-$12 per yard. I just needed fabric pens and thread. I'm glad I have my stash of 25 large plastic tubs full of fabric, that I bought at Walmart and from a few members on here. I make a lot of quilts and pillowcases for charities and wouldn't be able to afford it at the prices now. I have had a lot of my fabrics since the '80's and they are still good.

For me it is priceless. It means I can decide to make a quilt, think about the colors and head to my stash, pull the fabrics out and make it.

I just gifted this one today to my neighbor. She likes browns. I don't have the option to run to the store. I threw in some older fabrics like some calicos and some more modern newer type prints and a couple of novelty prints purchased on fabric.com or hancocks of Paducah's website. I had them all already. Here in Poland, you can't really count on the thrift stores having what you need. :D

[ATTACH=CONFIG]498791[/ATTACH]

What a beautiful quilt!! Brown is my third preferred color for quilts....after purple and blue, but I don't see many brown quilts. I love yours.

Dina

I just went through my stash a couple weeks ago. I got rid of the thin, cheesy fabrics that I bought when I was first sewing. I've found with my quilting, that I like to buy fabric for a project. I like to pick out that special piece of new yumminess and play with it. So I've decided now that I'm not really going to 'stash', except in that I'll have bits left over from my projects. That should help out my closet! LOL!

I think it smart of you to be picky about what fabric you buy - getting good fabric means you will be happier with your projects, and they'll last longer.

Once you're more familiar with the brands that you like and are happy with the quality, you'll be confident to order from those lines online.

I wouldn't worry about building a stash - it will happen on its own! I always purchase more than the pattern calls for (grand ideas of making matching pillows or other goodies, allowing for miscutting and pattern errors).

But I certainly have lots of purchases where I just fell in love with the fabric and didn't have a particular pattern in mind - usually end up with five fabrics that go together, a couple of yards each, 3 yards for what might be a border fabric.