Building up a stash
 

Hi all. I will be retiring in about a year and want to build up my stash. I would like suggestions on how to go about this. Should I concentrate on a variety of colors? Should I pick patterns and make my own kits? How much of each color do you think I should get? Should I get blenders in lots of colors(or my favorite colors)! There is so much to choose from, so I'm struggling on where to start. I would love to hear what y'all suggestions are. Thanks!

before I retired I did buy a whole stack of solids (I do a lot of modern quilts so like having solids around) and blenders. I didn't buy many prints unless I just loved them --and then usually 3 yds. But usually with a print I've got an idea of what I plan to do(some day!)

I agree. I wish I had more backgrounds in my stash. I would add blacks, navies and greys to Tartan's list. Or whatever colors you might use as background.

It depends on what kind of quilts you want to make. I would work on figuring that out before investing in a stash that may not meet your needs. Also, what's popular now may look very dated in a year or two. Focus on what you like, try to avoid fabrics that are too trendy, and remember that colors might not always be available in the tints you prefer as they change yearly. For instance, one year it's bright blue, then periwinkle, then baby blue, then blue-green, in a continuous cycle year in and year out. I made a mistake in the 80s of overloading my stash with dusty colored prints that went out of style before I could use them up.
They haven't been back in style since.

You can't go wrong with solids in basic colors, and polka dots in different sizes and colorways. Beautiful florals are also good picks. I have Kaffe Fasset prints that are at least ten years old that I use all the time. Find designers that you like and buy their simple patterns. I love Tula Pink's designs, but rarely buy her larger scale prints because they're too limiting. I stick to buying her simpler designs in colors I love.
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I like the idea of making up your own kits.

I am one who has garnered quite a healthy stash, and have found myself wondering why I purchased this fabric or that, and conversely, wishing I had purchased more of this fabric or that. The downside of not buying enough is often times you can't buy more. So, I have started doing exactly that - making my own kits. I put the pattern with the requisite amount of fabric (plus a little extra) in a special area in my quilt studio.

I think it will depend on the kind of quilts you will make. Have you quilted all along, and are looking forward to being able to do more? Or, are you new at this madness? Initially I bought every shiny object I loved. Fabric seemed to jump into my cart. Then I discovered all the patterns and pretty pictures, and magazines, and just had to have and bought a ton. Then I figured out I can just look and a picture online, or in a magazine, and figure it out on my own. Much of what I bought I still have, and plan on using, but I am more organized now, and have started separating fabrics into marked bins, making up my own kits with the patterns I have collected. I find I gravitate to certain fabrics and styles so I am working on eliminating things I know I won't use. I don't buy a lot of blenders, or backing. I wait until I have a need. Another thing to consider is space and storage of all your fabric. I'm rapidly running out!

From my own experience, I would echo much of what has already been said. I would start with patterns, or at least a plan, and purchase enough for that plus an additional half to full yard. I have discovered over the past few years (since I was forced into retirement by a cancer diagnosis. Thankfully I am doing well.) that each "season" they change the color pallate. I was depending upon my modest stash, but unable to find anything that went together. If anything, I might suggest the cash that you would plan to spend be put into a savings account to spend when you find a pattern after retirement that you want to make

Lots of good advice so far and probably lots more to come. Even if you have some experience quilting, I suggest signing up for www.pinterest.com and search for quilts. Lots of eye candy and you will see what your color scheme is. Wish I had this website when I started quilting. You can copy/print into word doc for future reference. I'm like Annie. See a quilt, figure out the block, done.

Once I found "my groove" (and it really hasn't changed much over the years) I always buy background fab by the bolt... always same color scheme meaning tone on tone...white with white pattern, beige ToT, off white ToT. I buy lots of polka dot fab too that I use for sashing and bindings to tie the blocks together.

This works for me but maybe not for you.

(I hope this all makes sense. I started this post 4.00 AM)

As a lot of what the others are saying is very true. Look at what kinds of quilts you really like and then figure out why and that may help you get some idea of what you will be making. I agree on the wait to start buying fabric. I didn't and I just started buying fat quarters with no idea of what I might want or need, so for a long time all I had was a bunch of fabric with nothing that went together. The suggestion on buying tone on tone fabrics to use as blenders is a very good idea. I still run across some of "what was I thinking"

Hmmmm, if I could go back in time how would I build my stash? Blenders, small prints with a limited colour palette and batiks, batiks, batiks!

What I would change?

Drop dead gorgeous large print I must have? Small cut that is enough to make a tote or large cut that is enough for a pieced back. I don’t like large prints for borders because to my eye they overwhelm the piecing. Most of the many many pretty large prints I accumulated ended up being cut into increasingly small pieces so that I could use them up in scrap quilts.

I would stay away from precuts as they make a mess when prewashing and I now prewash everything. Also too many collections have as many ugly fabrics as pretty fabrics.

Anything else would be for a specific pattern I want to make. I find it difficult to work the other way. The fabric I have never seems to work for the pattern I want to make. I find myself searching for a pattern to accommodate the fabric I have and I am rarely thrilled with the outcome.

I echo- "loudly.and empharically" - the suggestion to put the cash you might spend into a " fabric savings account".

I had a few years that I must have been thinking that fabric would not be ever made again and bought a lot of it..

turns out my buying way outpaced my making.. now my kids are worrying about what to do with it when I pass on.

Building up a stash
 

These are all very good suggestions. Just wish I had read some of these a year before I retired. Another thing to think about are all the supplies you will need such as thread, scissors, rulers etc. Also add blenders as others have suggested. The fabric not only changes from time to time, but so does your taste.

That's a tough one to answer because we all have different tastes and ways of doing things. I've been quilting forever and I don't remember how I got my large stash started! :)
I love fat quarter bundles. But you need some yardage to start off with. If I had it to do from scratch today I would buy some neutral yardage and my favorite fat quarter bundles. I love them for the variety and theme. But that's me.
You have been given some great ideas. Making kits? Yes! In fact I may do that with some of mine. I have a lot of patterns waiting to be made up. I like that idea.
I get tired of fabric easily so I purge every now and then. Send it off to a donation site. Lots of "what was I thinking" goes to them too.
These days I have most yardage I need and buy precuts.
I don't wash fabrics before using either, unless it's red or looks like a bleeder. I've had no problems at all.

When I first started quilting, I had an unfortunate experience of having friends decide to help me build my stash. At the time, I thought it was a great idea but in the end, their ideas of quality fabric and my ideas were two completely different ideas. I ended up with almost one hundred fat quarters that I did not know what to do with and they ended up being used for a nine patch quilt I made last year to stash bust and restart. That said, if anyone tells you they want to help you with your quilting, I would give them a small list of tools - rulers, cutting mats, pressing mats, things of that nature and tell them you'll pick your own fabric and thread. It will save you time and a lot of space.

I would look into getting fabric bundles - jelly rolls, fat quarter bundles, layer cakes, even honey buns. By using those, you'll be able to find out what fabrics you like to use, what the colorways and values you'll lean to most and it'll allow you to sample an good selection of the collection in one shot. I've been finding myself getting into the deep jewel tones lately, I never would have considered those years ago, so keep an open mind when you fabric shop and realize that your preference may shift a few times over the years before you finally settle down and decide what's pleasing for you to work with.

Online shopping definitely has its big pluses, places like Marshal's Dry Goods always have fantastic sales and clearances going on and it'll save you some money in the long run. I just bought a full bolt of unbleached Muslin several months back for only $37 - when you consider that the average price for it per yard is upwards of $3.50/yard and the bolt I bought was a 50 yard bolt, you see how much money I saved. I now have more than enough Muslin to make a lot of quilts, depending on how much background fabric I need per pattern and learning from my first quilting go-round, I had a ton of fabric, but zero background. And when you figure that the majority of the quilt is the background fabric, you'll be able to shop for the rest of the fabric for whatever quilt you're working on with a free mind. I'll be buying a bleached Muslin bolt sometime this year, I have to get over my phobia of working with pure white fabric somehow, lol.

Consider keeping a 'stash journal', this is something that I wish I had done back when I had so many fat quarters. When you buy fabric, write down everything about the fabric, who manufactured it, where you bought it, how wide it was, how much you spent, etc. You may come across a fabric that you want to use later and when you find out that you don't have enough, you can track down that fabric much easier. I keep receipts in my journal just to be safe, but writing all that down will be a lifesaver if you can't find your receipt. The more information you keep, the better your chances are if you want to revisit that fabric later and you're not able to find it in a fabric shop. If the selvage edge has all of the information on it, when you cut off the selvage, save it and add it to the journal, too.

Last thing I do is that when I'm buying fabric by the yard and I've fallen in love with it, I'll add up to three yards more to what I need for the pattern. If it's ridiculously marked down because it's on clearance, consider buying the full bolt. Also, check with the shop that you're in, they may have bolt discounts, at least places like Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's used to have them years and years ago. Check for incentive plans, if you buy online, too. The gal I get my hand dyed fabrics from has what she calls a 'Frequent Dyer' club. As soon as I get ten yards of fabric from her, she'll custom dye up to a yard (I think) for me for free. Local quilt shops and small businesses sometimes run those kinds of deals to keep you coming back as a customer. If you're happy with what you're getting from them, sign up because that will save you money in the long run, too. And the more money you're able to save, the more fabric you can buy.

I make mostly 30’s and Civil War quilts and I love scrappies so I buy a lot of small yardage. Background fabric is always short in my stash because it doesn’t really speak to me. I love Grunge and Kona “snow”. I buy snow by the bolt. I would decide what type of quilts I was going to make first. I knew I would make 30’s because my mom and aunts did and I grew up loving them. I have evolved into making Civil War quilts and I now have a very healthy stash. I also have lots of books by favorite Quilters. Good luck.

When I started quilting 20+ years ago, I bought a 100 FQ bundle of rainbow colors from a well known online source. I've used many of them. However, since then, I buy for projects, and occasionally a yard or two of fabric that I just love. I've also won fabric in shop hop drawings and once, 25 FQ in the Row by Row quilt contest.

I save leftovers and that has led to a moderate size stash (some laugh at it as they don't consider 3-4 small, flat storage bins a "stash" at all) and seriously, if I could bring myself to do it, I'd like to get rid of most of it. I've made a few scrappy quilts for charity, but that's not "my thing." In fact, I'm doing needlework (knitting, crocheting, tatting) now as a break from quilting. I have finished several large quilts in the last year and needed a change.

I buy basic solids by the bolt. Backgound is always needed. My favorite solids are Marshall's Dry Goods Dream Cotton. I can't tell any difference from Moda Bella. A bolt will last a long time and save me money. I buy print fabric in yardage or precuts. I buy batting and various backing fabric when I find a sale and put those in my stash. Right now I'm using up a lot of print fabric I'm not crazy about anymore making quilt bags for my sew group. Each bag will hold a king size quilt, perfect for taking quilts to show and tell or wherever a quilt needs to go.

Really, you want help in building a stash? That is pretty unique around here. Most of us want help in reducing our stash! It builds up way too fast.

I would buy for a quilt you plan to make and after its made, put the extra fabric on a shelf, in a box or wherever. You'd be surprised how quickly a stash will build up!

I would divide my efforts between buying blenders/small scale tone on tone/background fabric and stashing money into a separate fabric bank account for use 'as and when' you actually get there.

The designer lines change all the time, going in and out of fashion/trends, and also it is possible that your tastes will change - (mine have) and then they might go back again, or might not!

So for focus fabric I would buy very sparingly - for 'now' projects and fabric you positively *adore and cannot live without* at this point (and if your response is 'that's everything' then you need to shift the bar higher - if it's all important then none of it is important, to paraphrase a quote).

The bank account will (hopefully) ensure that you have the means to refresh your stash as you wish, rather than trying to predict your future (impossible, and stressful to boot). Plus, as someone said above, you will need additional supplies like rotary blades, mats, etc., and there is no telling how many of those you would need to acquire to cover you in later years (also, what is something better is invented?! Don't ask me what, but there was a time when rotary cutting did not exist, so who knows...)

I obviously don't know how much of a stash you are starting with - you may already have a bunch of blenders and the like, in which case I'd enjoy my 'now' quilt projects and just stash money (it never goes out of style!!! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png)

Also, if you stash money in an interest-paying account it will actually grow over time (albeit not much right now, but again in the future who knows?) so you should end up being able to take out more than you put in.

Whereas, much as we like to joke about fabric breeding overnight, once the money is converted into fabric that is exactly how it stays until used, whether a week from now or a decade. https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/smile.png

Don't worry about building a stash - it will happen. I would focus first on buying the machine of your dreams. I bought my Janome MC6600P and my Husqvarna/Viking Designer Topaz embroidery machine. And then I went to the Road to CA quilt show and fell in love with my Accuquilt Go cutter.

People are always getting rid of their stash and there are estate sales where there is more fabric than in a fabric store. If you come across some fabric that you love, then buy it. More often than not, you buy 2 yards of it, you will end up needing 3. I hate to think about how much fabric I bought and then later gave away because it just no longer appealed to me.

I really like wide fabric for the back of quilts, but I buy it to go with the quilt I am making so there is a match. I love to use white on white fabric instead of plain white - so I will buy that on sale because I can usually use a few different ones in the same quilt. Since one kind of quilt I loved was the I SPY quilts for children I would buy 1/2 yards of kids fabric on sale. Same with Christmas and Halloween fabric, it just jumps into my arms when I walk by. It does get used for projects. For a while I was making the Rail Fence quilts - I could make a nice nice throw with one yard of 4 different fabrics. But I just bought the fabric and made the quilt, I didn't buy with plans to make later.

So depending on what kind of quilts you like to make would depend on if you really want to start a stash now.

I get sick of seeing the same pieces in my stash, so for me it would work better to save some money for fabric when I need it.

I am coming from a different direction. I don’t have much of a stash. I buy what I need when I need or want it. Sometimes there is a bit left over and that becomes part of my stash or scrap pile. You may end up loading up on things you will never use and regret and have to find a place for. All the fabric I could ever want lives in a store or online someplace until I want it. I know I am an odd ball

I just buy what I like. I have found that fabrics start to go together in my collection. I can fill in the other colors I need when I decide what to do with that certain piece of fabric.

I can't help in telling you what to buy but I can say that I wish I had planned ahead before I retired. I never had much of a stash while I was working & now have used up most of it. Money is tight now (on Social Security) & have to limit my spending to mostly "essentials". So, whatever you do just remember that life is a lot different after retirement when that regular paycheck stops coming in.

When I first retired and was looking for a "hobby" , I discovered quilting and bought whatever fabric caught my eye, was on sale, or seemed like a good idea at the time. Also took in those fabrics that others gave me (now I know why they were so generous) I now have a huge stash of yardage, fat quarters, and pre-cuts. Not even counting the scraps left after making a quilt. They don't work well together, I have way more than I will be able to sew up in this life time, I have spent countless dollars on ways to organize and store them. That stash takes up a lot of valuable real estate in my home and sewing room, and worries me about the amount of money I have tied up in it. Money I could use for other things now in my retirement. If I had it to do over I would buy ONLY what I needed to make a quilt. I would have NO stash at all.
There was a discussion on this board a while back about our stash and what you would do in a perfect world with money as no object. I would dispose of my stash completely and start with a buy as you need plan.
So to answer your question......don't do it. Don't build a stash. Fabric will always be available to buy. Beautiful fabric that you will want to buy. Put your money in a savings plan to have the cash you need when you want to make a quilt.

I think it all depends on what kind of quilts you want to make. When I started quilting I took a class and found that I really liked certain colors so I would get a yard of some of my colors I liked. As time went on I found that I would always need background whites or cremes. Also, if you have certain patterns in mind then you might want to purchase your favorite colors to make that certain pattern. Good luck to you

My cousin had fabric for 70 quilts when she retired. However, she had grandbabies, got involved in bible study, got interested in genealogy and had some health problems. I don't think she has started a new quilt since she retired. She's donated some fabric, but most is still in the closet.
Sometimes, our plans change.
bkay

When I first started, I would put together a group of fabrics, first choosing my focus (usually a print of some kind) and then build around that for a cohesive palette. I was not shopping for a specific quilt necessarily - but would end up with a stack of fabrics that I liked and went well together. I find I use some colors almost all of the time, so now shop for variety in those colors. As I see a print that I really like, I now will usually have a lot of the fabrics I need to fill out the project with just a few additions. Eventually, you have some of every color - and not much of stuff you don't really like. I shy away from precuts as I find them very limiting - fat quarter bundles will find their way into my stash from time to time though. I avoid garage sales and other methods of acquiring fabric, as although it may be cheap, it will sit unused and unloved until I just get rid of it.

Wow! Such great advice from everyone. I really appreciate everyone's input. Keep 'em coming! 😁

So far, from everyone's suggestions, I think the best thing to do is build up backings, blenders, and probably batting. Also I think I will add thread and rotary blades. Those are prob the basics. I love the grunge line, batiks, and solids, so maybe work on getting these in different colors, but don't go overboard. Perhaps get enough yardage in coordinating colors with a few general quilts in mind.

I like the idea of making kits too. But it's probably best to avoid making an awful lot of them.

And the best idea is to create a cash account for future quilts! Very good, practical advice.

For now, I should get my quilting priorities in order and go from there.

I am so very, very grateful for everyone's comments. You guys are the absolute best! I'm so happy I joined this forum. 😊

A lot of my stash is what is left after making a quilt. I always seem to have some leftover. Shop Hops are notorious for enticing us to indulge in fabric, etc we just can't live without. Enjoy your retirement and quilting will be a wonderful hobby for those retirement days.