Can anyone be This organized?
 

We all have a stash of varying size and age. Time and time again when I use the last bit of a particular fabric I wonder if I can get more. But I have no idea where or when I bought it. I just shove FQ in drawers and hunt when I want something.
Does anyone really keep track, ie photos, manufacturer, store, fabric, name, notations in a book etc. Would it be that difficult or should I just enjoy the random shopping sprees. It would require tremendous discipline. Just the thought of it hurts.
MK

When I started quilting in 1992, I did not keep track at all. Now, when I buy online I make note of the name, where I bought it, and the price. Sometimes I make the same notes of fabric bought in stores in person, but not always.

Eureka! I do have my online sales receipts but that doesn't help with the bits and pieces that come home with me when I shop.!

No I don't have the need to be that organized! It would be a hassle for me to keep track of each fabric. I don't really care where I bought a particular fabric or the design name. If I don't have enough of it I'll find some I like just as much and buy enough of that.

Keeping that information has never been important to me. By the time I use fabric from my stash it probably is no longer produced anyway. If I don't have enough of a specific fabric I find something else to use or coordinate with what I want to use. I would rather spend my time sewing. I just feel good that my fabric is ruler folded, in drawers and sorted by color.

No, I don't keep track of those details. I don't think I'd be able to find out of date fabrics anyways. I've been sewing for a long time.... my stash goes back 20-30 years.

I am mainly a charity quilter and just use what is in my stash. I work with a group that gets quite a few fabric donations. We were putting some away that had the date on a selvage and it was from the 1980s...lol.

Since I prefer certain colors and sort by color, cataloging anything won't do me any good as color fashions change every year. (My taste in color doesn't)

...too much like work..takes the fun out of this! Fabric lines change so frequently, why bother.

Me too. I am sure that if I wanted the same fabric it would no longer be available and then I would really be frustrated.

I have done alright re-finding fabrics using my on-line purchase receipts (which I stack in order received) and selvage info. I should get into the habit of jotting down the info of fabrics I buy in person, but I always forget.

With the OBW quilts, there have been times when I've needed to order more fabric to finish borders or create the backing. I've found that I can usually google the fabric by the information on the selvedge. Sometimes it's no longer available, since the run is up or the fabric is so old. One time I found a cut of what I needed on eBay.

I didn't keep track for years, but recently have begun to write with a permanent marker in the selvage area where I bought it and the year.

Good grief! to be THAT organized would ruin the FUN! :D:D

No, I have not kept track .... and will not!
If the selvage info helps, then I have that to work from .... if I have that at hand!
For awhile, I was cutting a piece of selvage off, and setting aside, to keep just in case.
Soon got out of that habit ... or did I never really get into it? :D

Chances are where I bought the fabric, they will not have it later.
So, if going online, the selvage would be the info to have.

Granted .... I could always come and check out your stash.
You found some for me one other time.
Per chance I might have what you are looking for?

No I don't keep track. That's probably why I'm reluctant to cut into some of the unique fabric!

No, I don't keep track of anything. But if I buy paraticular fabric to make a quilt I've already decided on, I make the quilt top right away. If I need more fabric it enhances my chances of finding more to buy. I've found fabric on Etsy that the stores no longer carry.

Once I ran out of a background fabric that I needed to finish a quilt. So I set the quilt aside...for 11 years. Well, imagine my surprise when it reappeared in the stores. So I bought more and finished the quilt. The dye lot was slightly off, which I liked as it gave a subtle contrast to what would have been a rather flat look.

If I don't have enough fabric to finish something I find something else or make it smaller. I have a hard enough time keeping track of what I have let alone knowing when and where I got it. I find it's great fun for me to make do. Much of what I use are fabric that I've gotten from exchanges, off the give and take table at guild. Some of my quilt guild friends are the same so we have great fun showing what we made from this and that. More power to the organized. I'm just not one of them.

I stopped keeping records quite soon after I had made a few quilts, when it dawned on me that there was a snowball's chance in heck that (1) I would ever need it more than three months after I quilted something and (2) if I did I wouldn't be able to find it anyway.

Peace out!

Some of mine is so old it would be impossible to find again. I wish I had kept better records of where it all came from.

This is one area where I have photographic memory. I can tell you where I got pretty much every piece of fabric that I own.

However, I can't put names with faces, remember phone numbers, or what I ate for breakfast. LOL! :D

That's my theory and I'm sticking with it!

Yikes!

Nope. I cannot be that organized! That's just too much work for me, would take all the fun out of it!

I keep saying, and continuing to believe and practice, that not having the "right" fabric increases your opportunity for creativity. It forces you to think beyond the limit at hand. It requires using similar colors but in other prints/lines/manufacturers. And *that* adds to the texture, movement, eye appeal of quilts!

I hope never to use my time to makes rules and demand (to me) unnecessary organization when I could be spending that time of dreaming about, designing, looking at, and sewing quilts!:D Other than preferring 100% cotton and storing my fabrics by color stack, I am not obsessive about it. :)

Jan in VA

I try to stick a 1/2" square using a glue stick to put it next to the item number especially with fabric bought at JAF. I NEVER cut off the selvage edge until totally used up.

I organize my stash based on color... that is "it" ...its as far as I can go with being organized. It doe not keep me from admiring all those tidy stashes I see posted from time to time. I just recognize my limitations and desire to spend that kind of time to "stash housekeeping".

I can usually estimate fairly closely how much fabric is in a given piece.

Nope. I'd rather be quilting. Way too much time keeping track of stuff I'll never look at again. Why bother?

That's exactly the way I like it, too. I'd much rather be quilting than taking inventory.

It would seem to me that if you kept a loose leaf binder with your sales receipt and a small cut of the fabric stapled to a heavier piece of paper (like the dividers) that would be all you would need to accomplish that mary katherine. You could section it off into years with tabs to give it some order.

I could never be that organized. But, I know people who are.

Unless I am making a specific quilt that I purchase all fabric at one time I do not keep track. Most of my projects now smaller so I first shop my stash then only buy if I can not fine enough of a color to go with what I have. Shopping for real always leads to finding some other fabric I can not live without though. I also tend to buy with planned left overs for applique and crazy quilts.

About 10 years ago, I started to keep track of my fabric. That lasted about 2 months -- I was spending more time trying to record all the information and not enough time quilting. I sort my fabric loosely by color (the prints give me fits so I try to sort those by flowers, kids, etc) and even then I start to feel the OCD kicking in and call a halt to organizing. So -- no I don't think I need to be that organized.

Nah.... I'm a quilter, not a bookkeeper! Just enjoy your messy creativity!

JoAnn's has catalogs in their store with the names and colors of THEIR fabrics, BUT you need to keep the receipt for the fabric code number.

I've also tried to keep enough of the selvage with the print on it and the colors... that may help with LQS's in their inventory.

BUT now I just buy about 1/2 yd. more of what I'm buying and then have enough and never run out.

Next quilt may or may not have or need the same fabric. Go scrapy!

Good luck.

I'm with you. No matter what I have in my stash I always seem to need another piece when I start a project. My goal now is to use up my stash. I was collecting it for my retirement but seems that won't ever happen. But, returning to the subject.....working full time, keeping a house and yard....no time for that type of record keeping.

I've tried to get this organized...didn't take...it's like the shopping lists I make and can't find when I get to the store...

I like the idea of having to solve a problem being an opportunity for creativity. As to keeping track of what fabric, when i bought it, where I bought it, etc., that just does not happen around here. I keep telling myself that there will be more "ooh, that is perfect for ...." fabric website/store/whatever just around the next turn. And, you know, there seems to be. Solace in that.

The above mantras have to do with the fact that my stash and my stuff are about to move me out of my sewing room. It is so bad that my "get rid of it, give it away, what are you keeping THAT for?" husband voluntarily offered to empty the closet in his office for my use. (We will not discuss the theoretical garage and his tools and woodworking equipment and my sideways slide to do the laundry.) When he made the closet offer, his hair blew as I graciously accepted.

How wonderful you all are.

Par

My vote is to do what feels right and works for you. Some of the many reasons I love quilting and people who quilt

Love it! When I did most of the work to clean, Drywall and organize the basement for my studio, (after all clients and customers want to see where I work), they now have to walk around all the juice pails and his wine and beer making paraphernalia. He says its so much cleaner and warmer in the winter.
I'm sure some wonder if I'm a lush!
MK

What I find easy is to take a photo from my mobile and send myself a message with a short note and put it into a folder. It will have the date.

I shop online at ETSY.com and usually buy only Moda fabric so I know where it comes from. :D

I used to try and write down how many yards of what I bought, but then I would use some of the yardage and not make a note of how much was left. I'm presently in the process of reorganizing my fabrics, again; am doing it by color as this seems to be how I end up looking for what to use in a project. I have many OOP fabrics from many many years ago that I just fell in love with and they are still waiting to be used. I still love them, but...