Do you break up Fat Quarter packs or make one main quilt from it first?
 

I realized I tend to hold onto Fat quarter packs to make one main quilt before I will break it up.

Even then I will try and hold them together with like fabrics of the same designer, batiks, modern, brand or time era like 1930 or Civil War.

Overall this works but I also find it contributes to over buying and or holding onto fabrics for that perfect quilt.

What do you tend to do? Break it up and add a little of the new fabric to freshen up older fabrics or like me tend to hold onto the whole Fat Quarter pack till you made a quilt out of it. Are those nice coordinated Fat quarter packs standing in your closet waiting for that quilt that doesn't seem to happen?

I tend to pick up printed collections when a FQ pack calls my name. If I pick it up three times, it's mine. Then I purchase a back fabric out of the collection (which is usually there somewhere). I make throw size quilt out of it. After that, if I'm sick of the patterns, it's the free table but if I like the patterns still, it's in a giant zip lock for placemats or something small. I almost always add a neutral solid to the line so there is plenty of "stretch room".

I never buy less than 2 yards of any fabric, and only when I have a plan for it.

Oooh I like the idea of buying a neutral solid and stretch room. It is also a good idea to buy backing. I tend to scramble for backing, borders, sashing, binding etc. It Takes me so long to get to using the Fat quarters that by that time it might be hard to find anything from that line especially yardage. Thanks for the ideas.

I tend to make something first out of the pack. Then the remains go into my stash by color, or types like you mention.

I break it all up and use whatever I want in my free-spirit kind of way ;)

Great! I guess you are a scrappy kind of girl. Overall I am too but when it comes to these Fat quarter towers I have been holding back.

Got it. Not a Fat quarter kind of person.

I tend to keep my collections together. However, lately I'm trying to break them up for scrappy quilts.

I will buy a fat qtr collection because I love it. Then will make some scrappy quilt out of it. I always add other fabrics to stretch it from my fat qtr stash and/or colored solids. There is always some neutral muslin added in there some where too. I find if I make a quilt out of just the collection, it is too much "the same". Bonnie Hunter use to go with random scraps divided into lights and darks....but lately (like in her recent mystery quilt), she is making her own "collections" out of color palettes specified by paint chips. So, scrappy is getting more "structured" in the quilt world.

QUOTE=Tartan- I do keep my collections together in my stash but if I am hot into a quilt and I find the perfect piece in a collection, it's toast! QUOTE

I just started doing some of that and I think it is what is prompting my original question.

I bought a lot of fat quarter bundles when I first started quilting. Even though I don't enjoy making quilts with fat quarter bundles as much as I like choosing my own fabrics, I still can't resist buying the occasional one. They're just so beautiful! It usually doesn't take me too long to find a pattern for them. I always add some fabrics to the bundle to add some life to the quilt, because it seems overly coordinated and a little flat if I don't. I am hoping I can resist buying any more!! One thing I do when I begin looking for a pattern for a bundle is google 'quilts made with (such and such fabric line)', to see what others have done with it and what sort of setting complements the fabrics the most.

I tend to hold onto my packs until inspiration strikes, then I cut up what's left for the scrap bags. Recently I decided to use a jelly row from ten years ago, when they first started coming out. I wanted fabric from the line and had to search on etsy and eBay to find it. Sometimes it's really difficult to find even a solid to go with the fabrics. I think I will get the color cards for Kona cottons to help me out. If I just buy one or two fat quarters then they go on the shelf ready for anything, but I cherish my big stacks of FQs from a specific fabric line.

I buy fat quarters all the time....just not in packs as I find them to expensive. On quilt shops bus trips I pick up about 10 or 12 fat quarters each time. Guess I like a coordinated scrappy look. The fabric has to speak to me, before I'll buy it.

This just recently happened to me...I don't buy a lot of FQ bundles but I picked one up to use in a baby chevron quilt, however, there was a particular fabric screaming to get out for another project. LOL

I started quilting with scraps, so I use whatever fat quarter works at the time. I tend to buy more yardage these days, but I will always love my fat quarters to give my quilts that extra pop! Mix & Match can be fun!!

I use to hang on to them in a pack. However now that I am older and wiser I break them up as necessary. If they have a color or pattern that I want, I use it.

I don't buy large f-q bundles. If I do, it is usually less than 6 pieces. I have an old pattern cabinet that is just perfect for all of my f-q's. So I just go f-q/stash shopping from my stash. I'm going to do the Bonnie Hunter mystery this year and so far all of the fabric is from my f-q stash. I did not make a dent in my f-q's. Some of my selected f-quarters were taken from the small bundles. After I use some of the fabric, it goes to my small pies stash. Less than f-8th. Eventually I plan to make my own squares and strip packets.

I love these bundles! I have been given a few for charity quilts from people overwhelmed with their stash. I keep them together as long as possible. When they are down to less than what I could use for a quilt-----I break them up. I can often get 3 tops out of one. I often add some fabric of my own.

I break them down now. Used to keep them until I found the perfect project and that method just meant the fabric sat unused. With colors and themes together I'm more likely to use them. FQ bundles are one of my favorites as I get to see and use all of the different ones in a collection. When I kept them in the bundle I found that by the time I found the "perfect" project and wanted more of one pattern it was too late.

Do what you feel good about. There are no rules about keeping the collections intact.

I love fat quarters. I belong to Annie's Quilting Club, so i get a set of 6 new FQ's every month, along with a pattern for them, which I sometimes actually make. Sometimes I split the sets up for other projects. I let the fabrics tell me where they want to be used!

Hmmmm..yes that is what is/was happening here. I just started taking some FQs out of bundles. Feeling some what guilty about it. LOL

Now that sounds like fun. I will have to look up what program that is.

This was me too.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been on an "organizing" spree.

O.M.G.

The FQ's and jelly-rolls that I'm finding are just unreal. As well as "kits", that were either packaged by a company, or by the LQS or by me, I realize now that I'm just covered in fabric.
I unearthed a couple of UFO's that will probably be relatively easy to finish, and boxed up into plastic shoe-boxes several other UFO's or small kits. After reminding myself of all the fabric that I have, I had promised myself "no more fabric until some of this is gone".
Well, I'm at a lull right now at work, and found myself browsing online fabric stores... so I told myself, "QUIT THAT!! And go over to the Quilting Board instead!!"

Whew!! That was a close call, because I was really drolling over those 2.5 yards of paisley ($3.99/yd) on sale at "5BucksAYard.com" .
Please, someone, PLEASE go buy those so I don't cave in to temptation!! :D

Hopefully, the organizing spree will get me USING all those FQ bundles and jelly rolls and kits.

I keep collections together for the main project.

I do both sometimes I keep them all together for a project but most times I break them up and use some I like better with other projects. Some I like to cut into strips after using the ones I like best in other projects. I use those for scrappy quilts or bags.

Do you have any pictures of the projects you make with the strips? Sounds like a great idea.

I have been known to rob fabric collections for other projects.

I like controlled scrappy, so I tend to keep them in families until I have enough to make a quilt out of them.

I don't usually like to purchase fq bundles as I don't get the value changes that I like. I find that the fabrics I like are all the same value and its hard to make a quilt with no contrast (or very little). So now I have ooooodles of yardage. Too much fabric - can't live long enough (unless I am a member of the "Howard Foundation"). {Sci-fi reference}.