How do you folks organize your fabrics?
 

Since I'm new to this, I don't have a lot of fabric. But what I do have is pretty messy and hard to sift through. My friend who is teaching me to quilt has a lovely wall length shelf she has her fabrics in. So I was curious to see people's sewing rooms and their fabric organization. :) please share!

I have lots of fun organizing mine mainly by color.......I also have separate places in cubbies or bins for 2" squares, and bigger squares, which are all in a few drawers, divided by color as well.

For the bigger pieces of material, I use the core boards from another member here on the quilting board to simplify and organize effectively. Keeps me happy!

What is this word you say, "organize"...

There is a section on the board about organizing. If you go to the bottom of the main page, there is a line that has several options, click on Archives. It will take you to a page, right under Pictures is a line about Organization, click on that and it will give you a page with all links to threads others have started about Organizing. Have fun searching, I really enjoy reading these and seeing how others do organize and share photos about there sewing rooms and so many other topics.

I myself, like you when I first began had quite a disaster area where my fabrics were concerned. I tried several different methods for storing. But, found out quickly that I really love to see all of my fabrics. So, my hubby gave me this shelf and they were stuffed there. After a short while, that did not work....I inhereted quite a bit of fabric from friends who no longer wanted it. So, I took quite a bit of time and ruler folded all fabrics that were at least a fat quarter. Then I took the time to cut all of my left over scraps into specific sized blocks and found plastic see through boxes for them. Marked the outside of each with the size of blocks and even seperated into two sections, lights and darks. It is very general, but works fabulous for me.

You can also check out various blogs for information, just type in your search bar Organizing Fabric Ideas for Quilting. One way does not work for another, so you just have to explore and try various ideas and see what works for you. Have a great time searching and exploring for the one that will work for you.

Here is a photo of part of my sewing room...pretty messy in this photo, but the only one I could find. LOL. Oh well, that is what happens when I get busy with a project. When finished, then it all gets tidied up and looks great. It works fabulously for me.

For my stash , I first organize by type, batiks , metalics, regular etc . Then each type by color.

The only fabrics I sort by color are the ones in dresser drawers since they're all the same size of cut. The ones on the shelves get sorted more by what length they are since they're in the open and I can see what color they are.

My fabric shelves.

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I live in Manhattan and have a small apt. so I have decide my "sewing room" can be a certain size and no more...it is in my living room/dinning area - so I have 5 plastic boxes (11.5HX 17.5WX21L), 2 smallplastic boxes all from MUJI store (Japanese store in Manhattan) and part of a cabinet to store all my stuff. I also have a lot of fabric - so I wrap my fabric around boards and all my scraps are sorted by color and in baggies - it is amazing how much fabric you can get in a draw if it is wrapped. Oh yeah-- you have to de-junk your fabric periodically, make a lot of quilts, give stuff away-- all so you can buy more fabric. lol

I need to organize my fabric also. I haven't figured out a way that I like yet. I have lots of fabric lines, like yardage, fat quarters and jelly rolls and layer cakes of a certain line, so it's hard to organize that. I just put it on my bookcase together.

All my fabrics are in drawers, not organized at all. I need to use a ruler and fold them and put them together by color. I've done that with my greens and reds only. I have a drawer of beige and tans that need to be folded nicer.

I have lots of scraps that are in drawers and not folded very nicely. I have small scraps in doctor bags that I could probably go through and organize by color. I have a lot of organizing to do!!!

I don't have a lot of fabric either and have never been real organized.....but I bought a Big cherry TV armoir at a garage sale for $35.00. It has a couple of shelves in and two drawers. I can see most of my fabric on the shelves, but the doors hide the mess.

I ruler fold all the fabric if it's more than a FQ. I have all my quilting fabrics in drawers, so there's no sun damage or dust, each drawer holds a particular background color, which is how I sort. These are laid in the drawers on their edge, so that I can see all the fabric that's in that particular drawer.

ah neat ideas everyone! sorry i wrote the post quickly on my lunch brake and wasnt aware that there was a section devoted to organizing! i will totally take a peek! thanks so much!!

My fabric is folded on a book shelf, by color...or sort of by color. Here, I will take a picture. It is fairly organized looking. :) Dina

Nice Dina!! Very cool!

My DH insisted that I invest in good storage --- Polar Notions mini-bolts. My 1/4 yd and larger fabric is wrapped onto the boards and on shelves in a closet. 1/8-1/4 yard is ruler folded in baskets, for lack of a better arrangement. Pieces that are 2" to <5" are in two totes. Pieces that are >5" but uneven and > a 1/4 yd are in two other totes -- all see-thru. Orphan blocks & unfinished stray projects are in another tote. No pics, because the room is in the middle of four concurrent projects. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to post pictures.

I highly recommend something with doors. (What stash, oh the one behind the doors) Entertainment centers are very cheap now because everyone is getting flat screen TVs and a lot had doors to hide the TV and lots of storage as well. Doors also protect against fading and dust, (as well as fur babies) and you can sort your fabric however is best for you and if your are a mess like me, no one has to know. If you want something light you can find all kinds of plastic storage items.

Kittywolf,
First you have to have a place to store your fabrics. My suggestion would be to check out craigslist in your area and type in 'Ikea shelving' or just 'storage shelving'. I found two 'Billy' bookcases for $30/pair. New would be $50 each. I also found an 'Expedit' cube system. It's a unit consisting of either 2, 4, 8, 16 (or more) cubes. Go to Ikea's website and type in Expedit just to see. I was lucky enough to find a used one on Craigslist for $40. It would have been $120 new.
Ikea works for me, but you can make storage space from many things, like an old Dining Room breakfront, any shelving system for that matter. For me, it's all in the presentation of my fabrics - if you want to see them, as I do, "ruler fold" them or buy comic boards on Amazon.com to keep them organized.
In no time, your sewing room will look amazing! I hate working in a messy space and am constantly looking for new ways to organize.
Have fun with it!

Have you ever followed Bonnie Hunter's blog, Quiltville? She is in the process of cleaning up her basement/sewing room-installing new carpet etc. On her blog for the past week, she's shown how she's reorganized and folded all of her fabrics to make it easy for her to find things. Although I don't organize like this, it's been interesting to see how she goes about it.
I organize by theme; i.e. Christmas, 1930s, Autumn, Halloween, Civil War, Baby, Batiks, etc. If I have complete fabric sets plus pattern for a specific quilts, those parts all go in one plastic storage container to keep everything together until I get to it. All books are kept together and the smaller patterns in their little plastic bags go into a container, standing up.

I do this too. My types are batik, Christmas, flannel, 30's, CW, florals, kids novelty and fall fabrics.

I have to go cheap so bought wire cube shelving from Target then bought clear plastic bins to put in them.
I have alot of fabric and a large closet so this works for me.

I fold my fabrics around comic book backing boards to make "mini bolts" of them, then I store them in a big bookcase I bought for that purpose. My stash looks a lot like ScissorQueen's photo (above)... If I am collecting a certain "line" of fabrics, such as Amy Butler Soul Blossoms, those will all be grouped together. I also have a section for children's prints, Christmas prints, batiks, and 30's fabrics. All the rest that are uncategorized are shelved by color. Works for me! I love to be able to see everything and 'pull' fabrics for quilt design, without having to dig through boxes.

Since I live in an apartment, and space is limited, I put my fabric is sweater containers, and they are piled almost up to my 10' ceiling. They are in color order. I like keeping them in the containers, as they aren't picking up dust, they are labelled, and out of the way.

I sew in what used to be a small bedroom. My husband installed kitchen cabinets that we bought on sale at a home supply store. I use the bottom cabinets for storing large items and stuff for crafts. My upper cabinets are for all my ruler-folded fabrics,grouped by batiks vs non-batiks, then sorted by color. Christmas, Halloween and baby prints are separated out as well. On the counter I have a Big Board ironing board, a cutting mat and my computer. Installing cabinets can be done by a non-professional...if you or DH are handy and can follow directions you can save the cost of installation. I just love opening the doors and seeing all my stash neat and ready to go!

Organizing fabric
 

Hi and welcome to the world of quilting. I organize my fabric by color that way I can see what I have for a quilt. I also use a color wheel to match other colors together to get the best results. Happy quilting!!

magazine Boards
 

I am looking for some of the boards to organize my fabric. Could someone tell me if these are what you are using?
http://www.trollandtoad.com/p293951.html
Thanks very much,
Sally

Yes, pretty much. I was going to buy them online and then I thought to check. There are 2 comic book/record stores within a 10 minute drive so I was able to get them immediately and avoid postage! You might try seeing if there is a store close to you too.

Oh the organization of it all .. By Color unless its baby material then its a separate bin for that one. Then that way anytime I have a baby shower to go to; ta da its there and I can shop my bin to find something for a baby quilt .. Oh speaking of which I have till next April to make 2 quilts for a set of twins ! and their "older" brother a quilt also.

My solids and prints are sorted by color (if the prints have a dominant color). My mixed prints and novelties are sorted by theme (flowers, 30's, kids, patriotic, Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving). They are all on shelves. I also sort my squares and strips. I have my fat quarters sorted similarly, but I store them separately.

most of the people on the board are pro's at organizing. I have made it as far as to have batik, Christmas, and baby fats separated. Then there is the box with all the oher fats and the box with yardage and the box with scraps. Nothing compared to the organizational skills of many others

Thank you for your reply. I was able to get 500 of them on Amazon with no shipping.
I'm hoping that will get me started as the fabric is taking over the room and don't really mwant to move.
Thaks again,
Sally

I had all my fabric in plastic bins on metal shelving in my 10x10 BR. My problem was finding the fabric I wanted for my project. Then I saw the ruler fold method by someone on the board. I tried it and wow! I was able to fold all my fabric and put solids on one shelf, prints on another and novelty and fat quarters on the third shelf. I took 9 shelves w/bins and only use 3 shelves now. But the best part is that I can see ALL my fabric at a glance. Recently, my apt was inspected and the folks went WOW when they saw my fabric. It looks like art. Only downside is that I need to keep the window covered so the light won't damage the fabric. I prefer looking at my fabric to looking out the window. I highly recommend using the fold method to store your fabric.

Me too, but around here it's called 'Mom fondling her fabric" and has a link to us not needing to spend money on therapy!

I can't add to the answers for the question, as mine are 'organized' in a such a detailed way that really only benefits me

A few days ago my husband was talking about his pension, the amount can be seen online, and I mentioned HIS pension. He commented that he would give me his pension. Knowing how much he values money, I offered to give him one of my boxes of fabric. In my mind, even trade!

I'm still trying to figure it out but for now I group the fabrics by color and put them in clear plastic shoe boxes, although I do have 2 boxes just for Christmas fabrics. For fat quarters, I put those in a plastic three drawer organizer I got at Walmart - I have 2 drawers full of just fat quarters. The third drawer is for kits that I have bought that I need to work on. In my other three drawer plastic organizer I have one drawer for panels (I love panels for some reason) and then the last two drawers contain my batting scraps. I also bought a GIANT round tub with thick rope handles that I stash under my cutting table that hold all my fabric scraps. I also have a bag hanging on the back of my sewing chair that I put really small scraps - I use those for stuffing small projects (small ornaments, etc) after I cut them up in to really fine pieces.

I admire all the people who are so organized. I have an old dresser with four drawers and most of my fabric is in there helter skelter. I do save very small scraps in a couple of shoe box size plastic boxes. Started trying to cut left over fabric into strips until I decided I am better off not cutting anything until I want to use it. Do have a large clear box for big pieces of leftover batting. And one of those stackable 4 drawer things for thread, scissors, cords, and random stuff.

I am using down my horde of fabric. How you organize depends a bit on what you make and what you have. I tend to buy a lot of novelties. Other quilters only buy novelties occasionally, if at all. Keep in mind that fabric on a shelf is subject to light damage - I've ruined some really nice fabric due to that, so now store it all in boxes with an acid free paper liner.

I have 8 boxes sorted by color (red/pink, blue, green/turquoise, yellow, white, purple, brown and black).
I have two boxes each of Asian, Thimbleberries and flannel fabric. I have 2 boxes just of backing fabrics. I also have individual boxes of Christmas/Yule, Halloween, Landscape, Ocean, and a couple of other themes.

I am gradually eliminating boxes. I'm using up the last of the children's fabric in 2 quilts, the green box is nearly empty.

LOL I have to agree!

I organize by color.

Please explain to me the ruler fold method - sounds like it would really be a space saver. Thanks!

I messed up my perfectly organised stash during the last year. Will need at least a week's leave to sort out and fold all the new additions that just got piled on a shelf and the fat quarters that landed haphazardly in a see-through plastic container that looks like a suitcase with dividers. Usually I sort by colour, but now I'm beginning to think about sorting by type and design series.

I keep my fabrics in plastic drawers in my sewing room closet or on shelves in my master bedroom linen closet. How I organize my fabrics changes each time I look through them just feast my eyes on the patterns and colors for enjoyment. I love fabric and have told my DH I am a collector as well as a quilter. He is fine with that and always ready to take me shopping for more. Anyway, back to how I organize. Each time I look at them, I find new ways they will go together. It might be by color, theme of prints, projects I want to make, size, or any other way that strikes my fancy while I am enjoying going through them. I have a few that have been together for a few years while I search for just the right fabrics to add to them to make a quilt design that lives in my head. I know someday I will find just the right complimentary fabrics to create my dreamed of quilt. I have a few special fabrics folded over hangers in my sewing room closet so I don't forget to use them in current projects.

I'm sure when you finish reading all of the posts here, you will find a system that works for you. Let us know what you decide on, please. :):):)