I was at a different Wal-Mart today, and they had some of their 10 dollar per yard material reduced to 1.50 . I found 3 different patterns I liked, and looked for one at regular price for a family member. I left feeling pretty good.

I am a batik aholic and I buy one yard of as many colors I can afford and 6 to 7 yard of background fabrics I pretty much make only scrappy quilts because I enjoy playing with hundreds of colors.I made one quilt out of 5 fabrics and it drove me crazy.

If it is nice fabric and is at at very good price, I buy several yards, especially if it is an "almost solid" (looks solid from afar but actually has a small pattern to it). If it is NOT a nice fabric I don't buy any of it! I try to buy coordinating fabrics to go with it and I store them together. I teach a beginner/intermediate quilting course and I tell them "Twenty-two yards and I am never short of it for a project!" (Kidding)

If I don't have a specific project in mind, I try to get 3-4 yds. This way I know I'll have enough. If it's on sale $4 & under and I really like it, eventually I will use it. So sometimes I buy the whole bolt. Think about it, a bolt is 10 yds @ $4=$40. That's 4 yds or less at the quilt shop. It's so nice when I make a project and only have to go buy a small piece of fabric because the rest came from my stash. Don't get me wrong, if it doesn't tickle your fancy or you can't invision using it with other fabrics, don't buy it.

I needed 1/2 yard to finish a project and I broke my 1 yard minimum rule. Now I have to go back and buy more -- found out I needed more. This has happened almost everytime I buy less than a yard. I really try to get 2 yards minimum (if I have the $$) -- more when I love it or when I know it is a great blender and will work in a lot of quilts.

"addicted" probably is the correct term for some of us fabric buyers

I usually just buy 2 yds of a piece I like. Works fine with other "2 yds" for twin or lap quilts.

As an LQS employee, I can't tell you how many times I've had a customer return to the shop in search of more of a fabric they "just bought last week"; but, ALAS! it is all gone!

My suggestion: if you see it and love it, buy as much as you can afford RIGHT NOW! There are no guarantees that it will be here when you return.

My boss orders fabric months before it arrives, and most of the time cannot order more later. Fabric manufacturers make only as many bolts as are ordered. Now, there are certain fabrics that are considered "classic", such as Moda Marbles, Kona solids, etc. but even then dye lots are different and colors can be slightly off from bolt to bolt.

The bottom line is, buy a little more than you think you need of any particular fabric.

90% of my stash is fat quarters. When I started quilting I just bought what I liked and didn't have much money so I bought FQ's. When I got some "play time" at home I'd make my own "kits" and take note of what I needed to complete the "kits" on my next shopping trip. I learned early on to pay attention to the quilts I saw at shows that really "sang" to me. It was always the ones that used a lot of fabrics, not just 3 or 4. I don't mean real scrappy necessarily but controlled scrappy. If I were to make a red and white quilt, I would use 8 or 9 white fabrics (or white with red) and that many red fabrics (or more). So for me fat quarters work. I have also learned what type of fabrics work well for borders, and backgrounds, so I would buy more yardage of those. I don't live in a town with a quilt store so I love having a stash that I can pull from when I have an inspiration, I don't have to wait until I can get to the store. Yes there have been many times I didn't have enough fabric to do what I wanted, but that really forces you to be creative, and wonderful surprises can happen in those times. There have been times that I have bought exactly what I needed for a quilt, and as I did the first couple of blocks i realized it wasn't what I had imagined it would look like. At those times it is nice to have a stash to pull from so you can "try" lots of different colors and prints to see what might work. Even if you don't have enough of the one you like, it pointed you in the right direction, so you know what to shop for. I never follow a pattern as it is written, I have to play with it and make it my own so I've had to learn to "guesstimate" the fabric requirements also. Learn what you like, it will make fabric buying much easier. I also love applique and if I am making a pink flower with six petals, I will use 5 or 6 different pinks to add some dimension. A fat quarter goes a long way for applique.