I buy fabric if I love it regardless ...if i don;t have a use now I will later ;). ...........i also get a ton donated.. ..people know how many quilts I do . and it just comes in. I use what i can and I donate the rest some to senior centres.. where the gals are sewing. I get new fabric at garage sales do you know how many fabric collectors are out there?// The tags are still on it !! I don't have much * stash as you can see from my pictures.. but I do use my fabric. ..not store it. I recently helped an elderly lady by taking a lot of her stash and most was years old i had to toss most. ( later after I thanked her for it and the rest went to thrift store. just had a odor of old fabric.:( but she was so grateful as she had an entire bedroom floor to ceiling to get rid of and she just couldn't toss it.. ( I could ) she would call me every couple of days and i would haul bags out for her. Some was reusable. most was not.

Oh you poor thing!... not want to buy fabric?! Did some one tell you that was normal?
I always go to my stash first! I think I've gotten better in the last 5 years at (1) buying fabrics that coordinate, and (2) using coordinating fabrics; since I finally got it together and picked up a bunch of paint chips from Home depot and made a color wheel. I DO tend to go buy ' just a little something to fill in' for every quit I make. It's what makes the world go 'round!

Oh I never said I don't WANT to buy fabric I buy lots. but I also get a lot donated...I sew for valor every friday at a quilt shop and buy every friday :*( . I just like to use it up rather than pet it ..or store it on a shelf for years. LOL>. your laughing but I have a friend who doesn't even sew and buys it.. !! She keeps saying she is going to part ith it to me but she just thinks maybe one day she will sew . LOL

I generally find the main fabric and determine the position in the pattern that this fabric will take. Then I shop for the other positions in the pattern (from my stash). I have read the recommendation to make a black/white copy of the pattern first to take the color distraction out of the picture.

Like others who wrote, I have not bought the same fabric to copy a pattern. I usually do my own thing.

Value finders: You can also take photocopies of the fabric pieces which shows value.

A red vinyl binder divider works well for some values. Can't remember which though.

take an index card number the fabrics in the pattern and corresponding numbers on the index card and glue stick or scotch tape a corner of each fabric to the corresponding number. I teach my students to do this, work great.

I usually choose my border or focus fabric first and pull colors from that; there is always an exception to the rule:)

Someone once told me that she buys the border fabric first and then everything is easier after that. It all comes together.
I don't know.

Yeah, me too. That's the whole point of having a fabric stash.

I also use the color value, from light to dark. then choose the number of fabrics i will need. Then assign each of them a # that is in the pattern. then i just label each piece as I cut, and baggie them writing on the outside, for example fabric one template A . I have never used the material shown in a pattern.

I find that I like a pattern but not the colors used, so I just pick my own fabric.