My sewing room is filled with fabric. If I were to do it over again I would not buy that much. The money I have tied up in fabic could be spend on specific fabric I want for special quilts. I would maybe buy 1/2 yard too much and save scraps for scrap quilts.

For a long time, I'd often buy a couple of yards of fabrics that I really liked, with no specific purpose in mind. When I made quilts, whatever was left got tossed in a basket. However, I love scrappy quilts (and fortunately for me, they're popular right now). That meant that either my quilts had more of a given fabric than I wanted, or it got used in many projects before it was gone.

It's all good - now I have a decent sized, but manageable, stash. New purchases are much more likely to be in the 1/2 yard range, unless it's a great neutral. Always on the lookout for those, I'll go with a 1 - 1 1/2 yards of them.

I am a "Fabriholic" .. I have collected from all sorts of places. Fabric stores, antique shops, estate sales, garage sales, Joanns, Hobby Lobby, church sales, Goodwill and Thrift stores. Friends learn you love fabric and they add to the STASH. I have had a lot of classes dealing with textiles and colors which does not help my addiction at all..it just feeds it!

Be careful. It's very easy to get into the stash accumulating mode, then one day you walk into your sewing area and you can't find a place to cut because you have piles and piles of fabric. Add to your stash slowly. There is no law that says you have to have a huge stash.

Think about what you like to make, what you like to look at, the colors that you enjoy and the designs. Factor in your budget, space available and time you plan to dedicate to this hobby also.

I would hit the red tag sale at JoAnns and pick up everything when it was super cheap with the idea that I'd eventually figure out what to do with it or find something to match it. I really wish I hadn't. I finally went through my stash and sorted everything out that I just didn't like, what was I thinking when I bought this and gave it to my local QFK group and let them try to figure out what to do with it.

How did I accumulate? super sales-like $1-2 a yard, yard sales, then people learn you sew and give you their grandmother's stash. Since I make quilts for kids and QOV's, if it will be backing fabric I get 5 yards, if it's just cool I go for 1-2 yds.

When I started making 3-5 charity quilt tops a month, I got more donations, plus the group I sew with receives a lot of donations that are shared around.

You basically want a usable stash, one that is fun to play with but not so bad that you are tripping over things or can't find what you are looking. I have a friend who has a double closet and 2 regular closets full of fabric plus what ever else she's stashed up in the attic. She's always saying, "if I could just find it...I know I had some somewhere."

Here in the Twin Cities we have the unbelievable temptation of SRHarris, which is a fabric warehouse that sells everything at 50% discount. Within the past couple of months, they've increased their stock of designer quilting cottons by at least a thousand bolts and I'm there every week, since a new semi-load comes in weekly. It's a cut-your-own place, so I buy quarter-yards up to 4 yards at a time. The larger pieces will be used for backings, the 1yd pieces will be mostly used for bindings, and the smaller cuts used for focal squares or charms. In the past month I've spent over $100 on my stash, and that's after the half off.

I started out my stash by buying what ever appealed to me or could not live without. Now its what I need to add, such as pin dots, plaids, tone on tones, creams and tans, strips, ( I love them for binding, cut on the bias) baby prints, shirtings etc.

I "collect" fabric. If I see something I just have to have but don't know what I'm going to do with it, I buy 2-3 yards. I also check out the remnants and fat quarters. I tend to have a lot of darks and mediums already so sometimes I go on the prowl for light fabrics only. Okay, so I have no real strategy :-)

For me stash building was never intentional -- it just happened!

If I see it, and I like it, I generally buy it. Depending on the price, it might be 1 yard or it might be 20 yards. I also acquired some from auctions, estate sales and gifts. I have bought from going out of business or moving sales too. I can never get enough. I'm a fabricholic.

My stash just happened. Left-over fabric, lots of fat quarters, and end of bolts. I can't resist when they say there is just a yard left, I'll take 50% off. I recently made a Judy Martin log cabin pattern using just my stash of left over fabrics. The quilt is a beauty and cost nothing--ha, ha. I guess I should say nothing MORE. It isn't done so no picture, plus I don't know how to post a picture.
Sue