Listen.....for all you highly organized people....go to your stash and toss all your fabrics together in a heap. You will be amazed at what wonderful colour combinations you will discover, that you never thought you had.
Oh... alright... I'm off to colour coordinate my stash.

Sorts, who sorts? LOL mine are all thrown in together and I have a hunting party when i'm looking for fabric. When I get settled I hope to ger organized.

I sort by color, separating novelty fabrics, batiks, hand dyed, silky, fleeces independently and together. Hope I am clear on this one. It works.

WOW>>>just read some of the reponses...you quilters have a lot of material if you're sorting it by color, design, etc. I have my fabric in 2 plastic tubs. I just dig through until I find colors I like together for my next quilt. I've been making comfort quilts for a nursing home and it takes just 2 yards or so and 4 colors per quilt top. :lol:

I sort my fabrics mostly by color. I will place yellows and golds next to each other, same with reds and pinks; blues and purples. If they are part of a collection, I sort them by collections and keep them together. There is the exception, as embellished in gold; holiday, fruits/vegetables, specific themes, etc.. They are folded and shelved in cabinets. Anything under 1/2 yard is folded smaller and put in small containers by color only. If I had the room, I would break it down even more. But this way I can tell at a glance if I am looking for something. It cuts back on pulling out everything when looking. But do whatever you think will work for you - everyone is different.

I did this. It took all day but really felt good when it was done.

I have 8 good sized rubber maid tubs and thought that was a lot until a friend told me that she had at least 20 :shock: Now that is what I call a STASH :!: :?: :!:

How long have you been quilting? I buy mostly FQs and so I have quite a few, especially after 18 years of quilting.

Honey - we should go shopping at your friends house! :lol:

I totally agree. I'll keep her busy and you sneak in the back door :wink:

Works for me! :lol:

I sort the larger pieces by color and I have clear containers of strips for strip quilts and the are sorted buy width. If I am collecting fabric for a special project I put that together in a clear bag with a copy of the pattern and notes pinned on the fabric if they are not washed. I also measure larger pieces and pin that measurement to it so if I need a piece for the back of a quilt I know if there is enough fabric.

Hi April, I always sort by color, unless it's a Novelty print, I keep those all together... I think they are very busy when I'm not looking, because my cabinet sure does get messy ( they're the only one's in there with hands and feet, wheels, wings, etc..)

Thank you all. I have made tremendous progress is my fabric stash but I still have a lot to do. I think I need to hire someone to do this for me lol
Hugs
April

You are very resourceful and smarter than I am! :) I got hooked on buying fabric on sale and am ready for any circumstance. Somewhere, sometime, I'll be able to sell some of them, or provide fabric for my students should I decide to teach sewing/quilting.

It's become my 'fix' and the colors and beautiful pieces are a form of art therapy for me when stress from my work gets high.

Anyway, It's a good excuse. :roll:

I just sorted mine about a week ago. I sorted by colors .. blues; purples; greens; yellow, orange, gold altogether; reds; separate froms pinks; blacks, browns & greys altogether; cats and Christmas fabric separate in their own tote; whites and WOWs altogewther and wound uo with about 7 tottes plus my scrap tote. I also have a Xstitch tote and a tote for books - quilting and cross stitch. In addition, I also have a 5 drawer dresser with fabric in 4 of 5 shelves. I did this with my teenage girls and drove them crazy but got it organized and into my sewing cave. Then, I found more fabric. LOL!!! Which I sort of organized but I did keep my project fabric together for the baby quilts and another couple of projects. I still need to finish the cave but feel better for having petted, stroked and fondled and then organized all the fabric. Took about 6 hours but it was well worth it. Great topic, loved reading all the other responses. :)

I sort by catagory. Christmas, Halloween, Dogs. But then I put all my blues together because it has been my favorite color for 53 years.

I forgot to add that I put all my batting into another bin/area and I kep finding more of that than even I thought I had. I am truly pleased by the organization but got side-tracked by a scrappy log cabin project so need to finish organizing my sewing cave. :)

Isn't it fun to work with the fabrics?

When I get my sewing area and storage areas organized, I'll share photos.

Love to see all those sewing rooms and the ideas of all you quilters.

I also put them together if they are the same pattern. I have a "bin" just for fabrics that are different colors but have the same pattern. I kind of like to put fabrics like that into one project. I am in the process right now of making a very colorful baby quilt that has at least 4 fabrics of the same pattern but different colors.

I also like to store fabrics from the same collection together--for the same reason as I gave above. :-)

I have mine folded and stored in clear plastic shoeboxes from WalMart, and sorted by color and tone (i.e. light blue, med blue, dark blue etc.). I can immediately see what colors/patterns are in each box, and it makes it very easy to pick out the colors I want. I can also see whether I have a big piece or a small piece of each one by the depth of the fold. A couple of exceptions: Christmas fabrics are separate as are most of my florals (hard to determine which color box to choose for them).

I learned a great way to fold yardage. First fold in half, lengthwise. Then fold in half again lengthwise. Take a 6X12 ruler and wrap the fabric on the ruler. I used the coffee table to help. Slide the fabric off the ruler and and arrange in any order that makes sense to you. I put mine in Elfa (wire) drawers turned with the fold up. You can see all your fabric at once. I reduce my stash from 7 large bins to 3 drawers. You can do the same thing with fat quarters, Just fold the all alike and store. I cut up anything smaller than a fat quarter by the Scrap Therapy method. Best thing I ever did for my sewing room.

I fold all my shirts to one size so they fit the shelves and look nice and have tried to do that with fabric but using a ruler to shape it makes sense. Good Tips.

Yep, this is how I fold my fabric. If it's a half yard or longer I fold it around my ruler so that everything is all the same size. It sure stacks neatly that way and makes it easier to see what the colors are.