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).