I was just wondering if you have a fabric that is the same pattern or design but in different colors do you sort it by color or by pattern?
Hugs
April

Can't help you at all, but I sure am eager to see others responses. I have the same issue with scrapbooking papers, and I've yet to find a good solution.....I'll be watching!

I "plan" on sorting my fabric by size(fats vs. yardage) and color. I want to put all my fat quarters together then keep a bin for my scraps-anything less than a 1/4. My yardage will probably remain in the drawers.

I sort by size, color and style of fabric. I.E. the batiks, the retros, the florals, holiday, ect... Then I also fashion sew for me and my niece. (sometimes others) So those are organized into thier own catagories. Oh and then there is the home and purse fabrics. Also, If I have a certain quilt I have collected/bought fabrics for, it stays stacked all together! Like a kit until that one is finished.

My fats are stored in plastic baskets from the Dollartree store. I fold them in half longways then in half again then turn and fold both ends over the middle and they fit perfect.
One yard and over are folded on wire shelves, half yards are in a bin. Scraps I cut acording to size, charms and strips and store in the same baskets as the fats.
All are by color.

I do have fabric that is same pattern, different color.
As to sorting...hmmm.....havent figured that out yet

Hmmm... you mean you use different colors in your quilts? What an idea. I'll have to try that. ;-)

Mostly I don't sort my fabrics. If they are not on the chair, they are in one of several clear totes and I can find them pretty fast.

tim in san jose

I sort by color and try to remember that I have it in more than one when I see it,

My fabrics are all sorted by color........then I don't have to "look" all over for what I want...However, I also have a few "sets", usually "fat quarters" that I have in a shallow box
on one of my fabric shelves....hope this helps you. I think it depends upon how you choose your fabrics from the stash when auditioning fabric for a quilt.

I sort by color, unless I purchased coordinating fabric with a quilt in mind. Then, I put those all together in one "collection" on my shelves. If I just buy three or four colors in a design that I like, I separate them by color if I don't know for sure what I would like to do with them.

I sort by light, med, dark. I choose what color fabric from those three. I may end up with some med being dark and the light being med. It makes is so much easier then trying to sort through colors. Use a value tool and look at your fabric on the shelf. You can see immediately the value of your colors.

This is what I do too.

Unless it is for a particular project I sort mine by color.

Edit: I posted without reading everyone's reply and see I'm in line with most everyone else. Yay for me!

I put them together if they are the same pattern.

I sort by color. But I'm starting to collect solids and may keep them separate. At some point I intend to make a quilt with all or nearly all solid colors. I don't have a huge selection of Kona solids. I am labelling them, in case I want more of a particular color.

Unless it is a fabric line that goes together, I sort by color.

I use a LOT of civil war repros. so they are all together in one area and kind of sorted by color. Although, some of those are patriotics or shirtings and I have those in groups. Then I have all of my batiks together in one big basket because they are mostly bali pops. I have big baskets under my cutting table that has toiles in one. then another w/ydg. of backs. Then another w/childrens. Then I have my kits in one area. then I have my ConKerr pillowcase stuff together. So, for ME, it's organized. If anyone else came into the room, it would probably be chaos. XO

I keep some fabic lines together that go together also. I use to use a lot of In The Beginning fabrics and definately do this with my Judie Rothermel civil war ones.

I sort by color for my stash. As a matter of fact, I spent all day yesterday sorting scraps and fabrics.

I sort by colour groups mostly although I have taken some theme fabrics out (ie, Christmas, Farm, Infant/Child) so it seems my method is no method at all

Color. With the exception of these categories, everything is color.
Novelties---
Christmas. Halloween. Angels. Cats and animals. Multicolor (for really really busy, prints) Kitchen, sewing themed, celestial, Landscape and architecture (rocks, wood planks, water, clouds etc)

These catagories came about because I have so much of them that it made sense. Your categories could be very different.

Thank you all for your input! I have spent all day today folding and sorting and arranging my fabric-and I am still not done :-(
I think I am going ot sort by color and also category as I do have a lot of landscape and novelty prints.
Thank you all again!
hugs
April

I sort by type of fabric; batiks, flowers, solids. Then I have a seperate tote for Christmas and one for red, white and blue.

I have certain pieces for quilts i intend to make together. Everything else is throwed together.

Sort? What are you people talking about?? LOL! I have a clear bin with scraps or all kinds and then bins with each UFO in it and you DON'T want to know how many of those I have on the go!!!

I usually sort by color, but if I have a collection of fabric I might put that together.

I do keep my solids separate from the rest of my stash. I have plans for making miniature quilts and for making an all solids quilt and if I don't keep them separate I'm liable to use them up. I also keep all my kiddie fabrics separate. I don't have a lot of them yet so I haven't had to resort to sorting them by color. Just about the time I think I need to someone else gets pregnant and needs a baby quilt and I end up using what I have. (I've made 4 baby quilts in the past 2 months!)


We can have a competition if you'd like. Come on, share how many UFOs you've got! :thumbup:

I sort by color and keep my holiday separate.

We can have a competition if you'd like. Come on, share how many UFOs you've got! :thumbup:[/quote]

1 binding to sew on

3 quilt tops to quilt

1 baby quilt to finish putting together

1 nickle quilt from oh 7 years ago to finish

1 jelly roll to quilt to finish

1 quilt top called migration to finish

Then the kits I have purchased and not done yet totals 6 I think

I've got 80. Want to trade? ;) I did have about 100 but last year I got a number of them done. Yay! I'm hoping this year I can reduce that number by at least 12 and get rid of the largest ones. I've got a king sized log cabin that turned into a UFO about 17 years ago. :oops: Looking at your list I feel like I really should head downstairs and get busy.

Holy UFO's woman!!! You win!! Now I don't feel so bad about my pile!

I am still trying to get my fabric organized. I take a strip of 2 1/2 off of the end and measure the balance of my larger pieces and mark bin on the yardage piece of paper that I attach to the 2 1/2 piece of material. I then put these strips in color order. I am however thinking of changing this to just cut off 2 1/2 square attach to 3 X 5 card with yardage, bin and color sequence. The strips I guess I will use as jelly rolls and make one extremely large quilt. This is work in progress. My fat quarters I just look at a lot and think of when I can get busy using them in something. I think I am UFO Queen. Emily in FL

I blame a friend. I was sitting in a board meeting for my local quilt guild one day and she popped off with, "I have 36 UFOs." Not that I'm competitive or anything :roll: but I thought "I bet I have that many." Then I went home, pulled out a 4x6 index card and started going through my things. The list got longer and longer and soon my stomach was sitting in a puddle in my shoes. (Or maybe it was something else, the list sort of scared me with its length!) I knew I was in trouble when I needed a second index card. Now, in my defense, when I first started quilting it was considered very bad to do any sort of quilting by machine, at least in the snobby group I belonged to in California. Since then it's become acceptable but at the time I did everything by hand. I kept putting off the larger pieces because it takes so long to hand quilt them, which is why the king sized quilt top has been a UFO for so long. We were finally able to afford to get a new machine (it was on lay-away about a year but I love my Janome 6600!) and last year I decided to bite the bullet and learn to machine quilt. Since then I've been slowly wittling down my list, though I'm afraid it's going to take a couple more years. I figure it took me 18 years to build up the huge stack of UFOs I have so it'll at least take me 3-4 years to get it back down to a managable size. Meanwhile, I keep seeing all these wonderful quilts I simply must make, so I'm only doing about 1 UFO a month at this point. I joined a UFO Bee and am in a UFO Challenge, which helps because it forces me to stick to a deadline and actually work on at least one UFO at all times.

I also store my fabric in this fashion. First by size, then by color. I don't have any batiks yet, but keep my Asian-style fabrics separate. I have shoeboxes holding fabric meant for a particular project with a picture of the that project taped to the end of the box (to help me remember!)

anything 2 yars are over i bolt i shelve all solids together and all prints together then a fat quarter drawer and anything less than2 yards i fold and ihave a solid drawer and a print drawer

mine never stays sorted for some reason...too much fondling LOL

Everyone has a storage method that works for them (either in their minds or in actual fact).
My sister buys fabric for A project and puts the fabric away and forgets she has bought it (sorry Marnie!) and the rest of her fabrics I think she sorts by colour.

I have a bins of novelty, Christmas, white and off white tone on tones, baby quilt fabric (mostly pastels), panels, and then I sort by colour. Fat quarters of all descriptions are kept separate and if I am collecting fabrics for a project I store them in zippered fabric magazine holders that have a clear plastic front ( kinda like the plastic zippered bags linens come in but these are mostly fabric so the materials inside can breathe).

Something I started doing that is a useful tip I believe is when I fold up a piece of left over batting I measure it and pin a tag to it with a safety pin (20X100, 36X60, etc) Saves a lot of anguish when I am looking for batting for table runners and wall hangings, baby quilts, etc.

PS... I am waiting for a snow day to sit and watch DVDs and sort my scrap basket... I am going to use Quilt magazine's Chunk,Charm, Chip, Stray, Strip, String method!

Wow, I need a class in organization. Mostly,I put mine in drawers -neatly folded - by size. But, I'm with LindaR, they don't stay that way because I'm always 'pilfering'. (Fondling, just seems... snicker, something else!) I love scraps, little pieces about 4" worth and I put them in ziplocks by colors. It is so cool, because I can piece a little block if I get tired of my big stuff. AND I like doll quilts for my "Burden Bears". Lots of interesting answers, great subject.

What she said.
But, ever do I STRIVE :oops: