Great tips from everyone!!
I went to one of our close LQS and fell in love with their new white on white fabrics - the cotton had such a nice silky feel to it and they would be perfect for the background of some new blocks that I want to work on .......... and then I looked at the price :shock: :(:( ........ $19/yd ....oh my!! No wonder it felt so nice and was the perfect white I wanted!!! I knew that this was way out of my budget and I needed 4.5 yds for the project :eek: ....... I will keep looking for the "right" fabric.

I find fabric at many thrift stores and estate sales, usually $3.00 a yard or less! I am also retired so I watch for sales.

I don’t buy fabric to stash but I do buy a little extra 1/3-1/2 yard when I buy for projects. I didn’t realize until recently how much of a stash I’ve built up. I’m using that along with all sorts of other fabric given to me by a close friend to make the books for a bookshelf quilt. Some of it I would not use itself or create a quilt for those fabrics but as “books”, they work perfectly.

I once found a lovely white cotton with such a soft, delicious hand. It had a beautiful woven design in it. I stood there and drooled over it for several minutes. Looked at the label and it was $32/yd. Italian cotton. I drooled and pet it for several more minutes, wondering if I could justify buying it if I made it into a dress shirt for my husband. Finally decided not to, and have regretted it ever since. I should have at least bought a quarter yard for a couple of hankies.

Good thought ......... as they are often not worn to the extent that used sheets are.



Totally agree!!!!

It doesn't mean you have to do something repetitively (like making 50 identical blocks or whatever) or have miles of the same fabric.

Choosing a pattern like one of the Farm Wife Sampler quilts, or Dear Jane, or many others .... you can work with several different fabrics (my FWS had over 100 fabrics) and work nicely from a stash. Plus, with each block being different you never get bored! :)

I am disabled and living on a very tight fixed income. I spent twelve years acquiring fabrics from LQS, garage sales, better quality fabric from Walmart, second hand stores, rummage sales and even some from Craigslist and Freecycle. I buy most of my pattern books online second hand (Even well known Authors and teachers) I buy supplies when ever I find a low cost deal. Once or twice a year I can splurge on a new tool to replace the basic things I have, or once in a while I get to have it gifted.
Fair warning, a lot of “gifted fabric” is not even worth making dog beds from, but they do work for deer fencing around your garden to keep pests away, especially if you end up with any that have been stored incorrectly way too long {think mildew or moth balls, I have ended up with both}) animals do not like the smell of either one, so they stay away.

I “thought” “building a stash” was important, now I am about to damage a large quantity of fabric for a fundraiser for a dog rescue. No more purchases until what I have now is used, except consumables of course (blades, thread, trims, etc.).

Check for cotton shirts or blouses at garage sales or thrift stores. Use only 100% cotton. Many are great choices for quilts. It's amazing how much fabric is in a shirt.

At the top of this page click on Home and a list of Threads will appear.
Almost to the bottom of the list there are several regarding scrap trades and
thrift sales and give aways. I have done some fabric swaps and shares and got
great stuff.
I also shop thrift stores for blankets for batting, and sheets and cotton clothing.
Also found a satin prom dress to make angel dresses.
The Company Store catalog and website sells sheets separately and I buy them on sale for
backings and patches.Their Company Cotton is wonderful and comes in lovely colors
that they change several times a year so there is always something new.

Walmart sales flat sheet by themselves. One of the ways I have gotten fabric free is asking people I know if they have cotton mens dress shirts they are getting rid of. You can get some nice fabric out of mens dress shirt. Some of the shirts I have been given look like they have hardly been worn. I really like the plaids. Because nice plaid material is hard to find mostly the little plaids. I rarely use womens shirts because they have to many seams in them.

Great thread! I am picking up some great tips. My question about sticking to a budget is getting the quilting done...I have a lovely quilt top I made for my daughter (Granny's Stars pattern); the LA quilter I asked was charging way more than I could afford. I'm thinking about learning to FMQ (hahaha!) on my little domestic machine just to get this quilt finished. In the future I will probably pick patterns with an eye to what sort of quilting they'll need - if it's simple I can do it at home, since it's so expensive to send it out for custom work.
What do you all do for quilting? What do you do when you need some really pretty custom quilting but can't afford to send it out?