Stash organization
 

Okay all, I have tubs and boxes of fabric I have collected. I am clueless how to sort mine. I started with solids versus flowers and then one with multicolored. I have eight tubs and four large boxes. Friends call me all the time to come get their mother's fabric or their Aunt Zelda's twice removed. I turn nothing down! Some of your stashes are beautifully organized. Where do I start?

Unfortunately, not with me!!! :p

I sort mine by color. You should probably think about how you choose a fabric for a quilt before determining how to sort it - I sort my stash by color because when I choose a fabric, I'm usually looking for a specific color.

I agree with Peckish Peggi. I've also recently bought the comic book boards to get my stash more organized and prettier to look at, so I'm looking forward to re-acquainting myself with my "stuff". . . . . . :o

My organization method means nothing to anybody but me. I have several bins and plastic drawer units that everything is sorted into and I can find anything in seconds. But nobody else would ever understand my "logic" for what goes where; I sort by association rather than by a logical plan. Things that "go together" in my mind are together in drawers, but it probably would look random to anybody else!

Well, no, not entirely - some things are obvious; my solids are sorted by manufacturer ("Kona" and "Everything else") and then sub-sorted by color. Most of my metallics are together, except for a few that made more sense elsewhere. Batiks are also mostly together, with a few exceptions (and I can tell you exactly how many, where they are, and why they're in a different spot, but nobody but me would care!)

I used to organize my CD's this same way until I got married and my husband took over and imposed logic on everything. Now everything is by band, the by date and now I can't find ANYTHING! LOL Apparently I look for things the same way I organize them....by intuition. (Or "insanity" if you ask my spouse! LOL) I just somehow expect that things that 'go together' in my mind will be proximate to eachother in the real world. Makes sense to ME!

I spent a blissful Sunday recently ruler-folding my small stash. I divide mine by colour and whether or not it's batik, which I keep separate.
I also have sub-divisions for Holiday, Novelty, Landscape (do a lot of appliqué) and Asian etc.
Happy organising! :)

I sort by color, with separate space for scraps, flannel, holidays, fabric which is multicolor with no dominant color, 1930's , 1800's.

My organization consists of three tubs. One darks/one lights/one solids. When I need something, I go a' digging. Makes for some interesting times. LOL. I don't have room to have it prettily stashed so the method works for me. LOL

I sort mine by color. Exception: holiday fabrics. I have all my Christmas fabrics together, Easter, fall, which includes Halloween, etc. I use the ruler folding method, as I use an armoire to store all my fabrics. I can't help with fat quarters, as I normally don't buy any.

I don't have a huge stash, but I too had a wonderful time ruler-folding mine. Made me feel so organized. Now it is stacked neatly on a shelf. Three large bins worth ended up fitting on a fairly small section of one shelf.

Usually I sort mine by fabric lines, but I buy fabric lines mostly. Then I sort by color. I have my Konas all together. I have two bookcases with my fabrics on them, one storage unit, three dressers (which are a hassle because you can't see what's in there) and many, many plastic tubs full of fabric. I but fat quarter bundles, layer cakes, jelly rolls, or charm packs and yardages from the fabric line that I like the most.

Lol. Every time I go through my stash, it is like Christmas all over again!

Sounds like I should organize by folding. I have some really bigg pie es! Can someone define ruler folding?

I have my fabric stash on bookcases folded on foam core boards that I cut myself from foam core sheets I bought at the Dollar Tree. I got 9 boards out of each sheet. I group all my whites, white on whites, off whites, and cream together. Next is all of my solids, then all my stripes. For the rest of my fabrics, I go by the Roy G Biv theory (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). When trying to decide what color category my prints go into, I choose whatever color stands out the most. Example: if a fabric has red and blue flowers on a yellow background, if the yellow stands out more, I put it in the yellow section. If the red flowers are bright, i will put it in the red section. Because my fabrics are on shelves I can see what I have. If I am looking for fabrics with yellow in them, I go to the yellow section first. But because everything is visible, I can also see if I have a fabric in the blue section that has yellow in it. All of my batiks are together as well as all my holiday fabrics. I have one shelf that is devoted to charm packs, jelly rolls, layer cakes and fat quarter bundles. I have the rest of my fat quarters in a 6 drawer Sterilite rolling cart and they are organized the same way as my shelves. I have one drawer that is full of panels.

I also sort mostly by color. I have a separate area for flannels, homespuns, holiday, juvenile, Asian, and 30's. Any piece 1/2 yd or more gets ruler folded and stacked by color. I do a lot of applique so smaller pieces are in smaller totes that I've labeled by color. I have red, blue, green, yellow, pink/purple, white, black/brown/grey boxes for those small pieces. My stash isn't huge but I have a substantial amount of fabric and like you, people give me fabric when someone dies or they decide they don't want it anymore. I used to think 'how expensive to make a scrappy quilt of only brown or blue, etc..... but now I just have to go to the right stack or box and I'm ready to piece more tops. I don't just go buy fabric.... I always have a quilt in mind..... Good luck with your organizing... it sure makes me happy to see my stash all sorted and ready. You'll love it when you get it done.

I don't know a link to send you to for ruler folding but it's really easy. I just lay the fabric out like it comes off the bolt and place the large 5x24 ruler across the fabric close to the edge. Fold the edge onto the ruler and then just start turning the ruler over and over to roll the fabric on it. At the end just slip the ruler out of the roll. I fold the long roll once and .... zap... you have another piece to put in your stash. It works well for pieces up to about 5 yards..... It get pretty bulky after that and hard to fold once.

Here is the link that was referenced in a post earlier. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=rkTla...%3DrkTlaMqRlwo

I ruler fold all my larger pieces of fabric, I am a scrap quilter, so when a nice person gives me scraps, I tidy them up, press the fabric and then fold. I do not press after it has been folded. I then put them away by colour, I have bins for Christmas, Asian, feature fabrics, tone on tone.
Spots and stripes in another bin, white/ cream background fabric, in another I am a collected of flower fabric so that is in a very big tote
I have boxes of different width strips, and charm squares and last of all another tote of FQ. If there is any fabric /blocks that I do not want, I give to the women's prison, they have to earn the privillage to make a quilt, of course no rotary cutters

i went to the fabric store and asked for their empty fabric bolts since they just recycle them anyway. and they are free. i cut them down with a box cutter into sizes that would hold my fabrics. the bolts are allready 7" wide, so i measured a 23" bolt at 11 1/2". i got 2 pieces from the front of the bolt. then flipped it over and got 4 -3 1/2" x 8" pieces to wrap my 1/2 yd pieces on its all in how you fold your fabric. its been fun for me as i can see how much i have at a glance just by the size of my bolts. i even make fq boards. hope this helps. gibbette