I have lots of stash, but never the right colors to complete, so always seem to "need" one more perfect color to go with. As far as amounts, it depends on the fabric- 3 yards, fat quarters and yd pieces are usually what I purchase.Then the horse panels well that is another story!
I have recently been doing 30's Fabrics in a Farmers Wife Sampler so keep an eye out for them now, and that's usually fat quarters.

Just to give you an idea, I put in a picture. That cart has everything I own related to sewing, other than my machine. The bottom drawer is my printed fabrics. Yep, that's all the quilting fabrics I own. The next drawer up is batting, linen, muslin, and interfacing. The next drawer is notions and the top drawer is tools. I keep my scrap bin and thread box on top of the cart. You can see from the reference guides of the 8 month old kitten to the left and the queen sized package of W&N to the right, it's a very small cart. And I can still pull projects out of my stash. If you're willing to work with what you have, get creative, and go scrappy, you can do a lot.

I've been "collecting stash" for lots of years with the excuse I'm building my stash so I'll have lots of fabric when I retire and I won't have to buy anything, but the truth is, I just love fabrics and when I'm in a JoAnn's or Hancock's or a quilt shop, I buy what I like. I usually buy a yard if I like it and if I love it I buy more. I also buy on-line a lot. My stash is getting larger and larger, but I don't care. I'll still buy fabric.

I have everything from whole bolts of fabric to small fat quarters.
It just depends on the fabric, if it is something I will/can use in lots of quilts as it is a neutral that will not go out of style and its a great price ... I buy lots , sometimes the bolt. Becasue when in doubt they can be backings.
If its a trendy fabric but exceptional , mimium one yard maybe three depending on price. This depends also on wher ein the quilt I think it may end up . if it is going to be a border fabric , Three yards.
I do tend to look at the fabric and how difficult it will be to find compatable fabrics. This was a lesson learned the hard way. Some fabics are spectacular but are very hard to get enough compatable fabrics to make a interesting quilt.

I have an answer different than the others here. I buy a lot of kits. I do this for a couple reasons. First of all, it's easy and I don't have to think about getting all the fabrics of a quilt that I'm wanting to make--it's all right there. Secondly, I might not get to making that quilt for a time so when I finally do get around to doing one that I've been dying to make--all I need do is pull it off the shelf and get to it.
Oh yeah, my stash (particularly of kits) is the stuff of legends among my friends. They often tell my husband that when I die, they want to come help him "manage my sewing studio" and "help him dispose of everything!" Ha!!

Sunnycat: I find those drawers extremely helpful - you can see from the front and sides what's in them without rooting thru a box.

I have quite a few of them - the smaller ones to hold things marking pencils, rulers, etc.Dodee

LakesideQuilter...Very Impressive!! I like that, I have a lot of mine in baggies...the quart and gallon size but don't have near as much as you...I probably would if I have the room though.

WOW!!!!!! I'd sure love to see pics of this!!!!! :shock: :lol:

Well I have a large Stash. If I know what I am designing and making I buy a little more fabric than I need for the project. If it is an unknown project( I just love the Fabric) I buy 2 yards of all the coordinating fabrics. I have everything from fat quarters to 4 yard pieces in my normal Stash. I do have a lot of fabric. I love it all. So does my non quilter daughter. She is an artist and loves to help me pull fabric for projects. I do organize it all buy color and type(ie Christmas and 30's fabric seperate from the general fabric in the Stash. It is all folded and easy to get at on the shelves.
Luann

It is sooo nice to hear all the different views. So, I am going to take from this thread:
1- If you like it, buy it!
2- If it is a solid color pattern that is in colors that you like, probably 2-3 yards is a good idea.
3- Everyone likes to stash differently, and I LOVE it.

I have a small stash stared (been sewing for a little under a year, and I have to keep the volume to a minimum, or the hubby will put a cap on my spending), and my new years resolution is going to be to organize it.
I think starting to organize when it is small will be helpful. I need to build up my solid color stash, cause I have lots of novelty prints, but need some background to match with them.
Thanks for all the imput, keep it coming!

Okay so here is my Stash enjoy! Oh and my quilting buddies do shop at my Stash LOL!
Luann

My stash is growing by leaps and bounds. I have two double wardrobes filled and can't fit even a fat quarter in there anymore. I've got 3 dressers, the space under my bed and any number of flat surfaces covered and piled up plus a tv cabinet filled at our summer home. I've also got plastic containers filed with fabric that I've made into kits. It's an addiction! and I've got to learn to control it. I just have no willpower when it comes to fabric sales. It's like falling in love all over again (with fabric, of course). I don't buy fat quarters anymore but buy between 1 and 10 yards depending on what I'd like to use it for and the price at the time.

I am addicted to remnants.

Where are you from Buckyfan? I'm from near Green Bay.

I would love to have any of your problems, that is having too much stash. I am just now building my stash. I like kits and I am buying precut fabrics mostly online. Very envious!

I have a wall of shelving holding see-through Rubbermaid bins of fabric. I won't let my stash get any larger than this because I'd have no place in the room for it. My fabric sizes range from several bins of scraps in all sizes down to 2" squares, to bins with large cuts ranging from 2 yards to 6 yards. None larger than this. I also have one long shelf of fat quarters in see-through Sterlite shoebox size boxes. The closet contains all my batting and backings. I feel like, for me at least, it's a manageable stash. 8-)

A funny stash story (at least to me)
Over the years I've kept fabric, mostly new, but some pieces from clothes I cut up, usually things I made origianlly but no longer needed(meaninf no longer fit).
So yesterday, we were in the attic, which I haven't been in since 1991, when we added the addition. There was a bag of stash pieces, various sizes, that I honestly did not remember putting there or even having.
So I brought it down to go through it, to see what in the world I decided to keep. It was mainly, it looks like, pieces I picked up at garage sales, and some pieces cut from clothes, as I mentioned.
In the car accident, some of my memories got reshelved, and are lost, but they manage to get put in the right place now and then.
Seems I remember all the pieces, what I made with them, where I wore those items, it was fun going through them reliving history.
I came across a piece of fabric, a red print, cut from a tiered gathered skirt, I remember I wore it with a white peasant type top.
On the FIRST date with my husband (to see Heart and ELO up in Pontiac, Mich)! We've been married 29 1/2 years, and it took us 2 1/2 years to get married after the first date! That's some old fabric. All this stuff seems to be in decent shape, I need to make something special

I think we all are way too adicted to fabric. If I live to be 100 I couldn't possibly use it all. I am now moving to the quilted balls I have seen on here. I ordered the pins and balls and I have enough fabric to decorate the city@!

Several years of "free" quilts. I have enough to last well beyond my life expectancy, or anyone's. Problem is I still have to buy batting. So they are not really free... Oh well! I am happy with my collections.

Sorry for going off subject, but I am a huge Basenji fan and love your avatar. I am a bit of a newbie and don't see how to reply to just you!

I have a little to 5 yrs, just depends on who gave me what, or what was on sale.

I wonder the same thing. I have a friend that converted her doubloe car garage into her sewing room. She has all her fabric in closed containers marked. Christmas, Easter, ST Patrics, pinks, greens, and the list goes on.
It is amazing the yardage and scraps she has.

I guess it depends upon how many years a person has been quilting. Some of us don't have the will power not to buy.

Good luck building your stach.

I used to keep by stash organized by color but have found it easier to organized it by the amount of fabric. I have been trying to use some of my stash and and a lot more selective in buying for the stash. But sometimes those great buys are too good to past up!

Your Basenji looks just like the one I had as a child! My aunt and uncle used to raise them.

:thumbup:

I have a 4 door dresser full of fabric. It is sorted by color. They are all folded via this method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkTlaMqRlwo


Also, I have cut all my small pieces into square, and strips using Bonnie Hunter's method:

http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml

Hope this helps keep it all organized. It is great that all if folded over a 6" ruler.

My two sisters and I have always spent a good portion of our quilting time doing it together. Back in the late 60's/70's when it was difficult to find 100% cotton, my younger sister and I went anywhere we could find cotton fabric. We would buy at least 10 yards of something we liked and sometimes to entire bolt because we knew we might never see that fabric again. I could probably still dig out some of those old fabrics from my scrap baskets. Now of course I've fallen in love with the pre-cuts because the variety is so lovely to look at & feel.

Many of us are "SABLE"..,,,Stash accumulated beyond life expectancy....... :-)I sew garments and quilt so my stash is huge.....I have trouble finding good garment fabric in my area so I've sewn out of my stash this fall.....

OH! Bless you! I think I am now in second place for abundance of stash ... I don't feel so badly now! LOL <wave>

(cough, sputter choke)

2 cabinets full, one closed full and several buckets full with mostly 1 yard sizes, some more than 1 yard and some fat quarters

Wow!!! My stash is so small compared to you guys I am embrassed.

2 cabinets full, one closed full and several buckets full with mostly 1 yard sizes, some more than 1 yard and some fat quarters

You invest in something else. No reason to be embarrassed <wave>
I surmise that since you had to ask the question, you have only just begun. Once people find out you quilt (translated: quilters use scraps of fabric no one else knows what to do with) your stash will grow beyond your capabilities. Trust me!;)

My stash completely (and I mean competely) fills a 10 ft 3 in closet from floor to ceiling and joAnns had the audacity today to put all those coupons online, I just have to use that 50% one for batting on the roll.

I love it so much that I started selling it. The nearest place to buy fabric is 40-45 miles away and the nearest quilt shop is 65
miles away. I'm making a lot of money, but its so much fun!! You can find me on ebay whitediamond98. You have to go to community and click twice and then type in my site name.

I'll have a web site up and running February 1: lindaraestreasures.com

Hope you'll look, Linda Rae

My stash is enormous. I love to buy fabric. It is out of
control so I am trying to stop purchasing unless it is a fabulous buy. I quilt for several charities so I need a lot of
fabric. The past few years, people have been giving me their
unwanted fabric which I distribute to quilters that want it.
Some of my stash is in a closet on wide shelves. The rest is
in plastic totes or cardboard file boxes. I number each box
and write the contents of each in a notebook under that
box number. I try to put similar fabrics in each box. My big
problem is that I don't know in which room the box is in. I
have started putting the location of the box in the notebook. I am constantly reorganizing my stash. I must try
to make more quilts!
Rose

Rose, it looks like you are doing a great job of recording all the stash...just need to add a few details. Mine is not nearly that organized. :oops:

I have cotton quilting fabric in all sizes from one large scrap of fabric to multiple small scraps to multiple yardage. Of course that's not even counting all the flannel yardage I have from when I was going to set the world on fire making rag quilts. (NOT!!!!) I'm thinking about offering some of this on the classified after the new year. I could make a rag quilt for every member of this board! :? :? :?

My stash consists of mostly fat quarter sized pieces. I ran into the problem of needing sashing, back ground fabric, border and backing fabric. Right now I am focusing on that and if possible I buy 6-7 yards for backs and 1 1/4 yards for borders. Mostly looking for $4 a yard fabric. I have pretty much no white or white on white fabric, less then a FQ, and the beige/creme is also very close to none exsistend.

Hey Luann: Your stash looks eerily similiar to mine--not so much by organization, but the fact that it takes up a whole wall in the sewing room!
Looks like a lot of great fun to me!!