Although I am relatively new to quilting, I have caught the fabric bug. I have purchased a lot of fabric, HOWEVER, I am not sure the best way to store it. Shelves, bins, by color etc.

Please help

My fabric runneth over
June

I have mine by color. They are stacked in a bookcase where I can easily see them.

Someone suggested, if you bought fabric for a specific pattern, to bundle them together with a ribbon and the pattern so they stay together and you don't grab a fabric intended for something specific.

Mine are sorted by size, then by color or by thems. I have most of my fabrics in cabinets with doors so that they don't get faded. I can open all the doors and step back and see my collection when looking for something. The overflow is in clear Rubbermaid 60 Quart totes in the garage. I think I have 8 full ones out there. The door to the garage is in my "sewing" room (family room) and they are only 6 feet from the door so I don't have far to go. With them being clear I can easily see what's in the tub w/o having to unstack them all.

Can I move into your house?
June

LOL!!
I do enjoy visitors!!!

I have 7 of the pattern cabinets, from fabric stores that have either gone out of business or got new cabinets. Each drawer has a certain background color in it. The overflow is stashed in big(65 qt. or bigger) plastic totes. I have about 2 dozen filled.

A favorite method for a lot of quilters, me included, is to fold our fabric so everything is one size, making it easier to store it. Here's a link someone posted a while back:

http://tipnut.com/fabric-folding/

I don't do the last "fold in half" because I have a deep bookcase. Ir you use the search feature at the top of this page, you can hunt for "fabric folding" or "organization." There's been a lot of buzz about those lately. Welcome to the Quilting club!!!

after seeing everyone organising fabric and getting some good ideas here I went to a Spotlight store (chain store ) yesterday. They had 30% off if you bought whatever was left on the bolt so ofcourse I thought that was a good deal! One was already reduced so got that one at $3.50m (aussie dollars) and the other one at $6m.
I bought two lots of material both being over 4metres long so as I was paying I recalled someone using the cardboard that the material came on to store their fabric at home. i was quite pleased to recall that so asked the lovely saleslady if I could possibly have 2 of the cardboard inserts. She said that they were not allowed to give out the cardboard!!!! She said she thought it was stupid too as they only get thrown out :thumbdown: :thumbdown:
I thought i would be doing them a favour taking the cardboard but obviously not!

I have been quilting for 9 years and still don't know the answer to that. I change they way I keep my fabrics way to often. Mostly I just keep them in a cabinet and every time I organize it I find fabrics I forgt I had. Is like Christmas allover again. If I get a fabric for a special project I keep all the supplies together with the pattern.

I sort by color, but have two special bins. One is for holiday fabrics and the other is for larger than 2 yard cuts. The 2 yard cut bin is large so the don't have to be folded as much.