We are quilters and collectors....
It is cheap therapy in comparison to others.

My sewing machine had to go to the shop a couple of weeks ago. It was okay because it gave me time to sort scraps, pet my fabrics, smell them, admire them, and promise them that someday I would use every last piece of them in a quilt. Mam, I love fabric!!

When I buy new fabric I have a rule. It doesn't come in the house till it is washed. So I drive into the garage pass the washer and throw the new fabric inside washer.
If it is a batik or something I think will run I bring it in the house and fill the sink with hot water and rinse till it stops bleeding. Then wash it with a color catcher.

I thought about working at JoAnns also but knew I would owe more than what I earned.
It would be very dangerous

OMG, Fabric screams at me when I walk by and notice it.."TAKE ME HOME, YOU NEED ME! I'LL BE USED BEFORE YOU KNOW IT! DON'T LOOK AT THE PRICE, JUST LET MY BEAUTY ENCOMPASS YOU. I'LL BE GONE THE NEXT TIME YOU ARE HERE, SO HURRY AND TAKE ME WITH YOU TODAY!" I often stop to touch it with a gentle caress and it purrs...."you want me, I know it!". It just drains my reserves!

I get psycho around fabric, caressing it, walking around with the bolt in my hands so no one else can touch it, eventually falling under it's spell and purchasing it. I'll order two yards and it screams out"MORE, YOU NEED MORE!", and I give in to get that extra yard and feel relief that I made the decision to take it home and give it a place of honor in my stash.

So exhilerating! LOL!

Diane

My best friend is very much a fabricolic. Her 5 y/o GGD is becoming one as well. The time before last that we went fabric shopping my friend kept telling her, you get to pick one thing, the rest is for me! Last time little one went back in the house to rob her piggy bank so she could buy goodies too!

When I get home from shopping I take the fabric out of the bag, open it up & admire it. Then into the washer, dryer then fold & put it on a shelf for a few days where I can see it. Then I put it into it's bin & start all over with a new batch! LOL

The most fun I have is finding someone who is selling fabric in yard sales, Craigslist and in Thrift stores. Of course you have to double check what you get but so far I have been lucky.

I agree after fabric comes I have to touch it all! then rearrange it, putting this bolt next to that one or another.
seeing what makes everything pop!
Then at 2AM I wake up with an idea!

Isn't it amazing that something inanimate can have that control over us? Im the same way!! I fall prey every time.

I love the smell, feel and look of fabric. I could spend an entire day in my lqs. But then, looking leads to buying!!

I just bought this pretty thing and I'm going to let it sit on my sewing table so I can admire it for a while before deciding what to do with it. I also brought it to my quilting group to share the eye candy.

Love the feel of it and the colors, every time you look at it you see different colors.

Craigslist!?! And I have only been looking at yard sales. Thanks!

OMG do I belong here or what! Yesterday I finished washing, pressing and folding that last of 20 yds worth of fat 1/4's (yes fat qtrs) I will be using for the fw's quilt, I still have the larger pieces to do but at least they won't be so time consuming. Now I have a completely FULL drawer (on one of those 3 drawer towers from Joann's)ready for cutting and sewing when we start in Aug.And a 2nd started of the larger pieces.
I started out this summer to re-organize my entire stash,meaning re-washing, pressing, folding because the son and dil moved out and I knew I'd be moving my sewing room back downstairs, so I started out by zigzagging raw edges and washing those pieces that had migrated up here over the winter. I've almost completed those other than the drawer of batiks and a few large yd pieces I have. Then this new project for the fw's came up so I decided to go through my stash of K.T.'s and do them, so now they are almost done.
That still doesn't begin to touch the 5 shelf unit I have of fabric or the other drawers. OMG will it ever end. I wish I had been smart like some of you and washed them as they came home, I did some but like a dummy I hadn't cut a corner or zigzagged the edges so alot of them I can't tell if they were done so here they go again.I am determined they will all get washed, pressed and folded now before they go in a drawer or onto the shelf.
My next project is I have a 4 day workshop with 5 different projects in Sept. so I am starting to pull those fabrics and make sure the are ready to go..... WOW.
My neighbor was over the other night, and she went shopping from my stash for a cousins wedding quilt, she sat looking around and asked so Muriel howmany 1000's of yards of fabric do you have, I told her I don't have a clue. Too darn many right now. I text her yesterday and told her about the 20 yrds of fats finished and the other 20 yrds to go and she text me back laughing and just calls me OCD.
The up side to this is with all this to do and school starting again the 18th maybe I'll be to busy to go to Joann's or LQS and maybe I'll not spend money this next month....yeah right
But that's my story and I'm sticking to it....lol
Muriel

I do that all the time. I travel a lot alone and the first thing I do is look for the quilt shops in the area and spend my weekends going to them and just touching fabric. I call it getting my "fix". Sometimes I don't buy anything but I always come away feeling a whole lot better. And the people in the shops are always so nice. I'm off to Dallas to check that area, there are some great shops there.

Me too! Love to handle fabric.

In April I traveled to Tasmania before I left I looked up LQS and I found one about 20 minutes away from our hotel.
I just HAD to go so I made my sister, mother, and two neices go with me.
We think fabric is expenisve here!!!! It was $29.99 a yard!!!
So I found some native fabric and bought enough FQ to make a small wall hanging.
When I got in the car I read the pattern and found out is was from Arizona USA!
That is about 5 hours away.
Everyone had a great laugh.
But the fabric was from Tasmania.
I also have to get new fabric from every where I go.
Love it!!!

I bring the fabrics home, wash them, then see what others they play well with, and off to the cupboard! Lots more fabric than I realize!

I love to touch fabric, I walk thru the LQS just feeling the fabric. I washed some batiks and really enjoyed going thru them and folding them. Life's simple pleasures.

When going to a fabric shop I have to pet and feel each bolt. I have washed and now to iron fabric for the quilt I'm working on.

I haven't read all the replies but incase someone missed it ..

we are all members of Fabric Fondlers Anonymous! Except we aren't all that anonymous, are we?

warm quilt hugs, sue in CA

I was going through my stash the other day and noticed that it had a funny odor. The only way I can expain it is an old smell. So I took everything out and aired it.
Then before I put it away I put some dryer sheets between.
Has anyone else had that problem?

Sue
Where in Ca. I live in La Verne???

Quilting Nana, I used to live in Rancho Cucamonga but moved to the high desert 2 years ago, now living in Adelanto.

Do you happen to belong to the Nite Owls Quilt Guild? I used to belong to it before moving and I have several friends who still belong.

I'm going to be really tickled if you are someone I know from guild, LOL.

warm quilt hugs, sue in CA

Ranch C what a small world.
No I do not belong to any guild but have been looking for one.

:) :) :)

wh hubby and i were first married i had two boxes that you slide under the bed.that was my quilt box.then when a friend or someone at work needed a baby blanket i would pull out my box and start one for them.then two boxes became four,then five and so on.i love fabric.sometimes i go to the fabric store-joann's or ben franklins in utica ohio or sometimes a new store-i go and look and see what is available.no project at all in mind-just go buy a yard or two.if i really like it 5 or 6.then the projects make themselves mathes whaen i get home or after that.other times i go with specifics in mind.it's fun either way!

GOSH! So happy to read this thread, thought there could be something wrong with my passion for fabric. I simply love the company I'm in!!! Thanks for sharing!!

I'm sitting here reading all the quotes and it just feels like I'm in GOOD company. I get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I touch and admire fabric.......which I am accumulating more and more of. I love it and agree that it is very therapeutic. Thanks for making me feel like I am "normal", so to speak.

Oh, that is exactly what I do! ☺