Can Someone Explain . . .
 

I've seen many times a reference to "ruler folding" when talking about organizing your stash. Also, I've seen references to "comic books" or something like that. I don't know what either of these are. I plan to paint my sewing room within the next month and would like to organize my stash as I put everything back. If one of you helpful ladies would explain one or both of these, I'd appreciate it! Thanks!

I use my 6X24 inch ruler and wrap the beginning of the material around it and keep flipping the ruler until all the fabric is wrapped around it. Once this is done I remove the ruler and fold fabric in half long ways. I keep fabric neat and it lets you stack them by color, design, holiday, etc.

Sorry I didn't explain the comic book method. This method is more expensive as you have to purchase the boards to wrap your fabric around. I have so much material that I need to save all the space I can so I don't do it this way. I is a neat way to do it but I prefer to spend my money on fabric and not the comic book forms.

Know how fabric comes wrapped on those cardboard things in the store?
The fabric sort of looks like that after it's been wrapped around a ruler.
The ruler is taken out after the fabric has been wrapped around it.

It keeps the pieces uniform so they stack better.
The "comic books" - or whatever they are - act like the cardboard that the fabric is wrapped on in the store.

So it really has nothing to do with comic books? Duh . . . And the ruler method would only work for a length of fabric, not fat quarters. I have alot of fat quarters and pieces that are probably less than a half yard. I guess there's no more efficient way than the way they are already folded. I appreciate all the answers -- thank you all!

I'm in the middle of moving my sewing room into another room where I now have a bookcase to put my fabric on. I was trying the ruler thing but even though I have tons of them none of them gave me the fold to use the space in "my" shelves effectively. I just tried a few things and then found the perfect way and I was off. Intead of having my fabric stack so high on each shelf and then trying to get it out without messing it up I gave up a little space by adding more shelves to the unit. I already had extra shelves because these are bookcases that if you use them for books they start to sag in the middle. Well when that happened I went to Home Depot with one of the shelves and had them to cut me shelving the same size and just went ahead and switched them all out and put a wooden one on top of the middle shelve that won't come out. After a few years of these shelves not being in the case they have staightened back out. I went back to HD and got some more of those little shelf pegs to hold them in so I have several shelves and it's easier to organize it this way too. I'm still in the middle of moving things around but I love seeing my fabric all neet on the shelf. Maybe you can just find your own method without the ruler unless it works for you.

This is how I did mine, and I love it!

Here is the tutorial with pictures. http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...om-t43871.html

There are cardboard sheets that you can buy that you cut to wrap your fabric around.It works great for FQ's.I cut 1 board into quarters.It cost with shipping about $10 for 100 sheets or boards. These boards are used to put in a baggie with a comic book for collectors.That's what they were originally made for till us quilters got hold of them.lol Happy Mother's day Mary

I also use the hangers that you get in the stores with clamps or clips on them so that I can hang the fabric in the closet. I wash & iron these so they are ready to go. But I also divide by the type of material & then by color. Smaller pieces are put folded in a wooded shoe organizer. Plus the plastic shoe boxes or sweater boxes for the cut small pieces labeled.

Another option are the core boards that M.I.Late (here on the QB) makes and sells. More expensive than comic boards but they'll last longer and she sells multiple sizes - including sizes that are perfect for FQ's and other scraps.

If you do a search on "Easy Cores" or search for posts by M.I.Late ... you'll find them.

I also fold with my 6x24 ruler. Works great!!!

I fold with my 6 x 24 ruler and my shelves look great. The only problem with that is when you have a really large (6 or 7 yards) piece of fabric. It ends up looking like a roll. I usually just fold them into a large square and put them on a bottom shelf. I, too, am moving my sewing room to another room in the house, and didn't realize what a challenge it was going to be. Hubby said, "oh boy! You're finally opening a fabric store. Maybe some of this will leave now." How dare he!!! Nothing is leaving until it's attached to lots of other little nothings! LOL!

A 6x24" ruler?? Don't own one?

I TRY to fold neatly but I think there are wild beasts that get into my sewing room at night and tear the place up. So it doesn't matter what fold I use. I guess I am doomed, but hey it's MY room.

When I re-org'd my sewing room, I bought two bookcases with doors from Ikea and proceeded to refold 30 years of fabric using the ruler method. it took many days. Now it looks gorgeous and is all sorted by color...truly a sight to behold. However!!! In studying the comic book method, I began to see that if one folds and stacks the stash one piece on top of another, the stacks get messed up when you want a piece from the bottom, whereas if you use the comic book/quilt shop method of lining fabric up like books in a library, you can pull out a piece and not leave mayhem behind.
Is it enough to make me want to refold my entire stash? Nah. But it's something to think about.

This is I fold mine, except I don't fold it when I'm done. I usually buy 4-6 yds. or more. I just stack mine on the shelves in my cabinet.

Thank you, everyone, for your input. I'm (almost) excited to start organizing when I get my room painted. I know it will be worth all the hard work when it's all neat and pretty!

I was fortunate enough to acquire a massive amount of plastic 'cardboard' - the kind you see on wired stands stuck in the ground - they're usually used for advertising a person running for local political office. My neighbor won the election, threw all of his signs out on recycle day, but I got to them first. I washed them and cut them down to size (6 x 9) and now my Ikea shelving (Expedit and 2 Billy Bookcases) look amazing!!!

I fold my fabric in half .selvege to selvege, then I fold it half again (fold to selveges). THEN I wrap it around my 6x24 ruler. By doing the second fold before wrapping it around the ruler, you keep the end from having a big bulge.

I have one closet that is pretty deep and for these shelves I fold the fabric selvege to selvege and then wrap it around the 6x24 ruler and store it flat. I reserve this closet for lengths of more than 3 yards.

To use the ruler method without that ruler you can use something you have around the house. For instance, you could cut down the cardboard back of a notebook or box into a 6" wide strip. It doesn't have to be 24" long. You could take your fabric as it's folded on the bolt, bring the fold back down to the selvedge and then roll it up.

The ruler method really does save space. I've got my fabric in plastic totes and the ones that I have done this way actually have some space leftover in the tote now. I guess that means I need more fabric to fill it up properly! :)

My 2 cents.. I think it all depends on your set up in your room.. In my daughters house I had to have shelves with baskets because the room had no storage otherwise so I used the ruler method to fold and stand in the baskets.. I tried to move that idea to this house which has closets and it was a PITA ... The doors are sliding so I was constantly sliding doors back and forth and there was a space in the middle I couldn't get to with out taking everything else out first. Leaving the doors off was not an option ,not my house, Anyway I finally moved/got rid of a lot of my books and folded the fabric on comic boards. I have 5 shelves packed with over 300 pieces of fabric. I can see what I have and I am not moving a bunch of stuff to get to it. I need at least one more shelf for fabric so I am going to try and see what else I can get rid of. I have the fat quarters folded and put in baskets on a shelf. Oh the other thing I did when I folded on the boards. I measured and wrote on the board how much. If I cut a piece off I just write how much I cut off to keep track.

here's a web site that shows using the 6x24 ruler. That is what I have done and looks great!!
http://turningturning.com/tutorial-folding-fabric/

judy