White with pink dots would go into my pinks. Pink with white dots would go into my pinks. Funny how we all do it differently. I do keep all my Hoffman in one spot, all my Kaffe Fassett and the like in one spot. Christmas and holidays in one spot and childrens in one spot, the remainer goes by colors.

I sort by colors, Christmas, Australian, baby/child, novelties (fisherman, bricks, rocks, sky, etc), metallics, batiks, brights, flannels, minkee, fleece and All Creatures Great & Small (animals/birds/fish from all over the world - eventual quilt for me!). Works quite well for me. Am working on getting all the scraps cut into sizes for quilts (thank you, Bonnie Hunter!), and those sizes are stacked on shelves for right now - but are very quickly going to overcome those shelves, so will go into clear storage bins then.

I have several different areas for sorting. I have my general fabrics sorted by color. I just by what color is the most prominent when I look a the fabric. I also sort novelty fabrics by subject matter-Christmas, Fall, Halloween, Snowmen, I Spy, etc. I have a large collection of CW fabrics-I sort them by color, but I also keep my Jo Morton fabrics separate from the other CW fabrics. (I have used them in swaps with friends and I like to be able to grab one easily). Special fabrics, like Minke, flannels, 1930s, homespuns, Kansas Troubles, hand-dyed, all have their own areas within my stash. It took a while to get all of my fabric sorted, folded and on the shelves where I wanted it, but it has paid off in the end-I can reach in and pull out the exact fabric I am looking for very quickly. It's a real time saver when I am on working on a new quilt.

There are always those pieces that either don't fit anywhere well at all - or could go into a couple of categories.

Example: My black and white cat prints - do they go with the cat prints or with the black and whites?

Example: The multi-color floral that doesn't have any dominant color - or many colors that seem equally bright - (I've started a separate stack for these)

This is how I did it: All whites, off whites, cremes and blacks go together. Then comes all my solids, then my stripes, then dots. Next comes my whites with black prints and blacks with white print. Next is prodominently black fabrics. Then predominately cream and brown colored fabrics . Holidays are together, Batiks are together, Asian are together, College fabrics together and special collections such as Dr. Seuss are together. Then I sort the rest of my fabric by ROY G. BIV, the colors of the rainbow. Whichever color is most dominant dictates what color group it goes in.

I use the 'background color'. If the background is blue, it goes with the blues, white or off-white goes with the whites, etc. This works for me generally, until the other day when I was looking for a specific fabric on the 'green' shelf, and the background was actually off-white. I don't think there is a 'perfect' system, just one that works most of the time. I do have a separate shelf for a project that is still in construction so I don't accidentally use an already designated fabric for a 'quick project'. Holiday specific fabrics get categorized for 'fall' or "Christmas" on a separate shelf or bin.

I sort by colour and type. All batiks are together in the same baskets, all blues, reds etc. When it comes to multi coloured prints or a fabric that can't be defined clearly by a colour, I then sort on the size of the print into small medium and large scale prints. Scraps are sorted and stored based on size only.

I work pt at a fabric store and sort my fabric similar to that. "Generic" cottons together by color, "designer" cottons by designer/fabric line, etc. Think of how you would look for a particular fabric when you enter a fabric store or quilt shop. It also works well to put your fabric on comic book boards, then your fabric can be stood up and it's very easy to see what you have. They cost about $12-$13 for 100 at Amazon.

Good luck - post pics!!!

I agree with the above. The color that pops out at you when you look at it.

If you have enough 'dot' fabric, I'd put it into its own section, or consider a 'brights' area. I ended up with a 'brights' section in my fabrics for that very reason -- those bright colors were beacons if sorted into colors, and I often want only 'brights' in a project, like a baby or child's quilt, so picking from that area of my stash really works for me.