Organizing the stash?
 

So in this homebound time I'm finally getting my stash organized. How should I organize it?

Keep in mind- most of my stash is from the lady I bought my first sewing machine from. 3 garbage bags of "end of bolt"...9" to 15" WOF strips. If nothing else - I have a on the scrappy quilt market...if I only knew anything about putting together disparate fabrics and making the result look cohesive.

I keep it all in one of those under bed rolling boxes. I promise when I got it I carefully folded and organized by color. However after 18 months of rooting thru and picking out, its not really organized anymore. So I'm cutting up thin cardboard and wrapping.

Should I keep in color order? Should I put similar patterns/diff colorways together? Give up and set the whole mess on fire?

Because a picture is worth 1000 words...

First of all no fires :D

I bought comic boards on Amazon. Got a bunch for a few bucks.
I like to coordinate by color because I can see at a glance what I need. It works well for me.

I see some pretties there!!!

Try to put like colors together. I don't buy precuts.

I organize by color, but I have to redo it every 3 or 4 months because I root through it, pull things out and don't put them back properly. I have always been good at organizing, and not at all good in staying that way. Anything bigger than a fat quarter goes in a stack on my shelves, fat quarter or less goes in plastic boxes.

Do not burn!
I can’t understand waste. I use everything but crumb size. You can always make something, if not a quilt. I started organizing mine by color or type fabric. I fold them to fit in those clear bins that have 3 drawers in each from Walmart. I lay the drawer on its side & fold fabric to fit, stacking pieces from side to side. When I turn the drawer upright to fit in the frame, I can see the end of each piece and at a glance I know exactly what I have.

Fun project!

I ruler fold small pieces with a 5 inch ruler. Then fold again in 5 inch folds depending on fabric width. The get stacked on edge so I can see each color. I don't worry about exact color sorting as it's easy to see what is there. No need for extra work to cut cardboard or purchase extra supplies. Easy and quick to do.

These are the bins I use to hold the folded fabric pieces. The medium deep is a perfect size as it measures 6x16x 5 inches high.

https://www.containerstore.com/s/ide...=fridge%20bins

I’ve been wrapping my stash around card stock paper. Looks as good as comic boards but cheaper. After folding my fabric in quarters as you would for comic boards, I fold my paper in half, the long way, stick the end inside fold and start wrapping.

I have my stash organized in a few different ways. The majority of my yardage is in a single cabinet organized by color groups Anything under 1 yd. is in another cupboard organized only by size. I have speciality fabrics separated my batiks and reproduction fabrics are seperate. I have fabrics on the bolt and backing fabrics separate. Some are under beds. Space is an issue. However most of it has a place. Things are frequently pulled from the major stash and will remain out until the next "stash bash" when I air each piece of fabric and re-fold each piece. I do this every year or so. This insures that the fabric has fewer fold lines that will be hard to press out.

I don't have problems with bugs and I keep my large stash sorted by colors or themes in cardboard "banker" boxes I get at the office supply store. I can't always afford archival boxes but it is worth paying for heavy duty boxes which I then line with acid free tissue paper. Some of my fabrics I've had for many years and I like the light protection cardboard gives. Cardboard however should never be put directly on concrete floors, it will wick up trace amounts of moisture leading to musty smell and attracting critters from mold to mice. I have rolling wire racks I got from Costco that by boxes are on -- my goal for this year is to clear out the large closet in the sewing room and put in a shelving system and I believe what is (left from my formerly huge stash) will fit in that closet. So although it is 1/4 or less of what I used to have, it's still a sizeable amount. I write on the outside of the box what the color/theme is --or why a lot of people like clear storage.

There is no one answer, each of us find things that work. I've tried many things. One thing I've given up on is small pieces, for me that is anything smaller than 6.5" x something bigger than a square. Pieces fat quarter and up are prewashed, sorted by color or theme (cats, farm, blue, red, etc.) and are folded in fourths ready for cutting, they fit well in the boxes that way.

When they get smaller than a fat quarter, I cut off a 6.5" strip which I keep in a 6.5" strip box. I used to keep smaller strips, but although I can cut down I can't make them any larger and it just wasn't working for me. I used to keep the rough cut strings. I used to do a lot of things I don't do any more... Now I keep a flat rate postage box by my cutting area and anything too small for me goes to a crumb quilter I met on the board, when it gets full she gets a surprise box. A lot of it is bigger than a crumb -- but again, she can cut down and I can't cut up!

Final thought -- I work mostly in scrap quilts or at least quilts made from collections of fabric. But after a lot of years I have my own style and still find a lot of scrap quilts to be too chaotic for me, or some fabrics just don't speak to me in ways they can be used. So I've started examining why I save or use/don't use particular fabrics. If you think about it and realize that no, you just aren't ever going to do something with the fabric you don't have to keep it, you don't have to use it. I think it's better to give it away/donate it but what the heck. A lot of people are just happier buying a lot of fabric and making a project and they don't need the leftovers. I'm happier having a lot of fabric and figuring out what to do with it.

There are so many ways to sort. It gets overwhelming quickly and sometimes there isn't a clear "best" way, only what ends up working for you personally.

That said, I often try different methods (ruler fold vs comic board vs etc) to see if one works better for me. So far I haven't settled on one that makes me feel really organized.

I keep fqs folded as purchased, ruler fold 1/2 yds, wrap anything 1-6 yds on comic book boards, and keep anything more than 6 yards on bolts. Odd sizes (partial fqs, 3/4 yds, long 1/4 yds, etc give me problems). I'm nothing if not inconsistent. : )

While I have my solids generally grouped by color, I haven't tried to sort my prints by color because many of my fabrics are multi-colored and it gives me hives just thinking about choosing the prominent color. I know the selvage dots are a guide but it wouldn't be very apparent on the shelf.

I was in a color wheel club for a year that sent 12 print fat quarters a month of a certain color. Those are about the only print fat quarters I have in color order (out of 500+/-). I seriously didn't know I had that many until I did an inventory. Yikes! They're like pieces of candy and I have a sweet tooth.

I often purchase the same print fabric in various colorways and like to keep them together. I tend to group by designer as well. Holiday/novelty is a bit slapdash.

For those that do something similar, (I can't be the only one, right?) if you have fat quarters & yardage of the same fabric, do you keep them together or separate? Right now I have all the fat quarters in one area and yardage elsewhere. It looks better that way but I'm afraid of overlooking the additional fabric if I run short.

What works if color sorting isn't desired/easily doable?

Ha! Sorry - I've added to the confusion instead of offering a solution. So definitely ruler fold everything and sort light to dark. : )

This is how I store my larger pieces/yardages. These are Christmas yardages. Fortunately I have a sewing room.

I try and organize by color and then I have bins of seasonal fabrics like Christmas and Halloween. I too go rooting thru fabrics and never put them back in the right bin. This makes me crazy when I am looking for a certain fabric. I will learn to put it where it belongs I hope.

Even though you didn't ask for scrap quilt ideas, here is a link to a great site with lots of free patterns.
https://www.azblankets4kids.com/patterns.htm

Every piece of fabric less than fat quarter size I keep just about the same way you keep yours. I have them by color, it works for me. I don't use a ruler to fold them, I just try to keep them all about the same size.

Good ideas, to consider. Figure out what works for you. I'm in for organizing by color. When you do use those pieces, think of pulling out fabrics of similar intensities..like brights with brights; country shades with country shades...just be consistent and you will sew up a good looking quilt.

This is a simple quilt I made from scraps, but you can use with longer pieces, too. In this case I used homespun plaids.

https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutori...t-t303359.html

Good luck with your sorting and your quilt making!

Spend some time looking at Bonnie Hunters blog Quiltville.blogspot.com to see how she very effectively combines a multitude of fabrics in similar shades to make a cohesive design.

I sort my prints by main colour and stack them on a shelving unit if they are under a yard. I keep all my solids and all my batiks together, again in folded stacks on shelves.
Anything over a yard, I fold and they go on lower shelves.
Backings or larger amounts, I have hanging "boot bags" that are like shoe bags only bigger and hang from a rod in my closet and have 6 spots in which to keep my large pieces of fabric. I got these for cheap at the Goodwill. I also have a couple of the shoe bags and one of them is perfect for keeping all my 2 1/2" strips separated by colour.
Anything that I think is too small too be of use, I cut into strings right away and it goes into a drawer near my sewing machine so I can make string blocks whenever I feel like it.
Any little bits too small for that I'll either toss or keep in one of two plastic boxes to use for collage. One box is cool colours and one box is warm colours.

Watson

I store my fabric in drawers like what Toogie showed. The only difference is that I cut comic book boards to fit the drawers and wrap my fabrics around the. I use one of the 3 drawer chests to store quilting fabric yardage - one drawer for darks, one for mediums and one for lights. Within those categories they are loosley grouped by color. I use another 3 drawer chest to store pieces of quilting fabric that are bigger than a fat quarter but smaller than a yard, also separated the same way as my yardage. Fat quarters are stored in their own unit. Smaller scraps have their own sets of shallow drawers and are sorted by color and size.
I also have drawer units for the home dec fabrics that I inherited from my grandmother.

Different storage methods work for different people, it just depends on your situation and how you use your fabrics.

Rob

I've been keeping most of the stuff in color order but making some sets where the fabrics obviously go together.

But I've been wrapping the pieces around 5x5 squares of cereal box cardboard so they stand upright and I can see the edge...and I'm out of cardboard! Quick kids! Eat more!

HaHa..thanks for the chuckle!

Toogie, i like the way your plastics look. Thats a good idea.

Not sure i will ever get to that point of organization!!!

I do the same. Some have been wrapped that way for 8+ years. Just used it and still good, I also use a straight pin in them. No rust issues. I do use a dehudmidifer (sp.).

thanks for the link

As you read there are numerous ways to organize your stash. As you can tell from everyone's responses it's really an individual choice. For me, I have to see it or I forget about it. I am lucky enough to have a nice walk-in closet and stack the majority of my fabric. I love to look at my fabric for inspiration so most of it is by color & print.

Thinking of adding comic book boards soon.
 

Susie Q OH, how did the boards work out for your yardage? I only have half yards to like 3 yards for most cuts. Would that work? Also, how tall are they? I'm wondering if they might fit standing up in a Michaels' cube.
Thank you

The important thing to remember is when you are looking for somethin, you have a pretty good idea where it is. If you need a specific piece of yellow batik, do you look in batiks or yellows? Doesn't really matter as long as you can easily find it. Beyond that you want it to look reasonably presentable and be able to work and live with your system.

Whatever you come up with will probably evolve over time.

Most of my fabrics are ruler quilted (or guesstimated) and sorted by color, then put on shelves. Those that are multicolored are on a different shelf. Large pieces are in their own stack. Big plastic boxes (about 7" deep) on another shelf are used for specialty fabrics like taffeta and satin, and odd/unique fabrics with sequins, etc.

I used to go to swap meets where vendors bought leftovers from manufacturers and sold them for $2/yard. Sometimes much less if you didn't mind going through piles of fabrics and trims on the floor. It was great fun and now I am grateful that I have a stash because I've been able to make art quilts that needed to get out of my mind and on to fabric.

As an aside, some of those fabrics from the floor became award winning wearable art, photographed and written about in sewing magazines. I've had judges and teachers who would buy only cotton, but I'm not a fabric snob and, sometimes with interfacing, could make "junk fabrics" work.

I also use plastic shoe boxes or sweater boxes to store supplies & info from classes I've taken, and sometimes I label them. I don't always use labels because not knowing what's exactly in a box forces me to look through them and I always enjoy that.

It took a long time to get everything sorted, but when I go into my studio now, it gives me feelings of peace and excitement at the same time. There's wonder there, too, because when I started to sew, not even into my teens, the only fabric I had was what I could buy with money I earned from babysitting.

I feel so lucky, even more so in times of Covid, to be able to escape real life when I go into my sewing room.

Since we are all think differently, I would ask myself 'how do I want to see my fabric?" To me, it is all in how you see your fabric. For instance, do you see your fabric as:
Color
Design: stripes, flowers, dots, geometric, etc.
Dark, medium or light fabric?
If you have just a little stash, I would do it by color. If you have a lot of it, like I do, I stopped using the color method and started putting my stash into types of fabrics like: dots, stripes, geometric, floral, holidays, solid colors, panels, etc. I found this easier to put sets of fabrics together when making a quilt.
All the small pieces, I would put in shoe boxes with similar widths and sizes.
I hope this doesn't sound too confusing, as I said, we all think differently when putting quilts fabric together.

I sort by colors. I find that many times the fabric store will fold up the fabrics purchased so that the back side of the fabric is what shows when folded. I open the piece up and refold it so that the top side of the fabric shows.

~ C