Originally Posted by cjtinkle
For stash building, I prefer to buy only solids and blenders (like marbles). That way, when you are out shopping and run across a fabulous print, you have a good chance of having fabrics to compliment it at home.
I agree, you'll almost always use/need tone on tone, marbles, and blenders. The "Stonehenge" line is currently one that I drool over! If you've got money burning a hole in your pocket and your not sure what to get, but you need to put that fire out (lest it never happen again <g>), then get 3-5 yards of these to start. If you see prints that make you go "Oooooo!!" - then get a few yards of that as well. Grab a few fat quarters.
Naturally look for all the sales.
Garage/estate sales & Craigs list are great places to stash build. Lots of them are family members selling "Moms" stash after Mom has passed. You may not like the whole stash, but get it all, cherry pick it, then sell the rest here on QB - or donate it to a group to do charity quilts.
And don't forget QB here. Look at the sale posts. And (confession time) look at all the other posts as well. I recently saw a photo of someone's sewing room that they were organizing, in the photo was a rolled bolt of a print that I've been looking for for AGES. I wrote here to ask if she was interested in selling it and sure enough - she was.
Also, if you buy 3 yards of something today, decide what you want to use it for a year from now but need 3.5 yards but the stores no longer carry it - ask the folks on here if they have it in their stash and are willing to part with it. I've only been here a few months and so far I've seen some pretty incredible "finds".