I am a newbie also and have a very little stash that is growing with sales. My current love is batiks and I think of them more as blenders depending on the "prints" on them. I try to buy 1-3 yards when I am stashing. more toward the three yards is better. But then again I don't do large quilts yet. I also try to use at least one of the fabrics from my stash for every quilt. unless I have nothing that "looks" like the recipient. have one of those that I am working on collecting now for my MIL. getting ready to also start two quilts. one for my dd and one for a new niece that will be born at the end of summer. dd's will be partly from my "stash" that I have been collecting specifically for her quilt and the baby blanket will be totally from my stash. have a FQ set that I have been wanting to use for a while but haven't had a good reason to use it.