How hard is it to cut the sign material? Couldn't you use poster board instead if you have nothing to cut the sign material? Loved your tutorial and envy your organized stash!

You can ask the sign people to cut it for you for a fee. I am not sure if you can use posterboard for this. This sign material is sturdy and wonderful to use. My husband used his table saw to cut mine. I paid $17.00 per 4x8 sheet.
I hope you are able to do this it is very neat. But it is REALLY TIME CONSUMING!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock:

Thanks for taking the time to post all those pictures,,and in order also! I am keeping this tutorial in my list of keepers and will use it later when my room is ready to get organized...it will tell me, or hold my DH for ransom, one of the two!

Wow!What a great stash organizer! Love your ideas! Wish mine was already done.

I love your organizing. I ordered the boards from Polar notions and they were a bit expensive. Now I fold the fabric and then slip the board out and stack them. What a great hubby you have!

I found the answer on the previous comments. Thank for the tutorial. One thing I know I will have to remove the cardboard that I have mine on temporaily but I but the selvege edge on the outside so I can find out who made it.


I am green with envy. Your stash looks so pretty.

Thanks so much for sharing. You have your own quilt department from which to "shop". Do you have to order most of your fabrics or do you have a shop close by in Alaska?

I lived in Alaska many years ago, a fabric store was unheard of then. Things must have really changed.

There is now hope for me. Through this tutorial, there may actually be a light at the end of this tunnel of fabric.

I didn't have the boards today, but I did fold some fabric using my rulers utilizing the same method. They really look neat.

Are you stacking them or putting them up like books? I wanted to use polar notions but with shipping it was too costly. I hope you enjoy your fabrics when they are all organized. It just looks so darned pretty. Doreen you are right my husband is a sweetheart! I am crazy in love with that dude :-D

I am not totally sold on the cardboard the fabric comes on as to ruining fabric by causing it to striping. As was discussed on the board earlier. I do know however you can fit a lot more fabric on the little plastic boards I used. I could have NEVER organized my stash with the card board. I do have about 10 fabrics still on the cardboard bolts. They look so cute in the entertainment center in my quilt room I got off of Craig's list. I believe I am their biggest fan. :lol: :roll: :thumbup:

Please let me know how you do. I am so tickled "I" have been an inspiration on organizing. That is a hoot for sure!!! I guess there is hope for me :lol: :lol: :lol:
ENJOY what ever it is that you are doing! :thumbup:

Thanks for sharing this info. Now, I need to get organized. :thumbup:

Thanks for the great tut. You can come to San Diego and help organize my room.!

I have tried to attach an excel spreadsheet that shows my caluculations to cut the 4'x8' sheet for the fabric folding boards and also a 18"x24" sheet for the smaller fabric folding boards. I found a sign store that will sell me the big sheet for $12.00 and you can see on the spreadsheet how many I will get from the sheets. I made the big sheets a 1/2 inch larger, it would have been waste and it gives me more space to put the label that I will put on the board at the top of boards how much fabric is on the board. I can't wait to pick them up on Monday and get started. Hope the attachment works, if not, email me and I can email the file to you. Again, thanks alaskasunshine for this tutorial. Sally

I did the same thing. I went to the Dollar Tree and purchased foam boards for, yes, .99 cents. I cut them up and placed my fabrics as you demonstrated. It took me a month and just loaded them onto my shelves. I used rubber bands to secure the fabric. My problem is that I don't have them organized by color yet like you have yours. That's another project I need to do when I get a chance. Thanks for posting pictures, your sewing room looks awesome!

I was in a "do it yourself type" store and bought some extra-large cardboard boxes. I didn't need all of them after all so I cut up the extra ones and used them. Worked great.

Dear Alaskasunshine, You have brougth sunshine to my mind. I am soooo thrilled to be making progress at organizing my stash - thanks to you. Just the folding process is worth its' weight in gold! It will take me a loooooong time but I like the progress I have made already. Thank you, Thank you, thank you!

Dear Alaskasunshine, You have brougth sunshine to my mind. I am soooo thrilled to be making progress at organizing my stash - thanks to you. Just the folding process is worth its' weight in gold! It will take me a loooooong time but I like the progress I have made already. Thank you, Thank you, thank you!

Has anyone mentioned plastic canvas sheets yet?
I uncovered some this afternoon buried in all my stuff that I had bought who-knows-when and they were already the right size. They work great too.

Awe, MS quilter you make me blush. Please post px so we can see how you're doing. What are you using to fold your fabrics on? Did you find the corrigated plastic stuff?
Thanks so much for your kind words. :thumbup: ;) :-D

I've got all my supplies so now I am starting to organize!
Thanks for your inspiration.

Thanks so much for the tute. Your room looks wonderful.

This is so exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Me...an inspiration for organizing :shock: :lol:

I hope you have fun and please take pictures along the way for all of us to be inspired and also so we can oooh & ahhh with you!

Happy folding :D :thumbup: ;)

Thank you, so much :D I do not have a lot of fabric however if I start doing this now I will be head of the game. I love the way to put the colors together. There are so many ideals that you shared. I am book marking it to show my handyman ;-) I love,~~~ love this board and the people on it :thumbup:

Thank you, Alaskasunshine :lol: I made my husband look at how you oranized your quilt room. He asked me is that All I have to do the get you organized:oops: I told him it's a start :lol: I was very careful not to make any promises. ;) He had some in his work shop and his is making some right now :!: woo~hoo You have made my day :thumbup: :thumbup:

Oh my Goodness, we could be best friends ! You are as OC as I am !!! But much better at it !! I sooooo love the organization skills . Girl you have got it going on ! Of course I will start I measure all my pieces and tag & I'm even talking scraps !! I just love this ! Tahnks Judy

so this is just cardboard?? Can I use priority boxes from the PO?? Cut then up and store?? My fabric is a disaster.

No! I used Coroplast...it is like plastic cardboard. I got mine from a sign shop. You can call a local sign shop in your area to check on pricing and whether or not they would cut them into the sizes you need. Please see the beginning of this post, allow all pictures to come up before you read it.
I hope this helps.

that may be costly - i have alot of fabric as do you. is there a cheaper alternative?

You'll need to research that. Several other members are using other methods as shared here on the board :-D

Have fun!

That is incrediably awesome! Thanks for a great tutorial!!!

Would It be safe to use cut Up Priority boxes (mail) for my stash?

do you have pics?? what kind of foam boards? i need to go to the dollar tree.

Does this help?http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-43871-1.htm

awesome, thanks for sharing!

I have begun putting my fabric on the boards. I got my corregated plastic sheets from a sign maker for $12.00 for a 4'x8' sheet. He didn't keep them in stock but he ordered them and had them the next day for me. I bought 6 sheets to begin. As Alaskasunshine told me, I did have to adjust my size of height of board to fit the shelves of my bookcase. I am using the large coated paperclips at top and bottom to hold.

I purchased the comic boards from a site on the internet. I called and talked to them first and they knew just what I was talking about as they had had previous calls. I bought the ones 6 1/2 x 10 inches and cut them in half so they are 6 1/2 x 5 inches. The sheets are thin but work fine with the fat quarters and pieces of fabric 1 yd or less. I am measuring my pieces, marking it on color coded labels I got at Walmarts, they are neon colors, using orange for FQ, hot pink for 1 yd or less, green for holidays and special, yellow marked pastel, and others marked dark (these will be for my prints). I plan to use white labels for the plain colors and have them in a different section. I color coded them because I thought they would be easier to refile, especially if someone else in my family refiles them for me. I also decided any fabric less than 1/2 yard will go into scraps to cut into strips, etc.

My granddaughter (10) has been helping me wrap the small ones and she is also placing on the small coated paperclips at the top and bottom to hold the fabric and them she places them on the shelf. She was really interested to help me so I figured why not, I can always readjust them, but she has done a great job. Great bonding time for us and we talk about our next quilting project for her. She is going to try making a crazy quilt as you go so she can use all of the different stitches on her machine. School will be out soon and she will be able to pick out her fabric better once we get it organized on the shelves.

For now I am just placing them on the shelves as I do them in no order except the smaller ones on their own shelf. I will organize the types when I am done. I also plan to make a section for fabric I have bought to go together for use in a quilt.

The more I work, the more excited I get, 1st seeing fabric that I forgot I had bought, 2nd realizing this is a better way to organize and match fabrics for projects, 3rd I don't have to dig thru those plastic containers anymore, even though I had them separated by color and type. When I finally complete the job, I will post pictures of my shelves. It will take me a while because of other things I have to do at home, classes, and projects. I love spring, but it is a lot of work preparing the outside for summer and this year is worse for us, we have to replace the liner in the pool and since we are doing that, we decided to paint the deck which is really two large decks joined together (one goes around the pool with seating and lounge at one end, and a slide at the other (for the grandkids). Not to mention all of my flower planting, I love seeing flowers all around the decks. Must be connected to my love of material (the many colors and prints). Sally

Wow Poultney, you are on a really good roll! :thumbup: How fun to have a little helper! I hope you do post pix of before during and after your process! Isn't is such a wonderful feeling to be able to see what you really do have instead of digging through and pulling a zillion different fabrics out and then having such a mess to put back. This was such a great idea shared on this board!

Happy rolling :-D :thumbup:

Thanks for posting this. I wish I had this kind of space, but your tute will help get my stash into shape anyway. I have a bedroom size room that serves as office and sewing room.

Wow! Look at all the fabric!. Great tute!

Great tute. Very clear pictures. My fabric is a mess. Will start looking for ways and means to change that. Lucky I have so little fabric. Your set up is like a wonderful fabric shop. Will bookmark and keep going back if only to look at the wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing.

would arm wrestle a poodle for that room..LOL... I use the 6" by 24" ruller to fold mine pretty much the same as you do. I then slip the ruler out and fold the neatly folded fabric in half. I had measured my fabric pantry inside to inside and it worked out that it would 5 stacks of fabric. The depth of the pantry worked out to the length of the folded fabric. I keep the fold facing outward so I can see what I have and then if my hands are particularily uncomfortable, I can just slide the 6" ruler under the top fabric of where I removed the fabric I was using and I can then slip it back into where it goes. If I would have had this fantastic way of keeping track prior to learning my way, I would have preferred doing it Sunshine's has. But.. I am blessed to have the two huge pantries and one smaller one and the ability to treat myself via a monthly fabric allowance to even have the fabric..