Buy a little extra fabric for the stash
- Whenever I buy fabric for a quilt, I always add at least 1/3 yard more for the stash collection. I used to cut off a 5-inch strip then cut charm squares with the extra, but the 1/3 yard works better. Sometimes, I use the extras to piece a backing from all the fabric I used on the front. Those make for stunning quilts because they're reversed, too. I also shop the sales, both online and in the local shop. My real weakness is Asian fabric. I have some I bought years ago, but I just don't have the heart to cut them -- they're so beautiful. I take them out every now and then to admire them. Nuts? Oh yeah, I also buy light backgrounds every time I see them on sale. I store according to color and collection.
- —clothcomfort
Start with a fabulous fabric
- Use a fabulous fabric as a guide and purchase coordinated light and dark fabrics of various print sizes to use with it. You then have the start of a quilt and quickly your stash will grow into a usable palette for many projects. If you are far from home, buy more. You may never see that fabric again.
- —Guest Lil
Thrifty stash-builders
- Shop estate sales. I paid $10.00 for some boxes of fabric and had to make two trips to get all the boxes home. I had my car's trunk, backseat and front seat full. After that I was hooked. I Love my fabric stash.
- —SusaninOklahoma
How I build my fabric stash
- I collect by colour and then store it away until I want to make a quilt of that colour. I also go for themes... colourful, children, old floral, shabby chic, etc. Just remember "...she who dies with the most fabric stash, wins!"
- —Guest Denise Baldock
How I collect fabric
- If I'm in a fabric store, I look for remnants (cheap) or fabric scraps on sale. I just like the fun/mystery of seeing what's inside. If there are no remnants/scraps, I buy a yard of fabric - different colors, different values, different patterns/sizes. It's usually a small investment. But then again, I really enjoy scrappy quilts so my system works for me. If I find a fabric I really like on sale, or one that I think will work well as a backing (something to hide my stitching), I will buy up to 5 yards of it. That's usually enough to back a large quilt. I have also picked through fabric scraps that my fellow quilters were THROWING away! They thought I was nuts. I thought they were nuts. But I had more scraps.
- —Guest Mona
My stash-building methods
- At home I usually shop for whatever I'm working on at the time, unless I see something I really love or a good bargain. But I do buy a little extra and always take the end of a bolt at 1/2 price. When we're away on vacation, another quilter and I will go to the LQS, and the first thing I do is check their sale racks. I always go home with some great fabric that I don't know what I'm going to use for, but I end up using it fairly soon. I like to keep white/cream tonals and mottled colors on hand because they blend so well with everything. Since I do use a lot of florals, I keep a selection of green prints to pair with flowers. Geometrics also look good with flowers. It doesn't take long to have a closet full of fabric. I try to keep in mind the men in my life, too -- 4 sons & 2 SIL and 3 grandsons. No flowers for them.
- —Guest Sandra
Stash building?
- STOP now! Resist the urge! You will become addicted before you know it. You will have fabric jammed into every drawer, under chairs and beds. Worse than that, you will have fabric you will never use. You will buy kits that you will never complete. You will join block of the month clubs and never get them done. You will buy more for block exchanges because you cant part with your stash. You will buy panels and coordinating fabrics for grandbabies that you don't have. You will spend hours looking thru your plastic tote bins for just that right piece to use but since you have so much stash you cant find it and go out and buy more! Or you find the piece but it's not enough so you travel miles and miles in pursuit of fabric that is no longer available. You will scour the internet in search of it and buy other stuff you find. Worse thing I've done is buy the same fabric THREE times! It's a blue paisley that I must have had in the 70's. I found them while looking for something else.
- —Guest lmhfarmer
I don't believe in building stashes
- I don't believe in building stashes. Colors go out of date every few years, color values have such a wide range -- ie red is not red. I have had buckets of fabric given to me so I have a stash... but when I do a project I always have to go buy things that will coordinate with what I get from my stash and sometimes it's nearly impossible to find just the right color. I truly think it's better to buy just the pieces you want and do a scrappy with your left over bits.
- —Guest maila
Stash building for newbies
- I started my stash by taking a quilting class and buying the suggested fabric. The first additional materials that I bought were purchased with that class in mind and redoing what I had learned. From that humble beginning, it just grew and grew. Now I'm addicted to beautiful materials and am attracted by colors, patterns, shapes, tones, textures and prints. Some just plead with me to take them home. So my advice is - start small and don't worry, it will grow. :0)
- —Guest sewandsew
Fabric stash-building advice
- Fat quarters are nice, but a lot of times you need more width than a fat quarter will provide. I buy at least a 1/3 yard cut (12") or more, often a 1/2 yard.
- —Guest alzagram
Fabric-collecting advice
- My stacking-up passion started years before I even heard about quilting. I have always sewn my own clothes and have always had a cupboard full with fabrics for future use, and a scrapbag. I go to the fabric bazaar regularly and have a few shops where I am known and where I know I can find something useful. Always dangerous... I don't have access to quilting shops (I live in Egypt) so sometimes I take a few swatches of fabric with me when I am looking for a particular colour or shade. And that is where the difficulties lay: it is quite impossible to find fabrics that match what I already have. But I almost always come home with something that catches my eye, thinking that I may be able to match it with something else now or later (usually later of course). Oh, how I envy those who can go the the quilting shop and mix and match so easily.
- —GeraldineS
My Stash Just Happens
- I have been moving my fabrics around the world since I was an Army-wife in the Vietnam era, and I inherited fabric from my mom. She had spent the last months of her life making slips from my dad's old dress shirts and pot holders from the rest of her stash, but there were underbed boxes of fabric to delight all three of her daughters after she died. My pieces were like hers, leftovers from dresses, skirts, shirts and blouses. But I had tried my hand at quilting with any kind of fabric I had... my sons each had a quilt I had pieced in patterns of my own making. But as I matured, I decided not to wait until I retired to learn to quilt the right way, so in 2004 when we moved into our "last" retirement home, I finally took a quilt class. And have been collecting fabrics and quilting since then. I'm sure I have more projects in my mind and in my stash than I will ever be able to finish, but that is OK. I often repurpose my fabrics and love making something different.
- —Guest smilingwoman
My fabric stash
- My sister and I are quilters with who make different fabric choices. When she needs fabrics that are not in her stash she will shop in my stash and vice versa. It is a way to have the best of both worlds but paying for only one stash.
- —Guest macduchess
My stash is like my security blanket
- I am always alert and on the lookout for fabric for my stash. I check sales, closeouts, any opportunity to shop fabrics. I have a room full of fabric, another separate area is the dining room in an armoire and bins. More is under my longarm machine when not in use. I really need to organize it as well. I just cannot resist the fabric temptation. I can say that if all the stores are closed and I need something different, it is usually in my stash. My stash is like my security blanket.
- —Guest Patricia Ross
Building your Stash
- I watch for fabric sales, especially those where clearance fabrics are sold at an additional 50% off. I buy mostly fabrics that I love, but I've occasionally bought some that I truly dislike. I find that those unlikeable fabrics sort of disappear into my scrappy quilts, where they add contrast to the other fabrics.
- —Guest Elizabeth
