Collecting fabrics that you love for future quilts may be the most fun part of the quilting process. Categorizing and organizing your fabric pieces by color is an easy way to arrange them so that you can develop a particular color palette for your next quilt.
Fabrics stored by color. Photo from "M'Liss Rae Hawley's Scrappy Quilts"
In Patchwork Quilts Made Easy – Revised, 2nd Edition, Jean Wells has this tip for quilters:
If you really love a fabric, and think that it may be eventually used in a border, then buy 3 yards of it. If you aren’t quite sure where you will use it, buy a smaller amount, about 3/4 yard.
Buying fat quarters, pieces that have been cut approximately 18’’ x 22’’ instead of the usual 9’’ by 42’’ quarter yard piece, are a great way to expand your stash.
Happy Quilting,
The Tech Editors
This article is part of the Quilting Tips from the Tech Editors tutorial series. Recent tutorials include:
- Quilting Tips: Finishing the Quilt: Tying
- Quilting Tips: Sewing Perfect Points
- Quilting Tips: Pressing
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4 Comments
@ctpublishing this is far too neat..my fabric is all over the place!
I used to keep my fabrics all organized by color on open shelves – but then I discovered that some of them were fading! (Gasp!) so now I have those precious gems in drawers.
LOL… I read this and I thought… I need someone to tell me how to control my addiction to adding to my stash! Good idea, BTW, to buy 3 yards of fabrics you really love. I hate to admit how many times I pulled out a fabric hoping to use it, only to have it come up a yard short!
I have cabinets I store my fabric in, mostly by colors. I have another cabinet for 'mixed' which is no one particular color but varied, and also has Halloween and Christmas fabrics in it. This has been very handy for me. I am a color junkie!