What I Stash and Why

I have been quilting for 11 years now and I have built up a bit of a stash.  Random story: some people I know refer to decorative items on shelves as “shelf s**t”… recently my husband has taken to calling my stash my “shelf fabric”.  I guess that’s better than my “fabric s**t”?? hahaha.  I think that I need to show my husband some pictures of other people's stashes so that he knows how small mine really is!

Most of my fabric lives on these bookshelves in my sewing room.  This picture is from when my room was clean :)

Anyway, over the years I have learned what fabrics are useful to me and also what fabrics tend to lay at the bottom of the stack and never get used.  Here are the rough rules that I follow.

1. I like to use primarily bright colors so I try to keep to those when building stash:  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple.  Recently I have added Pink and Teal to the mix.  I try to buy the “true” colors instead of one that is slightly “off” because I will be able to use it for more projects that way.  I also choose fabrics with only 1 color and white in them.  I don’t like multicolored fabrics for the stash.

 Example of my current red and orange scraps/stash

  2.  Usually I buy ½ yd because it is cheap and usually what I need for a project.  I have recently had issues though where I wished I had more of certain fabrics so I am considering increasing my amount to 1 yd.

3.  White on whites are always welcome, especially if they are a good quality and not see-through.

4.  I used to not like solids but they have grown on me (I blame my sister for this).  I usually only buy them for a specific project unless it is white, navy, or black (I like to have a stash of those).

5.  All previous rules are null and void when I buy kid/baby fabrics.  I love crazy patterns and the more colors, the better.  Then I chose some of my more “subdued” stash to go along with the fabric.

6.  Things get even crazier when I buy Christmas fabrics.  The gaudier and more shiny gold in the fabric, the better.  I don’t know why, it is just what appeals to me!  I try to stay with a true red and green though, and blue isn't really welcome in the Christmas fabrics.

I also have a couple other categories, like "travel" fabric and "nerdy" fabric, but it is just best if I don't show my entire fabric collection on the internet :)

By attempting to stick to these rules, I try to have a stash available to me so that when I have an idea and want to start sewing right away, I will have fabrics available to me.

One last thing, in regards to washing fabric, all fabric gets pre-washed before I add it to the stash!  I have a separate pile of fabric that needs to be washed before it can live with the rest.  The chemicals used in the fabrics don’t agree with me and I feel a lot better when I wash all my fabric before using it!

I have decided that I am going to start a series of posts about fabrics that I see online that I am interested in.  I am trying to cut back on buying fabric, but I do enjoy browsing online and this will give me something to do with the fabrics that I like and I can also save their info for later that way.  Look for this series on Wednesdays, I think I will call it "Wednesday Fabric Love" or something like that.