Organizing A Fabric Stash to be Quilter Friendly

Make Your Own Portable, Mini Quilt Shop That's Easy to Use

Aug 22, 2009

Most fabrics in a stash vary in size. Small bits can be lost among the larger pieces. Organize to see each fabric at a glance without digging, save time and frustration.

Simply folding and stacking fabric on a shelf only works if they are all roughly the same size. Small pieces are just as important as full yards (or more) when a variety of fabrics are important to an interesting project. Do you limit your quilt projects to only 3 or 4 fabrics to avoid managing a large stash? Do you admire and want to make "scrap" quilts, but don't know how to manage a stash? Here's how to have a stash and use it too!

What You Need to Have Your Own Mini Quilt Shop

The 10 storage boxes are to separate and organize scraps (pieces too small to wrap around an index card) into color families. If your stash is small, smaller boxes, such as shoe boxes can be used. If your stash is too large for the storage boxes, it's time to weed them out or use them up. Mark the boxes for the color contained as follows,

Put Every Piece of Fabric on a Mini Bolt

Sort your stash, throwing all pieces that are too small to wrap around an index card into its appropriate box. Fold fabric pieces so they are about 8" wide, wrap around an index card and secure the end with a safety pin. If desired, write the size of the fabric on 1 end of the card. Some bolts will be fatter than others, just as in any fabric store. This method allows 3 inch strips to hold their own next to 2 yard pieces.

Store the Bolts so Each Fabric Can be Seen

Store the mini fabric bolts in the CD boxes in the same color order as the storage boxes. CD boxes are the perfect size. They can be placed on shelves, some can be stacked on their own. They can be purchased inexpensively at discount stores. Since people aren't buying as many CD's any more, try finding them at yard sales.

About Scrap Quilting

Whether you're an art quilter or a scrap quilter, color is more important than a specific fabric. Simply cutting scraps into squares and sewing them together makes you a scrap quilter. Arranging the colors in a pleasing way makes the difference between a finished project that looks like it was planned and a project that looks like it's sole purpose was to use every scrap. This storage method makes it easy to see all your fabric and make good color choices.

Semi-Scrap Quilting

For quilters who stick to 1 specific blue fabric in a project, try using 2 or 3 blue fabrics instead. The finished project will be livelier and more pleasing. Challenge yourself to substitute 3 to 4 different fabrics in the same color for just 1 fabric. Specific yardage becomes less important, because running out of 1 fabric doesn't matter.

A great fabric stash is useless if not properly organized. This is a simple, inexpensive way to organize different sizes of fabric to shop your own stash effectively. Quilting is for pleasure, if you'd rather be quilting than organizing, this is a fast way to get there. May your quilting be organized for fun!

The copyright of the article Organizing A Fabric Stash to be Quilter Friendly in Quilting is owned by Corinne Shibley. Permission to republish Organizing A Fabric Stash to be Quilter Friendly in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.