Cultivating a useful and inspiring fabric stash is one of the many delights of quilt making. I suggest that you begin with color, collecting a library of fabrics in shades that stand at the ready when inspiration strikes. But what next?

As you delve deeper into the hobby of quilt making, you will build up some history with the craft. Soon you will find that there are are certain styles you’re drawn to again and again, for example a favorite fabric designer, a passion for solid fabric quilts or a propensity toward sewing from precut collections.

When shopping for fabric, it is wise to look back on your fabric use habits and to look forward to your future sewing plans. Here’s how considering the past and the future can make you an extra smart shopper.

Shopping for Habits

What fabrics do you use again and again? These will be the fabrics that don’t linger in your stash. Do you have precuts that have been sitting pretty for years? Then, not those! On the other hand, do your precuts make it easy to dive into a new quilt without the hurdle of fabric-selection? In fact, you’re quick to open the bundle and cut then up? Then, yes, precuts are your habit!

What about solids? Do you use them often? Is it often white, gray, or some other pet color? Is it the brights or the pastels or the dusty shades?

Maybe it’s a designer whose fabrics you often sew with. Perhaps it’s a favorite color or color category, such as low volumes. Maybe you sew with tiny florals all the time or stripes or polka dots or animal prints?

You get the idea. Think about which fabrics come in and then move quickly to the cutting table and scrap bin. In fact, fabrics that abound in your scrap bin may be the very ones that you use most often! That’s why they’ve been transformed from yardage to scraps.

I enjoy making quilts in a wide range of colors and styles, but if there’s one theme that shows up again and again, that’s scrap quilting. Scraps are very often the spark that ignites my next quilt. I often turn to my stash in order to bring those ideas to fruition, especially for background fabrics.

For example, I’ve used low volume fabrics as the background for each of these scrap quilts. With Drummer Boy Dresdens I used a variety of low volumes; whereas, in Clambake I used one consistent low volume fabric for the entire quilt. That’s why low volumes are often on my shopping list. Luckily I found some good ones in the states!

At the very bottom of this stack is the very dot print that I used as a background for my Clambake quilt! It’s been re-released by Zen Chic and is in stock now at Dragonfly Quiltworks. I only ordered a half yard of it, but It wouldn’t have been unwarranted to order 3-4, in preparation for use as a background.

The rest of these lovely low volumes are from Sojo Fabric. From left: Menagerie Cream, Ticking Away Stove Pipe, Sashiko Mending, Four Leaf Glow and Sashiko Mending. Notice that none of these have accent colors like blue, green or red. Again, looking back, I’ve found that I personally use low volumes faster if they’re not multicolored, but really just neutral. That’s just me!

When shopping, don’t neglect the “boring” basics like low volumes. They let your fun prints breath!

For example, I bought that ticking stripe even though it didn’t particularly excite me. I was thinking though of this fun pillow I made years ago with a ticking stripe as the background print. What? Haha!

Stripes are another theme of mine, judging by my history.

Shopping for Projects

Of course, you should also have upcoming projects on your mind, when you go fabric shopping. I don’t ONLY shop for specific projects, but I certainly do shop for them sometimes.

Besides shopping for your next quilt, think about garments or small projects that you’ve wanted to sew. I need to recover my ironing board (tutorial here), so I bought these linens at Dragonfly Quiltworks. They’re called Mochi Linens in Gold and in Azure.

I usually use quilting cotton, but my last ironing board cover got shredded pretty quick. (That could be because my husband is ironing a lot lately, all the sudden, just saying.). These sturdy linens by Zen Chic should hold up a lot longer.

Don’t forget to think about quilt backings and bindings, when you shop. It’s nice to get everything in one trip or package, to save time and money. Personally I keep a group of simple wide quilt backing fabrics on hand, so that I can finish a quilt quickly when desired.

Stash Smart: Check Scale

In my first post in this series I explained some advantages to shopping online, which is how I typically buy fabrics. One disadvantage though, is that online you can easily overlook fabric scale. Some shops photograph a coin with the fabrics, to give you a sense of scale. I find it even more helpful to see a fabric in a group with other fabrics. In this way I can use relative scale to get a good feel for things.

For example, Sojo Fabrics has a large collection of fabric bundles. Each one is generously photographed, which provides a great resource for scale. Here are two I referenced when doing my shopping:

I didn’t buy either of these enticing bundles, but I did pick out a favorite from each. The group photos allowed me to identify the medium-scale prints, which are the kind of florals that I tend to use the most.

These Sojo Fabric finds are, from left: Unruly Nature Cup Saucer, Martha Meadow Lilac, Camont Poppy Fields, Velvet Woodcut Sunrise, Velvet Jasmine Soulful and Primavera Climbing Vines.

That Primavera print has a story. I’ve been drawn to it again and again, but imagined it as a larger, more medium scale. As such I feared that the stripe style would be awkward for my patchwork. When I was shopping this time I did an internet search with the name of the print. The image results allowed me understand the true scale of the print, which convinced me to purchase.

The moral of the story - do an image search! The internet offers images of many modern quilting fabrics, which can give you quick and invaluable insight on fabric scale.

How Much to Buy?

Last time we tackled this question thinking about fabric categories. In today’s post we’re using the lens of habits and plans.

Based on habit it would be reasonable for me to purchase larger-than-normal cuts of several low volume prints. I did indeed get a full yard of Menagerie in cream. I picked that one because a tossed print style has been very useful for me in the past. It’s not at all directional!

I also chose 1 yard cuts of the linens, as that’s how much I’ll need for my planned project. My other finds from Dragonfly Quiltworks are Kona Pickle (a particularly awesome color), Kona White, Zen Chic Dots and Zen Chic Background Ink. All of those are basics for me, but for space reasons I only opted for one yard cuts of the solids and 1/2 yards of the prints.

As it turns out, I’m wishing I had gone for more Kona Pickle. I enjoy using a bold solid as a unifying color for a scrap quilt, like these examples:

I have been wanting to sew a scrap quilt with solid yellow as a theme color, and Kona Pickle would have been great. Ah well, there is always next time!

No one is perfect! Sometimes you’ll buy fabrics that do not work out as you had hoped. They’re pretty, but for one reason or another you don’t use them as easily as the rest. Sometimes you won’t buy enough or you’ll buy too much - it is all a guessing game after all. But that’s ok. You’re learning.

Just keep sewing. Keep creating and experimenting. Gather up your quilting experiences so that you can look back to uncover your personal themes. Look back and look forward, planning your next adventure. Your fabric stash is being shaped over time into a tool you will use with so much joy!