How much do you buy? Your perfect amount.

How much of each fabric do you purchase if you are buying for your #fabricstash? A perennial question, and only you have the right answer for you. So – what questions do you need to ask to get to the right answer for your perfect amount?

• What kinds of quilts do you make? Bed quilts, baby quilts, art quilts, wall hangings, table runners, bags? All of the above?
• Have you been quilting for a while? Do you already have a stash from scraps and leftovers and buying what you like?
• Are you closer to the beginning of being a quilter?  Then it is good that you are asking these questions!
• Do you have certain styles of fabrics that you use constantly? Or wish you did?
• How much room do you have to store your fabric stash? (Ah, reality…)

Here are my answers – yours will be different:

• For me, I last made a bed quilt well over 20 years ago. I use it ¾ of the year, and it still doesn’t have a binding on it! So, I don’t need to keep a stash of yards of the same fabric. This does mean that I’ll have to piece a back from time to time.
• I’ve been quilting for a very long time. I have my stash of “I used to like these and still use them upon occasion” fabrics and a separate stash of my batiks.
• Batiks are my favorite fabrics to work with. I have LOTS of them.
• My quilt studio is in what would have been the master bedroom’s en suite bathroom if it had ever been built out. Small, but mighty, and it has a window, which makes me happy. I do have room for four sets of plastic drawers on the floor, two with only batiks under the cutting table and two with everything else.

My perfect amount? I buy half yards, as I don’t like dealing with quarter yards that are all twisted up coming out of the dryer (I always wash my fabrics before I use them), and I’ll often have some leftover to put back in my stash. If I am buying a fabric that I am using right away and I really like it, I'll buy a yard to make sure there is some for my stash. I like using the width of a fabric when I quilt, so fat quarters are OK, but I’m much happier working with a half yard and having leftovers.

What is your perfect amount? What other questions should you ask? I look forward to your answers in the comments here on the blog or over on Facebook.