MY FABRIC STORAGE SOLUTION

[Barbara C.]

Wow, Rosemary....... Must have felt like Christmas!

This folding info is great. I have wire drawers and seriously need to re-organize.

[Hannelore N.]

Better get an alarm system for your house, Rosemary. I might sneak in in the middle of the night and pinch that amazing bunch of fabrics,

[Diane M.]

I have been refolding my fabric per Margo's idea using my 6 x 12 ruler. The plus side is I am getting more fabric in each tub! When I finally get my cabinets I will stack it and access it using Margo's folder idea.
Thanks for all the info everyone.
Diane in Wyoming

[Diane M.]

I've seen a couple of diagrams where you cut a fat quarter into useable shapes - like a couple of 2 1/2" strips, a 1 1/2" strip, some 5" squares, maybe a 9" or 10" square, until the entire fat quarter is cut into various pieces. The idea is that basically you would be making your own jelly rolls, layer cakes, etc. The pieces are stored by size, or by color, depending on how big your stash is, or what way is easier for the quilter to use. You are supposed to save time because you don't unfold the fat quarter, iron it, cut the couple of pieces that you need for a particular quilt, refold and store the fat quarter again, and repeat the whole process for the next quilt.

Has anyone tried this, and does it really save time? Or do you like having your fat quarters uncut, and the endless shapes that it would contain? I'm cutting 2 1/2" strips out of many fabric right now for a big project, and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and cut up the remainder of what's left of the fat quarter.

Thanks,

Sue

[Renata L.]

Rosemary, what a nice gift from you friend! Are your wheels already spinning with what you're going to do with the new stash? :P :P :P

[Rita C.]

Sue, I haven't heard of doing this but I think that I would prefer to keep my fat quarters as they are until needed. I mean what if you cut it up and then decided that you needed a load of 4" squares and you had cut them all into 5" squares and 2 1/2" strips :shock:

[Renata L.]

Sue, I never cut up my fat quarters for the same reasons as Rita suggested. However, I know people who will cut into strips and smaller pieces what is left over from a project that is too small to do much with but enought to cut 1 1/2 or 2 1/2" strips or squares and set them aside in a box for other projects. Since I started making a pineapple quilt, I've gone through my stash of fabrics that were selvage-to-selvage length and anywhere between three to five or six inches in width and cut those down to either in strips or squares or both in a way that would maximize the amount of usable fabric, not create too much waste and have something ready when I have time to knock out another pineapple square or two.

[Diane F.]

I immediately thought of Debbie Caffrey when I read your post. I attended a lecture in 2006 that she called, "How to have it all." I prefer to subdivide my fabric AFTER I have cut into it. I would not slice large pieces of fabric into small pieces, just because...

I've seen a couple of diagrams where you cut a fat quarter into useable shapes - like a couple of 2 1/2" strips, a 1 1/2" strip, some 5" squares, maybe a 9" or 10" square, until the entire fat quarter is cut into various pieces. The idea is that basically you would be making your own jelly rolls, layer cakes, etc. The pieces are stored by size, or by color, depending on how big your stash is, or what way is easier for the quilter to use. You are supposed to save time because you don't unfold the fat quarter, iron it, cut the couple of pieces that you need for a particular quilt, refold and store the fat quarter again, and repeat the whole process for the next quilt.

Has anyone tried this, and does it really save time? Or do you like having your fat quarters uncut, and the endless shapes that it would contain? I'm cutting 2 1/2" strips out of many fabric right now for a big project, and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and cut up the remainder of what's left of the fat quarter.

Thanks,

Sue

[Nancy R.]

I also don't cut up my fabric until I need it. Like others, I don't want to take the chance of cutting it up and then wanting it in a different shape later on. I also don't want to take the time to cut up fabric that I may not use for a long time. That said, I've made several scrap log cabin quilts using Judy Martin's patterns. For those, I cut up a bunch of logs in the colors and sizes needed for the quilt, but don't count what I cut so there are lots of logs left over. These left over logs go into labelled bags specifying the size of the log. When I start another log cabin quilt, I pull out any logs of the appropriate colors and put them into my piles for my current quilt.

I also recently got an Accuquilt GO and got the 2" finished half-square triangle die so I'm starting to periodically cut and sew some scraps into HSTs and putting them in a box for a later quilt.

Nancy

[Rita C.]

Although I do like the idea of a challenge where you take a few fat quarters and cut them into specific sizes and then see what you could come up with just using those pieces and maybe 1 neutral. Does anybody know of such a thing?

[Nancy R.]

Hi Rita - I haven't seen that challenge, but it would be a good one. Perhaps we could try it. I've only done one challenge before, which was an "ugly fat quarter" challenge. We each brought in a fat quarter from our stash that we thought was ugly and put them in a paper bag. Each person drew a fat quarter and had to make something out of it.

[Eileen K.]

If you go to http://www.Quiltville.com which is Bonnie K. Hunter's site, she has all sorts of stash solutions and scrappy quilts.

[Eileen K.]

Thanks ladies for all of the input! I've decided that after cutting the 2 1/2" strips for my upcoming class, I'll cut one more strip in case of short widths/problems during class. If I don't use it, I'll have coordinated strips for the next project. I'll leave the rest of the FQ intact for another project, so I can get whatever shapes I need from it. And I do love going through my bins of FQ's and auditioning for the next project. Almost as much fun as buying the FQ's!

Dfrank27 - I checked out Debbie Caffrey's website, and it does sound like she is teaching what I was asking about. I had seen the idea in a book about scrap quilts, but I don't know if it was her book.

Rita - My LQS had a one-day class a couple of years ago, where you brought 20 fat quarters, layered them, and cut them all the same. Lights and darks were swapped out from one fat quarter to another, the individual shapes arranged into the block pattern, and then you sewed it all back together. I wasn't able to attend, but it was similar to a Churn Dash block.

Sue

[Rita C.]

Hmmm, very interesting. Food for thought. I love Bonnie Hunters website and what she does with scraps and strips.

[Rita C.]

Thanks Eileenkny!!! That's the lady who wrote the book I had read a few months ago, but I couldn't remember her name. Attacking my scrap pile would be a good project to do while watching tv. And then I can use those pieces as leaders/enders, and get two quilts done at once. I just gave my quild a quilt for the local nursing home, but they always need more because the resident's family takes the quilt home after their loved one passes.


Sue