fabric organisation

Not so much a how do you put it on the shelf question, more a how do you access it for design purposes. Fabric in my stash is usually the starting point of inspiration, my stash is fairly moderate, so a complete design is unlikely to come from it entirely, but there is far too much for it all to be committed to memory and I don't always want to, or even find it particularly helpful to pull from the shelves. Plus, that restricts you to one location.

I think the time is right to figure out a recording system of what is there. But how to go about that? 2inch swatches in either a notebook or ring binder would be simple, but has two problems, it would lose too much info for larger size prints and if they are all stuck down that doesn't give you the flexibility to see how they look next to each other.

I'm thinking maybe scanning and reducing, then printing out larger prints whilst also cutting a swatch to get the true colour might solve one of those problems. But I'm not coming up with any good ideas for easy playing around without rapid destruction of the swatches!

Any ideas?

Anne

Reply to
Anne Rogers
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Interesting question! Seems that if you wanted to use swatches, a card file would be a good choice. Personally, I feel that scanning all that fabric would be a full-time chore for quite a while, and I would probably get distracted by new quilt ideas, start cutting and stitching, and never get around to finishing the scans. Also, if I were able to plan quilts that carefully, my quilts would be too dull. I do better with serendipity. Roberta in D

"Anne Rogers" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@a22g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

Oh my, yes. What Roberta said. I would never finish either. But let's assume you really did get it all scanned and organized. You would be missing one of the best parts of having a stash. Going through the yellow bin or purple basket is such fun with things I'd forgotten were here and visiting with old friends. I need to do that. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

I am not blessed to have a photographic memeory like a good friend of mine. She also has a quilt shop, and can remember what her long-time customers have bought over the years.

My stash is in a 5 drawer bird's eye maple dresser, plus many plastic totes. It is loosely organized by color, except for the batiks which are kept to themselves, as are the solids. In the design process I will pull what may be the focus fabric, or one I want to include in the project, and go from there. If I feel the need to go to a local LQS to fill a requirement, I take what I have already pulled with me, to audition.

Just my two cents worth, Ginge in CA

Reply to
Ginger in CA

Reply to
jennellh

Howdy!

Nice map of quilt shops in 5 countries on that page:

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Organization--- whatever; it's in the house, that's organized enough for me.

R/Sandy

Reply to
Sandy Ellison

Reply to
jennellh

Anne,

That sounds like way too much work and wouldn't leave much time for actually quilting.

I have most of my fabric on pants hangers which are on a couple garment racks on wheels. I also have a shoe or sweater organizer that hangs on one of the racks and I can keep lots of smaller things there. It makes it so easy to see what I have when it's hanging instead of being stuck away in boxes, totes, or whatever.

Judie > Not so much a how do you put it on the shelf question, more a how do

Reply to
Judie in Penfield NY

I agree, Polly. Half the fun is digging through the stash and finding all that fabric I forgot that I bought. :-) Or finding my all-time-fave pieces that I've used in past quilts.

Sherry

Reply to
Sherry

sounds like alot of unnecessary work to me. i keep my fabric by lights, mediums, darks, batiks, solids and my scraps by size/lights, size/mediums, and size/darks. then i keep my "itzy-bitzies" separate (these are little things i keep for applique that are wonky sized or too small to put in the bins). i know...i'm probly crazy....but i love to search a little bit rather than be over organized.

amy in CNY

Reply to
amy in CNY

I once tried the binder with swatches but I have way too much fabric for that to work. I ended up dragging it all out in my living room over the course of a week. Since I had inheirited my mother's fabric, I needed to do something.

What I discovered was that I tended to buy certain "themes" so I used them to organize. Some of them were: florals, leaves, 30s, animal, fruits/vegetables, holiday and so forth. I folded them all in the same size rectangles and put them on the shelves - floor to ceiling, 3 foot deep or so, and about 6 feet wide. Now when I'm scanning the stacks, something "speaks" to me and I pull that theme. From there I add the solids or neutrals from their spots.

It was fun to touch all the fabric even though it took a week of a very messy living room!! Now if I want to make something for my granddaughter, I go to the fairies or little girl prints. It is pretty easy to find inspiration when the general theme is all there together. Moni ---- Posted via Pronews.com - Premium Corporate Usenet News Provider ----

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Reply to
Walker Family

I've read through all the replies, so far, and find that, as usual, I agree with Polly. Rootling is half the fun. That said, I have my stash sorted by color, pinks, reds, purples, etc., and then a couple "categories", patriotic, cats, etc. When I want a brown piece for something, I go to the closet (floor to ceiling, 8 ft wide x std depth, all shelving, no doors), and get out the brown stack, and audition things until I find what will work. Or, if I need pink and purple strips, I get those stacks out, and cut strips. I don't know, but it works for me. And I occasionally lose something I know I have, like the brown batik I was using. I finally gave up searching for it and went and bought 2 more yards. LOL

TerriLee > Not so much a how do you put it on the shelf question, more a how do

Reply to
TerriLee in WA

stack it til it reaches the ceiling and consider it a wall decoration and buy more for the other wall

Musicmaker

Reply to
Musicmaker

Howdy!

Musicmaker: I love you.

R/Sandy ;-D

Reply to
Sandy Ellison

I do that but I call it 'insulation'.......jennellh

Reply to
jennellh

Just don't decide that you only want the fabric on the bottom of the stack

Dee in Oz

Reply to
Dee in Oz

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:16:50 -0500, Musicmaker wrote (in article ):

LOL!

I love you.

Maureen

Reply to
Maureen Wozniak

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