Another just for fun- buying fabric
#1
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Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Posts: 80
Another just for fun- buying fabric
Ok Ill stop with the daft questions after this one I promise! I just want to know how people go about making decisions about the fabric they buy... do folks buy based on a theme/colour or are they like me where a bag of random remnant sends them into paroxysms of happiness? (seriously the less I know about the scraps the better, its like a big old present to myself!)
The reason I ask is I have just bought a 15kg bag of cotton remnants (the needs to be hidden from teh OH) and just love sorting them by colour/theme and then arranging them how I think they would best go... then rearranging them again...
The reason I ask is I have just bought a 15kg bag of cotton remnants (the needs to be hidden from teh OH) and just love sorting them by colour/theme and then arranging them how I think they would best go... then rearranging them again...
#4
Often it is the price. Right now I am on a very tight fabric spending budget. But yesterday, I stopped at a not so local QS to buy some bobbins for my new machine and the store was having a 50% off every bolt sale. I wanted to go absolutely crazy because their fabric was gorgeous--but limited myself to one piece of beautiful border print for a runner. Oh how I want to sell the oldest grandkid and go back--but I don't think the DD would approve!!
#5
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,426
I have a huge stash so now I buy fabric to fill in the gaps when I start a new quilt. I mostly buy pre cuts these days. They are easier to store and save me lots of time. I use a Go die cut machine for most of my cutting and the precuts fit almost all the dies.
#6
First of all. Your questions are not daft and have sparked fun and interesting discussion, so don't stop.
I am in the buy-what-appeals-to-me camp. Sometimes with fabrics that go along and sometimes not. I find resisting fabric difficult although I am trying to use up my huge stash before I buy much more.
But I am also the queen of remnants. They are considerably cheaper than yardage and I like scrappy quilts. Or I gather a number of remnants over time that coordinate and make a non-scrappy quilt.
I am in the buy-what-appeals-to-me camp. Sometimes with fabrics that go along and sometimes not. I find resisting fabric difficult although I am trying to use up my huge stash before I buy much more.
But I am also the queen of remnants. They are considerably cheaper than yardage and I like scrappy quilts. Or I gather a number of remnants over time that coordinate and make a non-scrappy quilt.
#7
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 41,539
I buy fat quarters if it is a fun fabric and I just want a little. Fabric I LOVE I buy 2-3yards so it's enough for a future quilt. I picked up a bag of scraps at my LQS for $10 and it was like opening up a treasure box.
#8
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Carroll, Iowa
Posts: 3,487
If the fabric jumps out at me as I walk past it, its mine. If I'm online and I see a good sale on fabric at my favorite online shops, I buy 2yds or more depending on if I think I can use it a lot such as blender fabrics and whites/beiges then I buy 5 yds or a bolt. If I find a blender fabric collection I usually buy some of each color. Have lots of Collecting Threads blender collections. I made a complete quilt using just blender scraps and it came out beautiful. I quilted it with an E2E pattern and it glowed..........in my opinion for whatever that's worth. I kept this quilt for my own, its only a lap size anyway.
#10
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sonoma County, CA
Posts: 4,299
I'm with Macybaby, I love me a scrappy quilt! My guild has a sale every year where members donate fabric they are through with and the guild sells it for $2/lb - they get everything from nearly full bolts down to scraps the size of my palm. I LOVE the scraps - I do crazy quilts too, so almost any size or shape of fabric will work for me, and getting a hold of other people's scraps adds so much variety to my quilts! And at $2 a pound, that's practically free. (Or so I tell myself, LOL)
I buy fabric for a lot of reasons. Because I like it, because I need it, because it coordinates with something I already have, because it feels nice, because it's super cheap and not horrible...any of those reasons can make me bring fabric home. And then there's fabric I am given - now that I've been quilting awhile people know I will take fabric. I have a handful of garment sewer friends who save their cotton scraps for me, and twice now coworkers have had a sewing relative pass away and given me access to their fabric horde. (Both were garment sewers though, which is probably a good thing as it made me take very little!)
I buy fabric for a lot of reasons. Because I like it, because I need it, because it coordinates with something I already have, because it feels nice, because it's super cheap and not horrible...any of those reasons can make me bring fabric home. And then there's fabric I am given - now that I've been quilting awhile people know I will take fabric. I have a handful of garment sewer friends who save their cotton scraps for me, and twice now coworkers have had a sewing relative pass away and given me access to their fabric horde. (Both were garment sewers though, which is probably a good thing as it made me take very little!)
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