Jingle

I am not making any real patterned quilts right now. I am working with scraps. I buy about 4-6 Yd. pieces of fabrics, so I usually have enough or lots more for just about anything I would want to make.

Irishrose2

I can convert yardage to precuts and visa versa. When I want to make a quilt, I pull fabric from my stash, then purchase as little as I can to make it work. I desperately need to reduce the amount of fabric in my house, so I always shop here first. My problem comes in when a pattern calls for 1 1/8 yards and I tended to buy just a yard when I used to purchase 'just because'. The quilt I'm cutting out Friday will have to be cut very carefully for that reason.

I don't think I've ever followed a quilt so exactly that I used the fabrics it called for. I use patterns for instructions and choose my own colors/prints.

SusieQOH

I almost never buy fabric with a pattern in mind. I buy what appeals to me and then when the time comes I use it. Depending on how much I like it determines how much I buy. I also love precuts and same thing- I buy what appeals to me w/o a particular pattern in mind.
My stash is sizable, but I've donated a lot of old stuff the past few years. I had some that I just knew I no longer liked.
And I won't use a fabric I don't like. I'd rather pass it on to someone who does.

jmoore

Initially, I bought fabric specifically for a pattern but over the last year or so I have been participating in QALs and mysteries and since many of them are scrappy projects, I have been pulling from my stash.

Wanabee Quiltin

I have many patterns and a tremendous stash now. When I see a pattern I want to make, I pick out fabric from my stash I really like. One pattern I'm making now was for a jelly roll or FQ's but I used charms instead. After the block is finished, I trim it down, and it's quite nice. I've used some of Jenny Doan's ideas about sewing charms into 4 patches or 2 patches, and they work great. I really want to make quilts out of my beautiful stash and I believe I can do it without buying very much at all. I have the fabric and the patterns, now I need is the time.

Reba'squilts

I have made a few quilts from patterns. When I do that I buy what the pattern recommends. Most of my quilts just "happen" so I just start making the blocks then go to the store or stash, I keep repeating this until the top is done. Inefficient for sure!!!! I almost always have to shop at the end for backing.

Sewnoma

I draw my own patterns so I don't have any guidance on how much of each fabric to buy. I used to (and sometimes still do) just sort of do a "common sense" guess - if the quilt top overall is going to need about 5 yards of fabric, and it's roughly half blue and half red, I'm going to buy something like 2-3/4 yard of each color. Maybe a bit more if the pieces are small - more to get "eaten" by seam allowances.

Now that I have EQ7, I will often use its fabric estimates instead, but I usually go a bit over. I like a healthy scrap bin so leftovers aren't a bad thing in my world, and I'd rather have too much than not quite enough.

Mitty

I don't use patterns, but I think if I did I'd still end up doing my own calculations anyway and then buying a little extra in case I botched something. This is a little silly I realize, because part of the point of buying a pattern is so that you don't have to do all that work.

klswift

I just keep a couple numbers in my head. A charm pack is 3/4yd (8 per row WOF, 5 rows =25"), a layer cake is 3yds (4 per row, 10 rows = 100") and a jelly roll is 3 yds (40 strips at 2.5" = 100"). Then I can think about how many different fabrics I want to use, so how much of each. It is also a quick way to see if a 'sale' is actually a good deal.

lots2do

Kiswift,
That is very helpful. Thanks.