dojo36

hey yall, i'm the most un-organized person in the world. i can't find anything. i've probably got 2 or 3 of "everything" - forget where i put it and go buy another. i looked in a dresser drawer the other day and found about 10 years of fabric, don't remember when or where i bought it, i think it just hatched in there. i have a sister that is organized (at least by my standards) and i just can't stand organized people, lol
donna

Pzazz

When clothing construction was my "bread & butter" I HAD to keep everything labeled or I would never know what I had on hand, what I needed to reorder, etc. Quilt fabric? Not likely to happen. I do try to keep like colours together, but that is about as far as I want/need to go as I am trying SOOOO hard not to allow my stash to grow beyond what I can manage. Yeah right. HAHAHAHA

JudeWill

I usually just write on a piece of paper the info and pin it to the fabric. Also, whether it has been washed. Or put it in a labeled bag, if it is for a particular project.

Daisygirl

That is a great idea, I never thought of that but I have been in a bind trying to remeber where I bought it. Thanks for the tip!
Merry Christmas!

ghostrider

Not sure what you were told, Loretta, but my understanding of insurance claims is somewhat different. Receipts for fabric used for quilts will be questioned because you are using it, thus reducing the value. More appropriate is the replacement cost, so all you would need is the total yardage that was lost and a photo of the stash (easier than most art supplies to account for I'd say).

It might be worth spending a day adding up the yardage currently on hand, then adding the yardage of any new purchases as you get them and subtracting yardage used in projects as you make them. That way you'd have a running total of yardage on hand in case of fire or flood for insurance reasons. And if you have more than 100 yards, which many of us do easily, then your stash is worth thousands, not hundreds, of dollars.

bstanbro

I put a little note--postage stamp size--with the amount of fabric, and I have a different way of pinning if it's been washed. Also how much I paid for it.

mar32428

I'm lucky I get it all in one room and on the shelves.

Honey

When I cleaned out my sewing room (Honest, I did :thumbup: )I sorted all of my stash and put all of the matching pieces together in large zip bags and labeled them. Now when I wnat to work on something I don't have to do a major search to find everything. Of course there is a down side. I don't have to go to my lqs nearly as much for fill in and matching pieces.

fireworkslover

I have thought of doing this, but don't. In the past, one time I wanted more of a fabric that I had a small amount of. The store I'd bought it from, didn't have it any more, so I ended going online to find it and did! I do label the amount of my batting though. If I need a piece for a project, I can quickly look at the corner of each chunk (where the amount is written on a small piece of paper pinned to the corner), to see if there's enough or do I need to cut into a new piece of batting. All the quilting fabric I buy is 100% cotton and I usually make Art quilts, so my fabric doesn't need to be washed first, before using it. I do store it in plastic covered boxes by color: red, blue, teal, etc. I also have a box of bright multi colors or dark background multi colors.

Ellen 1

I don't label the fabric, but I leave the cash register reciept folded in the fabric. When I use the fabric I write on the reciept what the project was. If I buy specific supplies for a project or something I've run out of and need to replace, I write that info on the reciept. All the reciepts then go in a sheet protector (like for a note book) and I have them handy to sort through when I am figuring how much I paid for supplies when I'm getting a quilt appraised (you have to know the $$ spent and the time used to make the quilt). This is easier to do than trying to remember a year or so later. haha