fireworkslover

Do you really fill out this label for every piece of fabric in your stash? I guess if you are faithful to fill one out every single time you add fabric, it wouldn't seem like such a daunting chore. Also, I guess I never thought of the possibility of having a fire and then needing to know the value of the fabric lost. Plus needing to know the cost of the fabric in a quilt when getting it appraised.

Pam G

Ditto, mine usually "floats" around the house before I get it washed, dried and folded on the shelves. Now that I have a sewing-room I hope to be more organized (I was organized a long time ago and I do miss knowing where stuff is). I have books/magazines in bedroom & livingroom too.

When I first got my fabric onto my shelves I tried just measuring and labeling each piece so I would know how much I had for a project during planning, but I also have a bad habit of changing either pattern or fabric after I start a project so then I'm back at my stash :-D

skjquiltnut

Thank you! I am going to start now and work on getting stash done, I think just as I use it?

crazicorn

I would never be able to track the time I spent on each quilt. Nope, not in a million years, since I quilt for 10 minutes here and 2 hours there, whenever I can find the time. Then I'd have to throw in the planning stages where I am visualizing or daydreaming about different quilts for up to 3 or 4 days. My visualizing includes looking through books, magazines, internet sites, pattern collection, etc. Sometimes it takes an extra day or two because I decide I want to scan my fabrics and use my EQ5 to do a complete custom design. Shouldn't you count all of that time too? :wink:

jdavis

I don't document my fabric, but with digital photography, this idea could work for me...thanks for making me think!

Mousie

Do I ever!!!:D
If the fabric does not come with an individual label on each piece, I make one with wide masking tape.
I diagonally snip of the four corners, then I write the name of the fabric, the color description, the yardage, wash_,dry_,iron_(I check off after it's done),
and then the number of the spiral notebook the receipt is kept in, the page number, the date, and 143 at the end of every single one.
What is that for?
:mrgreen: That is my love letters to myself for buying it :wink:

QBeth

Like everyone else, I should label my fabric but never seem to find the time. I like your label! One thing I might add, or put in the "other" space, is information on what other fabrics (I bought at the same time) that coordinate with it. Many times I'll be at the fabric cutting station in a shop only to have someone remark "Wow, those two fabrics look good together!" I then go home, the fabric might sit in a bag for awhile, and when I do get around to storing it (by color), I usually forget that "this can go with that" type of information.

One question... how do you attach your label to the fabric? If I pin something, especially for long periods of time, I worry about the pin rusting and staining the fabric, even if I pin in the selvage area. How do you do it? Thanks.

QuiltingGrannie

I'm glad you like my label. I take the labels with me when I buy fabric and write out the label even before I get home! (Helps that I work in a fabric department and I fill out the label during my lunch break. I pin the label to the fabric. But maybe a piece of masking tape and tape it to the salvage that normally gets cut off anyway. I'm new to quilting so my stash isn't old enough for pins to rust. lol.
I like your idea of adding what fabrics coordinate with each piece. There are several ways to organize them all. But if on the label you put in what the piece is tentatively going to be used for you could add "see red stash for coordinates" and then look in your red stash for the piece that goes with it. Like I said, I'm new so when I buy them for a project I put them all together for that project from the beginning. My extra 'bought it just cuz fabrics get stored by color or color combinations. I do think there is a point of being over organized which I'm accused of from time to time.

QBeth

QuiltingGrannie, you work in a fabric department? Wow, I wish I had the time for a second (part time) job -- I'd like to do something like that. Your idea of bringing the labels with you when buying fabric makes so much sense, it should be obvious! :thumbup: If only we were all that clever. I keep learning things from this site and your suggestion is going to the top of my list. Thanks.

texasannie

Great idea!!! I finally took the empty room, and tried to organize it into my sewing room last night, and wow....I have tubs and tubs of fabric....no idea where most of it came from nor when I bought it!! That is an awesome idea! Thank you for sharing!