Quilt, Read, Eat, Sleep.... What Else Is There? discussion

My sister has decided to give up quilting and just focus on knitting instead. She wants to give me her fabric stash. I am really excited because she buys good quality and a lot of things that I like but am too cheap to buy. She has lots of jelly rolls and other bundles. If the weather and schedules ever clear we are going to meet for lunch and to get the fabric. She said she is putting it in trash bags because all the bins won't fit in the car...It will be better than Christmas. I keep my fabrics organized in plastic bins by color. Does anyone have any other recommendations?

I always worry about fabric in trash bags, especially black trash bags. It's too easy for none quilters in the family to pick one up and put it out with the trash.

I must say, you have a very nice sister!

I am really shocked she has made this decision because she is an excellent quilter. Plus our mom has a long arm machine, she often quilts them for us at no charge. I am trying to get comfortable using the long arm machine and it is really intimidating, but I will stick with it learn to use it on my own! That is my big quilting challenge to become proficient on the long arm machine...

You are a lucky duck! I too keep my stash of anything less than a yard sorted by color in clear plastic bins. Yardage I use for backing or background I keep all together in a RubberMaid tub. I'm always looking for new ways to store fabric if anyone has any suggestions.

I bought some 3 drawer cabinets at Lowe's a few years ago. I did a lot of shopping to find some heavy duty drawers. There are intended for garage/workshop, so they are gray. But all the household type drawers had thin flexible bottoms. The drawers I got have bottoms that are 3/4 inches thick. No sagging! I bought 5 to fill a wall. They were close to $50 each and I had to assemble them. They are sturdy and hold lots of fabric. Then I bought a cheaper cabinet to store other quilty things. I ended up getting base cabinets, to get the height and depth, upper cabinets are more shallow and not as tall. I turned the doors upside down so the handles were within easy reach. I've added some photos. I mostly use 1 color per drawer.


This wasn't cheap, but when I remolded this room the be the quilting room, I took it down to the bare walls. By the time I finished, I couldn't afford these cabinets. So I went to friends and family and begged for unused dressers, they were all diff styles and sizes. Needless to say it wasn't pretty. It wasn't so easy to use, since the sizes were all over. I used these for about 5 years, then I bought the system I use now and sent all the unused dressers back to who lent them to me.

I'm pleased with it, altho I'm not good about putting the fabric back properly. I go thru about once a year and reorganize.

My sewing room is a big hodgepodge. I have one dresser, one 3 tiered cart, 5 big RubberMaid tubs, and around 20 clear plastic bins.

Fabric storage hodgepodge was really dragging me down. The room was decorated as I wanted, paint, border, curtains, carpet, etc, but it wasn't a happy place. I was determined to get some decent storage. I do still have stuff in plastic tubs, current and upcoming projects, and special collections of fabrics that I want to keep together, regardless of their color.

Ok so after over a month of trying to meet my sister some where between her house in Denver and my house in Montrose and our schedules not meshing and mostly the weather not cooperating, I am going to Denver on Wednesday. I will pick up her quilting stash-- all 15 trash bags of fabric and add it to my quilting stash. She is giving up quilting to just concentrate on knitting. Her knitting is amazing and she enjoys it more than quilting. I can't knit, but I sure love quilting. Next will be the fun part organizing it all!

I know your excitement, Tanya. My mother recently gave up quilting and offered me all of her quilt material, threads, rulers, etc. I spent a week sorting her fabric and donated 30 black trash bags of fabric to a charity that makes quilts for shelters, etc. I didn't count how many boxes of fabric I brought home, but most of the boxes had to be placed in a storage unit until I made space for it at home. I still haven't finished going through all the quilting paraphenalia Mom has at her house, and there's still some fabric there. I'm hoping that my flurry of quiltmaking will stir her to complete some of the unfinished projects I found, assembled by project, and left at her house. I separated and kept all her leftover blocks and plan to combine them with mine to make several mother-daughter sampler quilts. (I have enough blocks for 4--5 quilts.) It will be fun if you find similar treasures among your sister's donated fabric. But the colors and textures of the fabric alone are enough to ignite any quilter's creativity. I'm so excited for you. What a fabulous windfall! Please post pictures of the quilts you make using the combined stashes. I'd love to see them.

All the fabric is overwhelming. I am shocked by how many complete kits there are with price tags still on them. Lots of BOM projects that I have already made, but my sister never completed. She told me she hopes that many of the unfinished projects come back to her as birthday & Christmas presents. Now I won't even have to buy her any gifts for years to come. I am really excited about several Buggy Barn kits. I started organizing it all which is a daunting task. I separated the kits from the yardage and unfinished projects. Divided the yardage by color to add to my tubs. I need to enlarge a few of the tubs. She sent a couple of bags of scraps which at first I was tempted to just trash, but I am just going to start a big scrap tub for the appliqué projects I am doing more often. Summer is when I get the most piecing done and quilt a bunch because I teach and the summer is my uninterrupted quilting time. Now I just have to master quilting with my mom's long arm and I will be in great shape!

Wow, what a treasure trove, Tanya. Your excitement is palpable. What fun. I'm so happy for you. Happy, happy quilting.

It does sound like a daunting task, Tanya, but what a fun one!

Tanya, how's it going? Are you sorted yet? I keep most of my fabrics in 2-gallon ziploc bags on shelves in a closet. The shelves are very deep, about three feet, and the closet is 8 feet wide. My sewing room is most of my basement. How's it coming with your longarm quilting?

Yes, I am sorted and have finished many of my sister's UFOs. I am persevering with the long arm. I am very comfortable with my loopy loops. I have posted pictures of some finishes and my sewing room on my new blog, tanyaquiltsinco.blogspot.com/

Welcome to the group!

Thanks! Are you also on MQR?

Love your blog!

Tanya, Love your watermelon quilt. Perfect for picnics.

Tanya, thank you for posting the link to your blog. Loved it! You do lovely work.

Craftnut wrote: "Thanks! Are you also on MQR?

Love your blog!"

What is MQR?

Catherine wrote: "Tanya, Love your watermelon quilt. Perfect for picnics."

Thank you. It was such a fun scrappy project.

Kimberly wrote: "Tanya, thank you for posting the link to your blog. Loved it! You do lovely work."

I am glad you like my blog...It is a work in progress! Thanks!

Sent you a pm about MQR, Machine Quilters REsource for longarm quilters.