As the "Diary of a Mystery Quilt" begins in January, I have a few thoughts. I rarely buy fabric for a stash. On the rare occasion I do it is something I really, really like and know I will use before it goes home with me. Most of the time my "stash fabric" gets used in the next project. I always make sure I get a minimum of a yard. If there is more available (I try to buy clearance), I will snatch it too. I purposely don't stash for a few reasons. 1) It's not cheap. 2) It takes up a lot of space. 3) I don't want to buy something I will never use.
Even though I don't buy stashes, I end up with scraps. When I say scraps, I don't mean little tiny pieces some refer to as crumbs though. It's just not my style. Most of my scraps must be of usable size.
As you work on a project keep in mind you don't have to save every piece. You will still end up with a decent amount of usable scraps in the end. As always with my quilt patterns I add a generous amount of extra yardage. As I am cleaning up a project, anything smaller than 4" square or rectangle gets tossed, even similar sized triangles. I'm a minimalist, it just isn't worth it to me to keep smaller pieces than that. In all reality smaller pieces will probably never get used. I have large enough scraps for a standard size block and it works out perfectly.
Bottom line take away, you don't have to buy tons of stash fabric because many times you end up with a small stash from finished projects. A stash isn't necessary to be a great quilter!
Have a blessed day.
Sarah
My "large" stash. Currently I only have a couple yards of fabric waiting to go into upcoming projects, one of which is the #2019MonthlyColorChallenge from Patterns by Jen.
A very messy cutting table above my shoe box sized plastic totes. They house my usable scraps. I don't keep a lot of those around either. I like to use them up before I get tired of them. The blue drawers hold my current yardage projects. I don't allow myself to have more than three at a time. This keeps UFOs to a minimum. Before the drawer is emptied, it much be quilted and bound.
One other thing to remember... sun fades fabric. My stash is directly across from a row of windows. To protect the fabrics from getting fade lines, I have a wall hanging that drops down. I'll tell more about the hanging another time.