Do you have a fabric stash? If so what is the size of it? My fabric stash is quite large, more than I can use in this lifetime that is for sure. Interestingly, when I did garment sewing I never had a stash. I was strictly a project sewer, I only ever bought enough fabric for the project I was working on. The one exception to this rule was when I went to a fabric store down in Newport Beach California, many years ago, now and they had such a wonderful and varied selection of good quality fabric that I would not be able to get at home that I broke down and bought fabric without a project in mind. This was in the days before shopping online wasn’t even a twinkle in someone’s eye so it was either purchase it when you saw it or regret it forever.

Stash Building

When I first started quilting I really thought I would do the same thing, just buy fabric project by project but I soon found that could get quite expensive. Doing it that way was fine for certain projects but you really had to watch the sales. Soon I began ‘collecting’ fabric on sale or if I was in a different city. Before I knew it I had a stash. I do still add to it but not like I did for the first 10 years of my quilting journey.

As mentioned above my stash is now quite large and consists of fabrics that I have collected from the many places I have travelled.  I thought I would share some of my favourite pieces with you. Maybe one day I will actually use them in a quilt.

This butterfly fabric was a very early purchase. In fact, it is probably around 16 years old. It is a Timeless Treasures fabric from a collection called Rain. I still love this fabric. Although I have never used this in a quilt,  I did use it as a colour palette for a quilt.

 This fabric was one of several that I picked up in Thailand about 10 years ago now. You could purchase packages of 1.5 metres of fabric for about $5.00. They were 100% cotton and were intended for making traditional Thai skirts.

This fabric was added to my stash at the same time as the above fabric. It is hand painted batik fabric from Kaula Lauper, Maylsia. The colours are actually much brighter in real life. I have several different pieces I picked up from a shop we visited that did the painting right there.  The next fabric was added about 6 years ago and I still have 5 metres of it. It is a Christmas fabric from Robert Kaufman Holiday flourish II. I thought I would love to do a large stack and whack type quilt with it. Maybe one day I will, meanwhile, I get to take it out and look at it every once in a while.          This sunflower fabric is from Robert Kaufman from a line called Shades of the Season. I don’t remember when I got this but it is one of my favourites. I have used some of this in smaller items but haven’t used it in a quilt as yet.  I just love how cheery and bright the yellow and orange sunflowers are.

I had a few more fabrics that I wanted to share with you, however, I think I will leave them for a different post. At present, I don’t even have any real ideas of what I want to make with these fabrics, just that they are still some of my favourites. So how about you, do you have some favourite fabrics you have sitting in your stash? Let me know in the comments.

Happy Stash Building