Saturday, June 4, 2011

Japanese Taupe Fabrics - never too much of a good thing

I was looking through my stash of taupe fabrics in preparation for my next house quilt class later this month.

There were so many beautiful ones, it is hard to choose at times. Especially when working with the subtle shades of taupes I have found that seeing them in daylight is an important part of the process.

It isn't always easy for me to pick out the fabrics during the day since my creative work is mostly limited to after hours, but I was able to look while the sun was up today so that was nice.

In the afternoon I visited with my monthly quilt group, which was fun. It's always awesome to see my old friends and get inspiration from the projects they are working on.

The hostess let me see her fabric collection as she had newly organized it, and she stores her fabrics as flat as possible with really not that many folds in it.

Since I have a BUNCH of fat quarters, I end up folding them a lot and putting them into bins. Seeing how she organizes makes me wonder if I could find a way to store my fabrics with less folds in them so that they have less chance to have permanent damage due to the folds.

How are you storing your fabric these days? Am I the only one obsessed with stuff like 'no light' getting in, and 'no folds' causing permanent creases?

Have a cool tip for me to avoid crease lines? I'm all ears.

Oh, and for fun, I posted a "Do you like to hand quilt?" poll - cast your vote!

3 comments:

AnnaVallance said...

I have a lot of fabric and not much space to store it in. Some of my stash is divided by colour in an old 4 drawer dresser. The rest is stored in clear plastic zippered bags - the kind you get when you buy sheets and duvets. There is so much of it that I cannot worry about creases but if I had proper storage, I would use paper towel holders to roll my fabric.

Lis Harwood said...

Like your handquilting poll :) I am also obsessed with keeping the light out but not so worried about folds - the iron with or without steam usually does it. I store fabric in plastic crates in themes: plains, Japanese, brights, large pieces, Christmas, New Zealand...and I store projects in bags.

Steven said...

I have a lot of fabric, and I do not have enough space in one area to store it all. The fabrics I use less frequently are in a closet in plastic drawer units. They are clear, so I can see what's inside, but with the closet closed, no light gets in. Also, the drawers are large, so the fabric is not folded very tight. In my sewing room I have shelving where I store some fabrics by color. My favorites are the Japanese Taupes, of which I have a big collection. The larger pieces are folded in drawers, but I have a large quantity of small pieces (like fat eighths) that are folded and put in tray style boxes (like the kind you can slip under a bed). When I open a tray, I can see exactly what I have.