I love to go to garage sales to find odd and cheap fabric. I always tell people that I recycle and reuse old fabic and leave my phone number. I often get phone calls from people who have parents who need to sell their houses and they can't bear to throw away the fabrics. I offer to pick it up and usually get it for free or for a small amount of money in exchange for a small piece of art made with the fabric.

Line from Montreal

Garage sales, friends and family give me their scraps, I always check clearance bins at fabric stores. I've also been know to go to thrift stores and repurpose old clothes into quilt fabrics. I love to use old torn jeans to make things with.

Small fabric shops are great and an excuse for a little travel.  Thrift and antique type shops are great for vintage fabrics also, clothing and other fabric items that can be used for sewing and/or quilting projects.

After 30+years of quilting, my stash is pretty extensive, but I still add to it. I love going to shops on trips. Some people collect spoons, salt shakers, I collect fabric. When I go to use the fabric, I remember the fun time had on the trip.

For cottons, I shop online with equilter.com. Even living in a KY town of only 5k, there are two very nice shops just a few minutes away: Sterling Thimble in Judy and Calico Patch in Farmers.

Unfortunately, now that Baer's in Louisville has closed and the glory of Banasch's in Cincinnati is a faint memory, I have to travel far from Kentucky to find quality garment fabrics and trims: Textile Fabrics in Nashville, G Street Fabrics in DC, High Fashion Fabrics in Houston, and the entire garment district in NYC. :-)  I've had nice results at fabric.com, but I never quite know what color or weight I'll find until I open the box.

I have a great stash of cottons and garment fabrics, each sorted by color. I justify it with the fact that I usually sew for my mom and myself, so I'm "allowed" double. teehee

Online I use both E-Quilted ( http//www.equilter.com) and Keepsake Quilting (http//www.keepsakequilting.com

Locally I use "The Calico Cow" in Roswell, NM.

I am just now getting back into sewing, so I get a lot from my Mom and her friends.  I also put up notices on recycling sites ~ that has worked very well.  My favorite is looking through the fabrics on sale on sewing blogs and websites.

Do you think it would be a problem if I put a neon sign in my front yard:  "DROP OFF YOUR UNWANTED FABRIC - I TAKE SCRAPS?"  ???   Maybe I will just go with a flyer ... =).

Thank you for the opportunity to win ... good luck to everyone!

Happy Sewing ... ~Pam  

I have over 1000 bolts of fabric, and I started out my collection buying end-of-season & out-of-print bolts at Fabric for Less:

www.fabric4less.com

I am learning to sew (again) after MANY years so my stash is very limited.   Since I was recently laid off, I'm going to get my sewing materials from the Goodwill.  Here's what I plan.... I'm gonna buy shirts/blouses and over dye them (I have lots of dyes since I'm also a spinner) then cut them apart for quilting.  Hmmm....maybe I'll cut first then dye. LOL

I am learning to sew (again) after MANY years so my stash is very limited.   Since I was recently laid off, I'm going to get my sewing materials from the Goodwill.  Here's what I plan.... I'm gonna buy shirts/blouses and over dye them (I have lots of dyes since I'm also a spinner) then cut them apart for quilting.  Hmmm....maybe I'll cut first then dye. LOL

I build my stash from everywhere and anywhere - small quilting boutiques, online shops, etsy, thrift stores, gifts...whatever catches my eye - if I can afford it I add it to my stash.  That way, when I have inspiration I am not quite as limited on my options!

I love to visit the local fabric shops with a friend but clothing in resale shops and thrift stores can also provide a interesting variety of valuable stash worthy fabrics!

Also, I love the prayer flag fabrics. I've seen pictures of them online and also in photos from a friend who has been to Tibet and have been toying with the idea of making prayer flags of my own to hang in my studio! A fabric line by that name is interesting validation of my idea!

So glad I found this post!

Kim

I love to shop for fabric on Etsy.com.  There are so many great fabric sellers on there and I especially love the Japanese import fabrics, too cute!

Garage sales and thrift stores make me crazy and I can't wait to get out (full-blown twitchy heebie geebies!)  I don't know why, but there you go.  For a while, my SIL picked up men's ties for me since she loves cruising those places -- too bad she has a long commute and works too many hours now!

I love batiks and other contemporary fabrics, so my favorite local shop is The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, OR.  I consider it my DUTY to keep them in business!

Kathy from Bend, OR

I do a lot of swapping with friends and family. Plus I like to go to shops I find as I am traveling and you can't beat some of the online sources like eQuilter. Can one ever have too much fabric?

Several times a year, my girlfriends and I plan day trips to several quilt shops.  We shop hop, have lunch and have lots of laughs while building up our stash.  If possible, we try to throw in a quilt show or two.  If our stash gets too low, we plan a new trip.  :o)

I go to FreeCycle.  It's a free yahoo group for recycling.  The purpose is to keep reusable stuff out of the landfills.  Fabric is a BIG culprit.  So I ask if anyone is cleaning their sewing room, and there's always someone who gifts me BAGLOADS of fabric.  I just spring cleaned my studio and gave away fabrics too through the same site.  Here in Canada we have a yahoo group like that for nearly every city.  It rocks.

ps- what beautiful fabric!!  

I still work full time, so I don't get a chance to do a lot of shop hopping, so I either go to my local shop in Mt. Pleasant, MI, or I have found that online The Virginia Quilter Company has some very nice fabrics and nice big swatches to look at online..  I will look about anywhere on the internet though for just the right fabric.

I still work full time, so I don't get a chance to do a lot of shop hopping, so I either go to my local shop in Mt. Pleasant, MI, or I have found that online The Virginia Quilter Company has some very nice fabrics and nice big swatches to look at online..  I will look about anywhere on the internet though for just the right fabric.

I often find great fabrics at second hand stores!  I have also purchased some amazing hand dyed pieces on Ebay.  I have a local store that carries a beautiful selection of fabrics as well.  I very, very rarely ever go to Joanne's or other chain fabric store.

I like to go to my studio and dye, dye, dye.  I pick a few colors and then mix them up on the fabric to see what I end up with.  I know they will be treasured no matter what color they turn out and I have some in matching color ways.   I also like to splurge with coupons and sales!

Because I make art quilts, books and other various things that don't require 100% cotton, I've bought most of my fabric at yard sales and thrift stores...in the form of old curtains, linens, decorator fabrics, clothes and grandma's left-overs! I just make sure that what I'm buying isn't dry rotted. (Learned the hard way on that one).  I have 15 BIG plastic bins of fabric that I doubt I could use up in the next 20 years if I worked EVERY day!!! I love it all!

annie!

bohemiannieart.com

bohemiannieart.blogspot.com

I love Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio.

I don't have much of a fabric stash yet - haven't found a good place to get fabric, but I've heard tell of a great place - can't wait to visit - it's 1 1/2 hours away.   :)  Thanks for the nice giveaway!

I agree that garage sales & thrift stores are excellent places to scavenge for fabrics, but I also like to stop by Hancock Fabrics in Paducah, KY for 1000s of options.

My bff and I go to each others stash if we're looking for something special.We also plan days for resale shops,garage sales etc.Have lunch and hit a quilt shop.Fun days.

What a dirty trick to offer fabric , like offering drugs to a addict :) . At this point after 20 yrs of stashing fabric I'm being called a hoarder :(  I call a 20ft wall of fabric only a good start , most of the time I can find something I really like for any project, thats a good thing because its a 100 miles from here to a good shop, I have very eclectic taste and never want to make a quilt like anyones eles in the world , with enough fabric that will never happen :) Linda from Southern Oklahoma

My favorite spot to go in order to build up my stash is in Longview, Washinton, Momma Made It.! The *full name* of the store is Momma made it, Papa paid it! :D

I go to Textile Fabrics in Nashville - esp when they have their January sale!

Locally, we have a shop where all fabric and craft related items are donated from crafters and quilters "spring" cleaning.. A small fee is assigned to each item.  The employees are all volunteers and all proceeds from the sales go to the senior citizens programs in that community.  Its a win win situation for all.  Most fabric is around $1 a yard, scraps are under $1.  

I love fat quarters.  I shop online and offline.  It seems I shop with the seasons.  I find myself looking for fabrics in the spring, fall, and winter.  Not so much during summer.  

Looks really beautiful; love the colors and print.  I will have to look for this locally, or online to see more!

I like to buy fabric at quilt shows. I find fabrics not available locally. I like to buy kimono pieces and upholstery remnants also. And I love sari silk scraps!

The first thing I do while traveling, is to check the local phone book for fabric stores (preferably, non major chain) and for beading stores.  I too am working on building up my stash.  What really 'helps' is that it seems like for every project, I need to go shopping for the perfect fabric and end up adding to my stash at the same time!!

Not many options, here for fabric stores, so when I get the chance, I go to Fabricland and stock up on their clearance fabrics.

We have some great shops here in Alaska, so that is my first option. Also, alot of people here travel, but I don't usually seem to be one of them, so whenever an artistically minded friend goes somewhere, I give her money to look for fabric and beads. I've gotten beads from South America, and fabric from Austria and several states. It's a great way for my kids to learn some geography too. My sewing friends and I do scrap swaps or raid each other stash if we just need small amounts of something.

The one and only cloth store in our town is small so I have to travel 40 miles to the bigger stores or order on line. I like to be able to see and feel the material so don't like to shop on line.  I have found some of my favorite material at yard and estate sales  One of my favorite materials come from old blue jeans,  

  I love having a good stash of many kinds of material on hand for when a creative idea comes to mind. No such thing as too much material. Happy Quilting

I plan to start quilting soon after a break of about 5 years, so am thrilled to see this "contest" :)

I was out of the US for much of the time when I was quilting, and it was hard to get cotton fabrics.  So I most often ordered fabrics from EQuilter!

I like to go to Golden Geese in Concord NH and Keepsake Quilting also Marden's in Maine is good to go to get backing fabrics or off the wall stuff it is hit or miss there though.

Jodi

Hillsboro, NH

I like going out to the small towns that  sometimes have very large quilt stores. I live in a city of over 600,000 people but we really only have 1 quilt store, so I get my variety of fabrics from the country stores. Most of them are within an hour's drive, so it is a nice drive with the hubby and the dog! And as a bonus: often there is an ice cream shop nearby too!

I do several things.  Sometimes I buy jelly rolls.  Sometimes I buy several packs of charm squares.  I've never bought a "layer cake".  If I love it..really, I buy the bolt.  Last time I "had to have it" I bought 2. BOLTS.  Then I stash it.

My husband says that I have more fabric than our local fabric shop!!! That is not true of course but I am working on it!  You know the quilter at the end with the most fabric wins!!!!  You can never have enough!

Love to look at it, touch it and sew it!!!

In the general area where I live I love to go to Mary's Jo's Fabric store in Gastonia NC.  It is HUGE and she has every possible kind of fabric one can think of.  I love to go and spend the day...but I wait to go when I've saved up my "quilting money!"

I love the Stitch N Snip in Garden Valley, Idaho.  I have also used old fabric sample books from a fabric representative.  They make great scrappy quilts.

My favorite quilt shop is right here in Chapel Hill, NC: Thimble Pleasures. Tons of fabric, terrific classes and a very attentive staff. End of bolt (at the end of most months) sales are a great way to build up a stash.

Lindsay, thanks for mentioning the quilt shop in Portsmouth, NH. I visit there a couple of time a year and hadn't found it. Now I'll look it up for my next trip.

The Textile Company in Greenfield, MA--best selection, great prices and wonderful help. Their sale goes through this week. Check it out.

Ephrata, WA! The Fabric Patch. Room after room of Fabric, Angelina film and fiber, yarn, notions, thread. Fabric LINES! Lines have the yummiest feeling, prettiest gotta-have fabrics. I too love to check out any and all little quilt shops, like a treasure hunt...

I try to go to every quilt show possible throughout the year to visit the Vendors.  I always find unique fabric that I never see at my usual shops and there are always vendors in from "out of town."  Plus, I just love giving them business at the shows to make sure they keep coming back!!  So my #1 place to build my stash is at Quilt Shows.  

My latest stash enhancements have come from Capital Quilts in Gaithersburg, MD and Purl Soho in NYC.

Collecting fabric is really an obsession isn't it!!!  Count me in on the draw...I love to get new and unusual fabric....a challenge to see how it can be used!!

I hit my local quilt shop.  Sometimes I'll drive a little out of the way to a few less than local ones..  Always have to check the shops out when I'm traveling, too.

There's a fabric outlet store that has scrap fabric by the pound!  I love it, and have found coordinating fabrics in the bin.  It's great fabric for a great price!

I love vintage linens, so I comb through stacks at "junk-tique" stores on a pretty regular basis.  My other weakness is batiks, which I try to buy locally whenever possible.  I really want my local shops to remain in business!

I shop at Quiltworks in Bellevue, WA.

I usually dye and print my own fabric, as I can then have exactly what I want for each project. I buy my fabrics to dye from Whaleys ( Bradford).... we do not have any fabric shops where I live, but if I visit my parents home town - then I am happy to buy some half meters of fabric. So to have some pre-coloured and dyed fabric would be quite a novelty for me. My fabric stash is quite small.

Best wishes.

Maggie .

Swindon, England

I LOVE going to Quilting Adventures in Richmond, Va. My daughter lives there and they have the most wonderful collection of fabrics! A big shout out to the ladies there who make the experience so much fun!

My favorite local quilt shop is Attic Window in Grand Rapids, MI but I love it when I find swatches, quarters, and sometimes brand new material at a garage sale or second hand shop.  And, I love washing storing and handling my finds, too.  I try to keep my stash at a reasonable level, and make sure I am sewing all the time to justify my "deals".  Lately the fabric shops have had such wonderful sales I can't say that I am keeping up on the sewing end of things--February in Michigan is a good time to sew however!  Happy Winter, friends:)

I love checking out Goodwill stores, plus my local quilt shops. When I travel I try to visit a quilt shop in the area. Quilt shops are so full of personality, every one is bound to hold something I've never seen before!

Mt favourtie place to get unusual fabrics is to look around thrift/charity shops. Often people will bring items back from holiday that they decide they no longer want. I've got some great batiks that way.

Suella

I buy 98% of all my fabric, threads, notions and more on EBAY.  I feel I can get exactly what I want in the way of patterns, colors, or maker of the fabric.  I also can find all the hard-to-find sewing machine feet or sewing notions that I can find locally.  I have been doing this for years and have never been disappointed with any purchase.  The fabric is true to the picture and clean off the bolt.  If you are a good shopper you can get high end fabrics for around $4 a yard.  I can get all the threads at a much better price and all the embleshments I need to sparkle up my quilts!

Carol Helmlinger - Newport, NC

I am a new quilter so I am just beginning my stash!  I have shopped at some antique stores in Noblesville, IN and found some antique fabic!  Well, it's probably not antique just because it's in the antique shops!  I am working on some Dear Jane squares that I am loving!  It helps me to learn all the different patterns without having to use a whole bunch of fabric!  And the girls in my quilting group are generous to bring in their castoffs for the rest of us to sort thru!

I use my old clothes for many projects. I cut them up and store them by color in my sewing room. Silk dresses make great handbag lining & repurposed sweaters make nice pillows scarves and more! My local quilt store has great sales and even Jo Anns is stepping up with their fabric quality.

My stash has a rich history of small shops, garage sale finds and treasures traded with quilting friends both locally and on-line.  Part of the fun is the "hunt".  I keep inventory of my colors so I always know when I might be low on a color.  I try to clean it out every so often and trade with quilting friends.  I also have an area designated for my stash, when the shelves are full I must use up fabric or clean:)  I have to keep it under control...lol:)  Thanks for the opportunity!

First I try my local quilt shop, to support her business endevor.

Then I go to fabric.com and virginiaquilter.com.  

I sometimes order the 3lb grab bag for the challenge of using what comes.

Virginia T, Freeport TX

I lived in NH most of my life. A visit back to the seacoast is not complete without a visit to Portsmouth Fabric. They are THE place for batiks! I also love vintage fabrics. I put the word out to family and friends and I now have more tablecloths, hankies, doilies and ties than I'll ever have time to use. Most of my projects are small so when traveling I always seek out a local quilt shop and pick up a few fat quarters.

Karen M.,  Kettering, OH

I lived in NH most of my life. A visit back to the seacoast is not complete without a visit to Portsmouth Fabric. They are THE place for batiks! I also love vintage fabrics. I put the word out to family and friends and I now have more tablecloths, hankies, doilies and ties than I'll ever have time to use. Most of my projects are small so when traveling I always seek out a local quilt shop and pick up a few fat quarters.

Karen M.,  Kettering, OH

Surfing the web is my way to build my stash, the only probem now is to have a very big closet to store everything!

Our quilt group plays Quilto (bingo) and winners get fabric! The game is fun and the prizes are even better- fabric!

Good Luck with your stash!  I live on an island in Northern Ontario Canada... pretty remote.... so I increase my stash with online purchases.... alot from etsy=)

My stash is large enough that I'm about to run out of storage space . . . but here goes: Thrift Shops! They often have fabric, several yard lengths, fat quarter size, or bags of scraps. A local quilt shop sells all the scraps from their quilting classes, charging $4.50 per ziplock sandwich bag full. You must be able to close the bag, but if you're careful to fold and stack the scraps, you can fit quite a few in there. Most are no more than 2"-3" wide by 6"-8" long, but an especially unique print can be just the right piece in a fabric collage. Then again at thrift stores, old, worn, stained, out-of-date clothing has yielded some of my best finds. I usually go for silk neckties, as well as skirts and dresses.

I buy alot of fabric at thrift stores, eBay and Esty!!

My favorite spot to build up my fabric stash is at art and craft fairs.  Usually there are a few vendors who are trying to sell supplies that they no longer need.  One year I scored 80 pieces of dyed leather, each the size of a fat quarter, for 50 cents a piece.  Another year, I picked up some beautiful quilting fabrics from a vender who had switched to bead making.

I'm always on the lookout for fabric and have acquired quite the stash!   I see the possibilities in everything, from Quilt Shop fabrics to painter's drop cloths...I see magic in it all!  

Here on the West Coast of Florida there is only one place to build my stash and that is Rainbow's End in Dunedin.  There's no place like it.  In addition, all of the staff are courteous, helpful, and a lot of fun which makes shopping there truly enjoyable no matter how much money I have to spend.

I have been sewing and quilting for a year now and still have a very small stash, I would really love to buy more fabric but have a small budget so try to limit myself to one purchase a month.  I do check out charity shops and tell people that I re-purpose any textiles too.

When I was a kid, my mom and a friend built a sizable stash by digging through the dumpster of a local sheet manufacturer the night before trash pick-up. How I wish that company was still in business!

I pick up odd pieces of new fabric at the local thrift store.  They don't always have something, but sometimes I hit the jackpot. Yard sales are sometimes good too. When I travel to Hawaii I hit the fabric stores and pick up hawaiian prints, many of them are made in Hawaii, so it is the perfect souvenir.

I go to my favorite local quilt shops.  I am really lucky because I have a lot of quilt shops to choose from even though I live in a small rural area.  Each quilt shop has its own unique personality and great owners.  They are always ready to help with any questions.  It is also always fun to get fabric from my quilty friendship groups.  When our friendship group meets for breakfast each month, the hostess often uses fat quarters as the centerpiece and then gives them to us at the end of the meeting as a little gift.   So nice!

I'm so excited that I found your blog.  How lucky that I found it in time to try and win some fabric!  I love quilting!!!!

tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/.../article

. I love going to shops on trips. Some people collect spoons, salt shakers...

<a href="www.saveondumpsters.com/.../a>