Organizing Part 1 - Fat Quarter Storage

 I have a confession to make. I recently went crazy at a fabric sale.There was a very special deal on fat quarters. The average price for good quality Moda/designer fat quarters here is $4.00, give or take a quarter. They rarely go on sale, and if they do it is half price at the very most. However, at this unheard of sale, if you bought over 101 you paid only $1.17 each! So...........what's a girl to do...............insert sheepish grin....insert flush of embarrassment.............I bought.300. Not all at once though. The first time I went I exhibited self control and picked out a bunch for my friend and lots for myself. Second time I went, I bought for specific projects, and told the owner that my twin sister told me about the sale. Third time I went, it was just because I HAVE A SICKNESS CALLED UFQHD (uncontrollable fat quarter hoarding disorder).I told the owner that my 2 sisters had come to the sale and they thought it would be a good idea to come and get some for myself, and that by the way, we were triplets. He just laughed and now thinks I'm nuts! In my fabric hoarding defence, I rationalized that I am committed to make several charity quilts, 2 larger birthday quilts and thought it would be great to give fat quarter bundles as gifts too! Anywhoooo, that's what I'm telling myself :) Problem is, where do I store all these beauties? Say hello to cd storage cabinet from Canadian Tire:

mine are darker

It's 44" tall, 17"wide and the shelves are only 5 1/2" deep. Perfect for fat quarters. Originally I had all my bundles of joy in shallow fabric boxes, stacked one on top the other. When I needed to pull a few for a new quilt I had to drag out all these boxes, then restack and put them back into the bookshelf. Things will be so much easier now. To hold my now overflowing stash of fat quarters I needed 3 of these babies.  Here's what they look like now:

I so love seeing them on display. I do get the occasional guilty/ill flutter of YIKES when I think of how many I have, but that will lessen with each quilt I make!. There will be lots of rearranging the colors over time. Right now some are grouped by color, others by project.

Next time I will post about organizing my sewing drawers using parts of an Oil of Olay display from the grocery store!

Happy Stitching
corina