Fat Quarters - storage ideas?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 1:16PM ;)
I had a stack of fat quarters waiting to be folded for storage. Normally when you buy them at the quilt shops, they’re already perfectly folded, but these were not. I like mine all the same size (I keep my leftovers, if a 1/2 yard is left, with my purchased fat quarters) so storing them is easier.
This is how I fold mine.
First I fold the fabric in half lengthwise, selvages together.
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Unfold, and fold each edge so that they meet in the middle, along your crease line.
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Press along the folds, then fold in half lengthwise and press.
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Now fold this in half, short ends together.
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Unfold and then fold each short end so that they meet in the center.
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Fold in half, and press. Presto! Perfect fat quarters. A bit time consuming, but I like them like this. Now, what I’d like is a gazillion suggestions on storing them. Pictures would be even better! If you have a great way of storing your fat quarters and want to email me a photo, I will happily post your images to this entry for everyone to get ideas from.
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Created by CJ
Sherry B. shared this method with me:
“A friend of mine showed me how she folds all her fabric 1/4 yd and under into 5” squares. She has a closet lined with shelves, so she organizes them by color in inexpensive card board boxes (like you might get a Costco). if you don’t like the looks of the boxes, you could always cover them with paper or something. Mine are stored in a file cabinet.
Everything larger than 1/4 yd is flat folded - 6” x 11”.
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Created by CJ
Polly shared her fat quarter storage over on her blog. She uses a CD cabinet, what a terrific idea!
Created by CJ
Several of you have commented about the creases in the fat quarters since I press mine. Before cutting any of my quilt fabric, I always starch my pieces and let them hang dry, then press. This eliminates all creases completely.
Liz shared her storage ideas over on her blog, wow look at all that fabric!
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Reader Comments (9)
Will you come fold my undewear now? ROFLOL
I'll post my suggestion on my blog for you! :-) Polly
I wonder if CD storage baskets/bins would hold these neatly pressed quarters. I'll have to give it a try.
I've noticed that when I have ironed folds in fabric before storing it, that those folds were next to impossible to get out later. So I just press the fabric flat then fold without ironing. I'll have to try the way you're folding--looks much neater than anything I've tried.
Glad you mentioned blogging on this site.
I missed all the chatter about sewing.
I am not much of a cook
ahhh - fat qtr storage
I bought 4 or 5 of these http://www.shopfonsandporter.com/productdetail/FP7879.htm
but I have yet to get stuff organized in them - I was thinking by color.
We have a huge amount of dust - really need to look into an electric air cleaner and I liked the fact that they can be closed up. I had a bunch of fat qtrs stored in plastic shoe box size containers but that wasn't working - I like the looks of how you folded - now have to clean off sewing table so I have some space to organize
Diana
I don't know that I would press creases in the fabric. They might be difficult to get out later. I have a large basket I use for storage.
I store most of the FQs in small plastic baskets, sorted by color. They can be stacked, if necessary, and they are easy to pull out of the closet and look through. However, when I did my last cleanup, I did pull some of the fabrics out to store with simialr fabrics - batik FQ are now with the batik yardage. If necessary, I use large clear plastic boxes to store the FQ and yardage.
Here is the link to my blog which shows the status of the last cleanup that I did in December.
http://spinningstar.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/status-of-the-stash/
I tried to reply to your comment but your email was set at "noreply" so I looked up your blog - :) hope you don't mind.
so here is my reply to you - ;)
I know there are not many out there like me who make up double the amount needed for binding and sadly this has happened more than a handful of times! LOL After I cut it off I measured what I had left over + the sizes of each of the 4 sides of my quilt….. and I had a total of 410” of BINDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL I only needed 308”!!
Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment so I would know you stopped by ;)
Love from Texas!
Bonnie