Fabric Storage in the Cave…

Longtime readers to this blog will recognize that I post…sporadically. That’s a bit on the charitable side, and something that I am striving to improve on. I thought that given that it’s now March 2026, it’s time for a project update. I’m also participating in the #IGQuiltfest2026, and today’s prompt is fabric storage, which gives me the opportunity to talk about the systems that I have in place in my current workspace, and what will be changing.

Readers should understand that this project has many pieces to it, and some of the progress made has nothing to do with The Quilt Cave. There are about 5 major independent subprojects which make up the entire scope of work, and if you’re looking at it sequentially, The Cave is Part 3. Part 1 and Part 2 have been functionally completed, and we are all breathing a lot easier on that. That means that all of the extras (mattresses, blankets, boxes) are off the main floor of the house, and everyone has more breathing room. It’s good to know that this has worked out as well as we all hoped, and we are looking forward to more progress in the coming months. I have no timeline other than later this year.

This photo is taken in my current workspace. But the systems they are a changing.

So let’s talk about my fabric storage. In the current space, my yardage was folded using the ruler fold method of folding fabric, and then stacked into color coordinated piles. The piles are easily picked up and moved to the cutting table whenever I needed to do a fabric pull, and the process repeated itself when I wanted to return fabric to the stacks. The shelves are my used IKEA Billy bookcases, and they have served me well, although there are limitations in that the shelves are not adjustable. I think they were painted over in a prior life. I’m having cabinetry built into the spaces which are deeper and are wider, and there’s going to be plenty of space there for the fabrics. I am looking forward to having a massive folding and sorting party (all done with color!) once I’m down there to get things sorted out.

One change I did consider was whether I’d gain any space efficiency with the yardage if I switched to folding the fabric on comic book boards. After an analysis of it, I was satisfied that I would not gain anything by doing that, and I opted to stay with my current folding method. To be honest there is a lot of yardage cuts, and if I don’t have to change that, I’d be really happy about that. I’m hoping that in about 6 months I’m not regretting it. The yardage storage is the easy part.

The rest of the fabric storage needed a massive overhaul. Originally, I had my smaller cuts were sorted by color, I had groupings for fat quarters, for jelly rolls, for scraps all segregated. The scraps were stored on the back of a closet door - and that worked really really well for a long time. In the new space, however, I will have a closet with a french door, pantry type opening - not a traditional width closet door. That started my thinking of options for how to store the smaller cuts.

In the photo above, the cube unit on the left hand side is the solution. It will ultimately by turned over (landscape style) and will have my ironing station on top of it. I took all the different chopped cut sizes and simply combined them into a single bin by color. It’s actually very liberating to have everything in one spot, and not have to look for something in more than 1 place. I do need to make a tag system so I tell what’s what by looking at them.

This is what my smaller cut storage now looks like.

With 8 bins, I’ve had to combine some colors in order to fit what I have.

Until I am down there, there’s only so much I can do to prep…but I’ve eliminated one bin so far. I no longer have a Mt Scrapmore bin under my cutting table. I was not diligent in moving the fabric out of the bin…so I simply added the scraps to the original colored bin, and kept moving forward.

It’s funny to me how I don’t have a lot of pink/purple fabrics in yardage, but I absolutely have it in the smaller cuts. I can see this year’s projects needs to include a scrap quilt.

Thanks for dropping by. I’d love to hear your ideas about scrap storage…and I’ll be back soon to with more updates.