I agree that I don't think it is acid from cardboard as I have had fabric and baby quilts in cardboard file boxes for many years and they are just fine. It is the light that affects the fabric. That is one of the reasons that stores move their fabic and/or clothing around quite often. I have had 1fabric in a wallhanging fade even though it was never washed and never had sunlight on it. The rest of the fabrics were fine...it was just the one that actually changed color.

I have just been reading about folding fabric and it seems a lot of quilters are using comic book boards to make little bolts of fabric. They come in different sizes but the most useful ones seem to be the 7.5 x 10" ones. You can get them at comic book or hobby stores or online at Amazon, etc. The best part is they are acid-free. You can get a package of 100 for around $12.

Cathy, be careful what you wish for. I have spent the last two years wanting to rearrange and organize my space. DH gave me a hard time last year when I wanted to do it. This year, when I said I still wanted to do it--he gave in. We are glad he did, I told him "next year we would be too old to do all this". He agreed. I have been working on it for three weeks and he is in there as I type. I am getting closer to being done but it feels like I will never get finished. If I live to see it finished (ok, so maybe I am exaggerating a little) it will be wonderful; but, I want to be creating, not cleaning.

Kitty, thanks for the info. I have seen things like that at the quilt shows, but they were a little costly to my way of thinking. I'd rather buy fabric. This is something I may try. (Just as soon as I get DH to cut shelves for my storage cabinet. I am not real patient, but he bought the plywood 2 weeks ago.) I would love to get my sewing area more organized!

I got tired of digging through bins of fabric looking for what I needed. I went to Home Depot and bought sheets of corrugated plastic, just like the cardbard but plastic instead. I guess it is used for outside signs, like for garage sales. I figured out what sizes I wanted and drew lines and used a utility knive to cut it. My hubby finaly took pity on me and used his table saw to cut it. Way faster. I made some of them 12" tall and about 6" wide, to fit my bookshelf. I then had some cut 11" high to fit the hutch I bought for 1/2 price at the thrift shop, it has glass doors to protect my fabric from dust and the storage underneath is for quilt back fabrics and my PFD yardage for dyeing. The doors are solid wood so I can't see what is there but that is alright since I know what is there and it keeps it safe. I do have more fabric in bins so I purchased a couple more sheets of the plastic and will wrap what I can on those. If I have fabric that goes together I wrap them on the same board, just fold the fabric at an angle so you can see all that are wrapped. So nice when I am looking for fabric no digging through bins.

JudithLee wrote: If the shelves are painted, there should be no problem.
Since I make binding in advance of the top being quilted, I roll the prepped binding on a cardboard tube that I have covered with aluminum foil.
Aluminum foil is my friend.

acid free paper at Nancy'sotions.com

I store my fabric on bookshelves. Right now I have sheets hanging over them to shield them from the light.

I would like to find something acid-free to line the shelves with. It needs to be inexpensive. Any ideas?

Judy Austin

Would fusing either interfacing or stabilizer to the cardboard before wrapping it with fabric help do away with the acid problem?

Hi Renee, good idea. I use ziplock bags for my scraps - but I keep getting them muddled. Maybe if I had them in boxes it would be easier, thanks for the tip.

When I am down to the end of the FQ and there isn't enough to refold and put back on the shelf, I will cut it into one of several shapes and store it in a plastic container (skinny strip, wide strip, square, or triangle). I have another box for orphan blocks as well.

Renee

Thanks Eileenkny!!! That's the lady who wrote the book I had read a few months ago, but I couldn't remember her name. Attacking my scrap pile would be a good project to do while watching tv. And then I can use those pieces as leaders/enders, and get two quilts done at once. I just gave my quild a quilt for the local nursing home, but they always need more because the resident's family takes the quilt home after their loved one passes.


Sue

Hmmm, very interesting. Food for thought. I love Bonnie Hunters website and what she does with scraps and strips.

Thanks ladies for all of the input! I've decided that after cutting the 2 1/2" strips for my upcoming class, I'll cut one more strip in case of short widths/problems during class. If I don't use it, I'll have coordinated strips for the next project. I'll leave the rest of the FQ intact for another project, so I can get whatever shapes I need from it. And I do love going through my bins of FQ's and auditioning for the next project. Almost as much fun as buying the FQ's!

Dfrank27 - I checked out Debbie Caffrey's website, and it does sound like she is teaching what I was asking about. I had seen the idea in a book about scrap quilts, but I don't know if it was her book.

Rita - My LQS had a one-day class a couple of years ago, where you brought 20 fat quarters, layered them, and cut them all the same. Lights and darks were swapped out from one fat quarter to another, the individual shapes arranged into the block pattern, and then you sewed it all back together. I wasn't able to attend, but it was similar to a Churn Dash block.

Sue