Remember the mystery fabric, an Alexander Henry from 2001?

This morning I discovered a second colorway in my stash. It too is mysterious, except that the colors are such a throwback to the 70's, who wouldn't love it? Also, with this colorway the higher contrast makes the striped patch jump out.


But the discovery of the second mystery fabric highlights the nature of my fabric stash. I essentially have two stashes: fabrics with less than a yard that are housed in wire drawers and fabrics of a yard or more stored as flat folds on shelving units. Each stash is sorted by color with a few exceptions such as stripes and novelty.

I could also argue that these two stashes are divided historically because I rarely buy more than 1/2 yard anymore. Back in the 80s, the saying was to buy at least 3 yards of any fabric that you truly loved. There was so much less variety in patterns and colors. Yellows were particularly hard to come by. Or a very dark print. In fact, we built fabric stashes to compensate for the color trends that made jewel tones available one year but not the next. And, of course, let's not forget the pure pleasure of wallowing in piles of fabric.