How long did it take you all to get a good "stock pile" of fabrics. Did you just buy what you wanted when you seen it? Do you watch for sales? Put fabric on every single wish list for gifts?

lol With 5 kids and a husband who drives over the road for 2 weeks at a time, money left over for me is very rare. And now I'm looking around at the sites and it's not a cheap hobby. We live in a very small town. So driving an hour to the closest fabric stores won't happen very often. I know that for now I am just going to mess around with old sheets/blankets/clothes to get a "feel" for it. But I can't imagine it taking more than a month of so of me using that stuff before I want to really give it a go.

So is it reasonable to take years and years before you have a good pile of different fabrics? I guess I could just be a "green quilter" and use old clothes and blankets to make everything. Hmmm, are there any quilters who are "green" and just use old things to recycle? Would that even look good? Would I be able to make any quilts that would last for a long time, with washing them and actually using them. Sorry for all the questions. Didn't mean to get off track. I'm thinking now I should run out and hit up all the yard sales and grab the cute stuff. But want to know what all the experts think first.

Thoughts? Tips?