Cutting borders

I'm probably unusual in that I have about 100 quilt tops waiting to be quilted.  Most were made by other people for Binky Patrol.  Seems the faster I quilt, the faster by little Binky Buddies make the tops and I don't think I will ever catch up :)  I'm definitely not complaining, there is always something to work on and a quilt top for every mood.

But, sometimes I get stuck.  I don't have a backing piece big enough, or one that matches, eventhough I have about 10 zillion yards of fabric.  Or, the quilt is just a little too small for the backing piece and I figure since I have the backing already, why not make the quilt a little bigger by adding a border?  But, then I have to dig through the fabric to find something to match and go cut it  and then sew it onto the quilt top and by then, I'm not really in the mood to quilt.

So what I've started doing is pulling fabrics which are too small for a backing, but are still nice fabrics and cutting them into 5 inch strips.  I try to pull from every color I have and try to get at least 6 strips out of each piece.  Sometimes I have to cut the borders smaller than 5 inches to get the 6 strips and that's ok too.  Then, I have the borders for many, many quilts cut and ready to go when the mood strikes.  Yesterday I sewed on 3 borders and quilted 2 quilts.  Much easier to do since the borders were already cut.

This morning I am working on cutting more borders while I wait to take my oldest to the airport.  She is off to another adventure, back to her 'home' for a day and then off to Florida to visit her boyfriend and his family.  I'm so jealous that she gets to go somewhere warm.  We live in California and it should be in the 60's this time of year, but the temps can't seem to make it out of the 40-50's.  It gets really cold when you are walking in those temps.  I know, all of you people in the snow are laughing, wishing you had it so good. :)

If I get my sewing room cleaned out, you can come over!  We could have a sew day instead of a snow day. But, cleaning out the sewing room may take a few years ;)