my friend Judy

 My friend Judy came over on Wednesday I believe and helped me sort through much of the recently donated fabric I had on my kitchen table.  I like learning from veteran quilters because each one is so different.  She told me that if I had something better to do, I could go off and do it while she sorted and organized, but I wanted to learn her style so she explained how she was sorting.  She sorted by style of fabric, rather than size or color.  I've never tried it that way.

 Once she was done sorting into about 8 piles, she helped me match every quilt top I have waiting with backing fabric.  We had one quilt top that was very strange.  I've had it for a couple of years because the fabrics were 'interesting' to say the least.  I just couldn't find anything that would go with it.  We searched through all of the new fabrics and nothing matched.  We dug through all of my old fabrics and there was nothing.

I was about to give up and put it back in the 'never to be quilted' pile by itself and finally found a blue that actually matched.  That poor quilt top will actually be quilted and finished soon.

If I had to guess, I'd say there about 40 quilts that are waiting to be done.  At the rate I'm going, they will be finished by the end of the month.  That's crazy!  Of course, that doesn't count those super size 9 patches that have been waiting for about 3 years.  I sneak those in when I have extra backing fabric that needs finishing off. And speaking of extra backing fabric, I'm getting really good at adding extra backing fabric on when I run out mid quilt.  I know I should be better at measuring the backing fabric before loading the quilt top on, but because I've messed up so many times, I can now just add an extra piece on and keep on going.  Maybe I will do a tutorial on how I do it the next time I have to add a piece.  The first quilt at the top of the page needed about 18 inches added to the backing fabric and I had it added on in about 2 minutes.  No tears were shed either this time :)