A quilter's thought process

I'm almost finished piecing a new quilt top, so it's time to think about my next project. There are seven candidates. Oh, the possibilities. . .

I have started using the "stack" method of collecting and evaluating fabrics for possible projects. The stacks reside in my guest room, mainly because I don't want to clutter up the third bedroom where the "stash" closet is located due to the fact that it's also my husband's computer room. So I have started piles of possible fabrics and patterns by the guest room closet.The first thing I do is print out my EQ design or scan the pattern from whatever book or magazine it came from. That way, I have a copy I can scrawl on and check off patches during the cutting. I used to write in my books - bad, bad.

Then I visit the stash closet and start pulling possible fabrics. You can make a lot of discoveries that way. There were only six projects in contention until I stumbled on a fat quarter collection of Pat Sloan's "Old Blooms" from 2003 that will be perfect in Carrie Nelson's pattern "Uptown Girl". (Did I mention I have a serious Carrie Nelson design fixation at the moment?) I had forgotten what they looked like and only became reacquainted when I pulled some burgundy pieces for Ms. Nelson's "Six Degrees" pattern (the pile in the green storage box). I'm not sure I ever had a plan for the "Old Blooms" fabric; I probably just saw it in my local quilt shop and fell in love with the moody saturated colors - burgundy, deep blue, olive, gold, tan. Guess it's too much to ask for fabric to improve with age like old wine.

So six became seven, and I cleared out a box to store my black and white scraps. How many classifications does that make now? Neutrals, reds and pinks, purples, blues, greens, browns, orange and rust, yellow and gold, blacks, 30's, juveniles, batik, black and white, Jinny Beyer and tone on tone, plaids, aboriginal and tribal, architectural, wild prints (!). I can't subdivide any more because I'm out of shelf space. It's a blessing that so many of my projects this summer used up stash, but I swear it doesn't seem diminished!