You know more than you think you know

People's minds are amazing. We have enormous storage capacity but not necessarily a good indexing and retrieval system. I was reminded of this while talking to my sister-in-law, a beginning quilter.

As she showed me some of her first projects, I gave her tips and recommendations on planning, calculating, cutting, designing and sewing. At one point, she said "How do you know all this?"

I don't know. . . I just, well, do.

Every time we read a quilting magazine or book, watch a television show or video, every time we look at a quilt display or cruise through our local quilt shop, we are gathering information. Some of it, we're maybe not even consciously aware of. Because we're interested in the subject, our brains grab onto new things and tuck them away for future reference.

It's the getting these facts back out to use that's the problem.