SORTING TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNING QUILTERS

Because of many requests, I'm repeating my sorting tutorial here. Many beginning quilters have problems with value and determining what fabrics are light, medium or dark. It has been my experience that sorting fabrics when you are choosing them for a quilt is very helpful with determining whether you have enough of each value represented in your quilt. I tend to go all dark if I'm not careful or all medium. At any rate, here are some strips I've cut for a Lady Liberty quilt and I'll show you how to sort them.

First sort your fabrics into two piles. One light and one dark. Here's my dark pile:

And here is my light pile:

Now sort your light pile into two more piles. You will have light-light and light-dark. Here's mine:
Then sort your dark pile into two more piles. You will have a dark-dark pile and a dark-light pile. Here's mine:
Your light-dark pile and your dark-light pile are both medium! So here is what you end up with--a pile of dark, medium and light fabric:

You can keep sorting and refining all you want. I usually only sort into the 3 groups: light, medium and dark. Then to avoid my "matchy-matchy" tendancies and get a true scrap look, I put my dark, medium and light fabric piles into paper grocery bags so that I can't see them. When I'm sewing, I close my eyes and fish around in the bag and pick a strip. Sometimes I have to argue with myself to force myself to use what I've picked but I then have a randomish scrap look.

I hope this is helpful and that the people who have been asking can use this information. My photos are dark because it is snowing here and dark - yes, snowing on the first day of spring....Let me know if you have questions! Cheery wave!