The end is in sight

Sorting fabrics has been an interesting test of what I remember from the classes I took from Eileen Trestain.  (I was lucky enough to take four years of quilt history and fabric dating classes from her a few years ago.  There is a label for the posts from each class in my label list on the right sidebar.)  I found many fabrics in the "non-reproduction" stacks that qualify as reproduction fabrics.  Last night I sat down and examined the photos of fabrics from each time period in her book, and realized I'd missed even more that I should have identified.  Once day I'll go through each stack again to pull those out. (After I've recovered from this project!) 

Here are the important fabrics I have yet to sort - golds, yellows, oranges, and non-reproduction beiges and tans. 

I should be able to do these in one day, but it won't be until I get back from this weekend's knitting retreat.  Yesterday I finished the reds and the reproduction tans and beiges.

All of the reproduction fabrics I received from Eileen when I took her classes are in a basket under the cutting island.  The pieces are small enough that they would get lost on the shelf.  I will use them for finishing the class quilts first, and then will start including them in all my other quilts.

Finally I will need to deal with this mess.  Fabrics I don't see myself using any time in the near future.  I will sew many of these together to make a bolt of  "quilt backing fabric" as I did before (see this post).  All the florals .will definitely be used this way.  Holiday fabrics and brights will go onto top shelves.  The rest - I can't even remember what that includes - will be dealt with in one way or another.  I'm not worrying about those until I take care of the rest.

 (And yes, if you have eagle eyes, you can see some reproductions in this picture.  These are set aside for pre-washing.  They are here so they aren't in my way in the other room.)  I'm confident this process will be done by the end of next week.  I'll be so glad to have it done, but also so glad I did it.

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Gratitudes:

1. Coffee with a friend that I've not seen for almost a month
2.  A quilt show to see this afternoon!
3.  A spring rain to water our thirsty plants - and souls.