Well, here's one that seems to be just a natural action when you go to look for a specific fabric for a quilt -- TAKE A SWATCH -- take a swatch of the fabrics that you already have or the fabrics that are already planned for a quilt. Especially take a swatch of fabric or fabrics if you are part way in building a quilt and want to add sashing or perhaps borders or even to put on binding. It really is amazing how many variations of GREEN there are! I was in the LQS today looking to put a "looks like a solid" into a scrappy block quilt and I am so thankful that I brought along a few of the green swatches that were in the blocks -- it turned out it was not such a common green -- sort of green with a bit of blue but also sort of greyish... I did find what I want.
BUT then I have been collecting some greys and without a swatch of the greys that I already have I bought a meter of grey batik on 'spec' -- now that it is home, it is not so grey, it is sort of purply -- I don't think it really fits the greys I have, so again TAKE A SWATCH and you will avoid those little errors (but I am sure that this purpley grey will eventually find its own use...
