1 inch Postage Quilt UFO

Hello all

While I was moving my room I found the packages of Postage Stamp squares that I received from a swap I participating in about 2 years ago.  I'm making a 1 inch Postage Quit and I want it to be a true (?) postage quilt.  Which means to me - not one fabric is a repeat.  I wasn't sure the best way to go about making sure that there are no repeats in thousands of squares.  So the type of person I'm am - I didn't open the packages.  Well its been a few years now and I need to deal with them.

 Here are my packages waiting to be opened in my new room.

 

When I'm cutting the last of my scraps into my scrap system, I always make sure that I get at least a 1.5" square to add to my postage quilt.  The squares I have personally cut are stored in these muffin containers I got from the dollar store.

 

I've now started going through the packages and have added to my muffin tin.  A few of the packages have had repeats so I lay out all 50 squares from each package to remove any duplicates and then I've been sorting them into Lights, Darks and Brights/Unknown.

The muffin tin is now sitting behind my sewing machine so that I can grab a set of light/dark to use as leaders and enders when sewing other projects.    The white square in the top middle are my squares that I have joined.  When I want a moment of quilting without thinking, I can grab those to iron open.  I've been stalling on that step as I'm not sure how I want to store the twosies and then how I'm going to store the foursies and so on.

I would love some hints or suggestions if anyone else has made a postage stamp quilt.  How did you sort the fabrics, store your squares, and your work in progress.

Oh yeah, and by moving the tin behind my machine, I'm hoping to move this project from UFO to WIP.

Hope you have a Quilty Day.

Vicky K