What I learned about my books!

I'm so glad to hear that I am not alone in getting books. And Sharon mentioned something extremely important yesterday. So many books are no longer relevant because technology has changed, and the information in the books is so outdated that no one wants it. The only thing to do is to put it in the recycling bin. And that is hard. I have a few things around here that should go in the recycling bin, but I'm not there yet, either. 

However, I spent quite a bit of time in Studio B yesterday, and I learned a few things. No sewing was done, and I'll share that with you in just a few minutes. 

I had signed up for a free conference over the weekend on machine embroidery, and while the way the classes were made available (the schedule) was a bit convoluted, I managed to watch all the videos. That was about 6 hours of video, but I finished the last one last night. Did I need to? No, but I learned something about the history of machine embroidery, gained some inspirational ideas, saw ways of how not to present stuff (I know - we are all different), and I did pick up a couple of tips which I'll use in my work. 

It was worth the time. While the conference was free, there was a massive push to BUY access to all 11 videos to have forever. I forgot the cost - something like $69 US. OK -- I get that those designers need to be paid, but seriously? The upgrade thing was way over the top, and you couldn't do anything without being reminded of that upgrade. Personally, there was nothing that I wanted to see again! BUT I am glad that I watched the videos. 

This morning I was listening (again) to The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson. Oh boy --- as I was listening, I was in over my head dealing with my quilt library. I started this task yesterday, and I thought listening to this book was very appropriate. I laugh because in the "what to do with your books" section, there I am standing with piles of books in my hands. Her suggestion? Invite your friends over and let them pick what they want. 

Hmmm --- that doesn't sound like a bad idea. The big question is—where to host an event like that? I don't belong to a guild, so I can't do this at a guild. The only thing I can do is post the books online, and if you see something you like, it could be yours. 

You remember that two days ago, I said I would work on one shelf in the bookcase. Then it expanded into one section of the bookcase, and, well, all hell broke loose! I tackled the ENTIRE bookcase.  

That included this one that I had started on. 

The left side

And this one is on the other end of the room. This set of shelves is an odd duck, and you are NOT allowed to yell at me. I have already confessed that I have significant hoarding tendencies, and I am trying desperately to get things under control. I have already stopped buying, and that is the first step. Everything you see here is a magazine. GASP!!!!! I know—I couldn't help myself. 

The magazine section of my crap

Because the other side was full, books were stashed between the two piles of magazines on each shelf. That made it a challenge to find a book because you couldn't see the spines. It was "fun" to locate a book if I didn't find it in the first set of shelves. 

I've decided that I need to make some significant changes, so I unloaded all the books from this side and will deal with them on the other side. I also found one shelf with more scrapbooking magazines. ACK. Those were on the shelf just to the left of the orange bag on top. So those got removed from the space as well. 

The piles of scrapbooking magazines

There are two shelves that I need to go through, as there are a couple of binders - hmm, what is in those binders? And the shelf below that contains all my sewing machine and serger reference manuals. It could be tidier!

These two shelves need more care.

There is one stack of magazines that needs to be filed, but the rest of this set of shelves is in good order. The magazines are sorted by title and in chronological order. As I go through the stacks, I recycle the magazines. I'm very slow and need to step up my game! 

Then the great sort began. The books were removed from the shelves, which were dusted and flipped upside down. 

Books to sort

And I'm sorting them into categories. Holy ---- I wasn't happy to just buy one book on Sashiko - I needed 7 or however many there are. I have no idea what was going through my head when I saw some of these books. 

Books are sorted into categories.

Now I have to make some decisions, so this is what I'm doing. I have someone interested in any books about dying fabric, so I'm culling those as I sort. Someone else is into intricate appliqappliquéI'm making a pile for them. Someone else asked about simpler or learning to appliqappliquéthose are going into a pile. Before I let them go, I will flip through them to make sure there is nothing I want to keep. 

This is what I still need to sort. It should take about 2 hours. The sorting is easy. And I'm sure there are one or two that will get changed to a new category as they go back on the shelves. I'm OK with that. 

Books still to sort

As I sorted, I put books back on the shelf that were about embellishment, fiber art, and stuff like that. Currently, there are three shelves filled, and I know there will be one more. Those will have to be sorted again once they are in the same location. 

As for the history books? Oh my --- I am STUNNED. Currently, there are SIX shelves of books. I cannot believe that, but I shelved them myself. And I could guess there will be at least one more shelf in the books I still have to sort. So much for thinking I'll just have a few boxes of quilt history books to move when I downsize. The quantity is significant!

My goal is to rearrange the scrapbooking magazines to accommodate the ones I found, and I'm going to try to keep that stuff on the bottom shelf. Or, now that I've moved some books from the right to the left, I may put all the scrapbooking stuff on the right and keep only the quilt books on the left. 

I need to cull more! 

Which brings me to my dilemma and what I learned yesterday. 

1. I do NOT need or want all these books. GASP -- I cannot believe I just wrote that, but as Margareta wrote in her book, the less you have, the simpler your life! I think she said "cleaner living." 
2. Some of these books are just pamphlets for making one quilt or project, and some are so old that NO ONE will ever want to make them. Those should be put in the recycling bin. GASP!! I cannot believe I just wrote that! 
3. I do NOT need to keep books that contain only one quilt, and I have already made it. Why? I just need to make sure I retain the information for the label, which in most cases isn't made, and then the book can be given away. Many of those are popular quilts I have recently taught, such as Long Time Gone and Chatsworth. Why would I keep the pattern - I will NEVER make it again. 
4. I thought I was DESPARATELY attached to those books. BUT, after going through them, touching and evaluating each one, I realized I'm totally delusional, and I do not want that many books. GASP!!!! 
5. Plus, I found so many duplicates! I'll be posting more of the duplicates from scrapbooking and quilting. How did that happen? Obviously, my brain remembers many books, but not all! 

So, as a start, I'm removing all the books on dying, duplicates, appliqué (some of them), and quilts that I've already made. I'm probably removing one, possibly two shelves of books. That is a far cry from what I need to cull. BUT --- it's a start! 

There are books about color theory (many), and designing quilts (many), Celtic quilts, stained glass quilts, and the list goes on and on. If ANYONE is interested in some quilt books, or you know a beginner quilter who might want some learn-to-quilt books, I've got a book for them! 

But it brings up a dilemma like this. Look at the leaflet I discovered!!! An Activity Quilt for children. We would call this a fidget quilt today. I told you—what someone "invents" today is NOT new, and I have the documents to prove it! The copyright date is 1999. 

Activity quilt booklet from 1999

This is where my Mom and I are the same. She likes to produce information about certain things - dates, etc. And well, that is part of my problem with keeping books. Who knew they were making fidget quilts almost 30 years ago? They were probably making them anyway before that, which is why someone wrote a pattern!

I need to document some of this stuff and then toss it. What kind of visual database could I make? I guess I could scan some of this older stuff and then recycle the original. Then file it away with tags so I could find it again? Will I ever go back? You see the dilemma. That's why people just put it back on the shelf!


Someone wanted to see the 24 small projects I'm working on for my machine embroidery goal. They are Kimberbell patterns, and they are absolutely adorable. I've no idea what I'll do with them, but perhaps if I have grandchildren, they can go there. There are two per month, and these are the January projects. One is a small pillow (the pillow form is not inserted), and the other is a door-hanger pillow. 

Two of my 24 projects for machine embroidery

I have a busy day today—OK, it's not busy. The only thing I have is the movie this afternoon. Doesn't one thing make a busy day for an almost-retired person? LOL. 

Speaking of retired, there is a gentleman who is ripping around our neighborhood in this little car. I think, but do not know if it is considered a wheelchair car, although it has a handicap sticker on the back. It looks like it has doors on the side, not the back, as would be for a true wheelchair car. 

Our neighborhood Casanova!

But I've seen this guy whipping around the neighborhood for weeks, and the other day he passed Murphy and me on the multi-purpose path. Hmmm --- is that allowed? Anyway, the guy is having fun with it. 

The girls were in their glory yesterday. It was finally warm enough to leave the door open all day, and they came and went as they wanted. I was also in my glory!!!

MOM - we love being able to be in or out as we want!

Here are the duplicate books that I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. I just shake my head about this. 

Here is one book that I think will be very interesting. Wouldn't it be nice to have a nice (digital) book about yourself with photos of all those memorable moments in your life that you can pass along to your children? What were your hopes and fears? What was life like (as someone said to me yesterday, I'm traumatized about books, as I didn't have access to a real library until my 20s)? I really must start working on the documentation side of my life that I want to do. I get that from my Mom as well. 

Freebie

All I know about my parents is what they have told me, which, unless you ask questions, is very little. This kind of thing has a deadline, so I must get myself together. But first, I am trying to get a handle on decluttering a little bit more. 

I know some of you don't have this issue, and I wish I didn't, but I do. So the first step is to take stock of what you have. Put all like things together. That is step one. Then you need to start sorting to see exactly what you have, and that is where you need to start making some decisions. I'll continue this process as I move to other areas of the house. But doing this much has advanced me by leaps and bounds. Getting started is often the hardest part, and I'm not even sure why I started this now. 

WAIT --- I know why. I was looking for a book to do with an upcoming presentation, and that just got the ball rolling. It doesn't matter what the catalyst is - what's important is to get started. 

And one takeaway from Margareta's book is, why should we ask our children, who are probably more strapped for time than we are, to deal with our mess? And it's better to deal with it before we become unable to handle it physically. 

I am trying! Yes -- I could just go in and just throw the whole lot into boxes, but I like Marie Kondo's approach. I want to thank each book, and sometimes thanking the book just takes a wee bit longer than what she does! I'm certainly getting my weight training in today!

And on that happy note, I'm out of here!!!

Ciao!!!