The great quilt magazine cull begins!!!

Oh my!!! Yes, Jackie - you have a point. My list was mostly "don't do this," and it's always better to keep it positive rather than negative. So I will turn that list around, but not today. However you prefer to see your lists, that list is a very important one for quilters/crafters. I'm going to blame it all on those marketing people who created the NEED for us to want more and more and more! 

I couldn't agree more about the magazine titles. Some titles are strictly fluff, and I will have no qualms about going through them and tossing them. But Quilter's Newsletter was one of the BEST magazine titles around. Great quilts, great eye candy, and great articles. I was very sad to see it go. I don't think I have the entire collection, but I have most of it! I'm leaving that one for last. 

One of the most common things people do when culling magazines is go through them, rip out the interesting articles/patterns, and put them in page protectors. And it sounds like one of you found someone's binders of culled patterns. I think I have two or three binders in the office. 

The 5.5-hour drive home was uneventful, but I broke it up with several stops. In one town with FOUR Tim's, it took us a minute to get to the right one, but we managed. We had a great visit, as we don't see each other that much in person. Google Maps isn't very helpful with Tim's locations, unless you give it a specific address. 

I'm sure you have all noticed the ordering kiosks in Tim's. You can order at the kiosk, on the app, or directly from the counter person. After seeing this, I suspect they are trying to get people to use the kiosk or the app. 

Hmmm -- a bit impersonal??? 

I will confess, I'm a bit stunned. They are forcing the consumer to act in a certain way. What if I'm a senior and I want to use my card, but I also prefer interacting with a person rather than a kiosk? They have taken that ability away from me. I think that's a bit much. Personally, I dislike ordering on the app, and I hate the kiosks. Although the ones yesterday did work fine. 

I only frequent that place when I'm traveling, so I guess I don't really care, but I thought it was a bit contrived to force customers to use the kiosk, leaving staff to prep orders but not take them. 

On one of my stops along the way, and you have to love hands-free in the car that will enable you to send and receive messages without taking your hands off the wheel. I met a friend in a carpool parking lot, and we completed the Great Disney Puzzle Caper! 

A Disney puzzle to add to my list

One of next year's themes is Disney, and now I have a Disney puzzle to work on! 

OK—after I got home and unloaded the car, I took the girls for a walk; let's make that a forced march. They were like sled dogs, so excited to get out. If they were hitched to a wagon, we'd have been flying around the neighborhood!

MOM - you are so slow!!!!!

Both of them were at the full extension of their leashes. Then, on the way home, Murphy realized she'd overdone it and was calmer, but not by much! 

The big thing I did after unloading the car and taking some stuff downstairs was look at that bookshelf with all the magazines.

Sigh --- where to start?

This shelf has magazines and books on it, and for the most part, the magazines are sorted by title. Not necessarily in order within that publication, as they have been shuffled around multiple times. But the titles are in one pile. And there are a few instances where there are two piles of the same title, but they aren't necessarily on the same shelf. Hey -- it's better than one huge unsorted pile! 

As I browsed the shelves, I settled on Quiltmaker as my target. I wanted to start with something that I considered fluff so it would be quick and relatively easy to browse the magazines and then toss them. When I get to the more in-depth content, I'll be practiced enough to toss them without much thought. 

Now you may think—why don't you just toss them and I could. Since many of them have never been opened, and I spent a lot of money on those, I want to get my entertainment value from them. And since they are my magazines and I'm working on my schedule, I get to decide how to deal with them. If you have magazines and want to toss them without looking, be my guest!! 

I'm also enjoying looking at styles, trends, what's come back, and hopefully finding some inspiration. I am not planning on keeping any patterns, but I may save the occasional article, which I might just scan and tag so I can easily find it again. 

Since this is going to be my entertainment, it's also going to be your entertainment, without the hassle of you physically moving them, browsing them, and then tossing them. 

Here's what happened. I found TWO piles of Quiltmaker on the shelves. 

Two piles of Quiltmaker magazine

That freed up some shelf space, which you can see doesn't get dusted very often. On some of the shelves, the magazines were standing upright between two stacks, so I took some of those and laid them flat. There are no empty spaces - yet! 

An empty space, which soon got filled again

Then I sorted them because Quiltmaker came up with some special issues, and of course, I had to buy those. 

Sorting the titles

And yes, I found a few duplicates. Three of them, to be exact. 

Duplicate (May/June 08)

And another duplicate (March/April 09)

Oh gosh -- yet another duplicate!!! (Jan/Feb 2015)

And yes  - can you believe that I found THREE copies of one issue? Why? I just shake my head. 

Seriously?? This is just wrong.

A couple of issues were still wrapped in the plastic because some insert or CD came with them. 

Still wrapped in plastic.

This is how I marked patterns that I wanted to keep. A sticky on the front. How helpful is that when I want to go back and find something? It'll be interesting to see which ones I earmarked, as I'm sure I have ZERO interest in ever making those. 

The way I flagged patterns I wanted to make (totally useless!)

Once I sorted the piles by special issue or magazine, I sorted them by date, with the earliest ones on top. 

This is the THIRD ever Quiltmaker magazine published. It's the earliest issue I have. 

The third edition of Quiltmaker

And look at that date!!! Spring/summer 1983!!!! Surprisingly, the magazine cost $3, which I think was high for that time. 

Spring/Summer 1983

I have about ten issues from the 80s and early 90s before I started quilting, so I must have purchased those from a members' boutique at a quilt show. 

This is the most recent issue I have. 

My most recent Quiltmaker magazine

It's dated Fall 2025. In the last 8 years, I mostly purchased one per year! I bought most of my magazines in the early 2000s, when I was new and had no clue what I was doing! 

Quiltmaker Fall 2025

Here are all the special editions they published. 

Special editions published under Quiltmaker 

Almost all magazines provide their general instructions for constructing a quilt. I browsed through it to see what had changed since then and now. Remember, this is 1983 - that's 43 years ago!!!! 

Instructions for pressing and blocking

Those pressing instructions still pertain to today; however, I think the quilt world has gotten lazy and just presses seams open. There is NO REASON to do that. Press to one side. I love that they use the word USUALLY to the dark, because sometimes it makes sense to press to the light. 

As for quilting, not even a mention of quilting by machine. Think about it—NO ONE quilted by machine in those days. Wait—some rebels did, but it was frowned upon. 

Hand quilting ONLY

The other option mentioned was to tie the quilt. 

Or you could tie the quilt.

There was no such thing as a quilt backing in those days. They called it a LINING. 

Lining instead of backing!

Bindings were not mitered, nor were they double-folded. Now remember, this is all according to this magazine. Remember, in 1983, there was no internet, there were few quilting books, and only a handful of magazines. Everything was taught in person and techniques were handed down. 

Instructions for binding

After looking at the patterns in the magazine, there were NO articles, just patterns; you will NEVER complain about a modern pattern again. No cutting instructions! You had templates and instructions for making the templates. Yes - rotary cutters were available, but not widespread. I found an ad for the Olfa cutter in the back. 

OH MY gosh—that looks complicated!!!!! 

Diagrams only -- few words, and this one has curved piecing! 

I love everything log cabin and was templated to keep the pattern. 

Beautiful log cabin quilt

But based on how it's pieced, there's no way I'm going to do that. 

The block - can you imagine making that point? 

And even back then, there were drawings of some of the quilts. This is a graphic image, not a photograph. I was very surprised to find that. 

A graphic, not a photograph

There was a great spread on how to choose and use quilting motifs. This would be very handy for someone, but many people take their quilts to a long-arm quilter! The motifs are for hand quilting, and it showed how to combine one design to make larger designs that would fit a block, a border, or whatever shape you want. We can do this on our computerized machines now, but you can still do it by hand: create a stencil and then quilt by machine. 

How to choose a quilting motif

But here is very savvy advice for choosing how to quilt your quilt. This still stands today!!! 

Savvy advice for choosing quilt designs

And let's not forget how lovely the fabrics were back then. That Patchwork Place offered these patterns. Remember them? They no longer exist, but they published many, many books over their time. By the way, Quiltmaker was founded by Bonnie Leman, who also founded Quilter's Newsletter.

Patterns for sale

OMG ---do you see what I see? GEESE!!!!! 

Yes—making stuffed geese back in the day was a huge thing, along with other country animals. But today, PORCH geese are making a big comeback, with people making seasonal clothes for them!!!! 

And even back then, the magazine had fabric you could buy. The tagline is "Easy armchair shopping for beautiful, high-quality fabrics at bargain prices." You could buy by the yard or fabric packets. There's a small order form which you had to mail in! 

The magazine sold fabric.

Oh my gosh—what a trip down memory lane that was, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Was it worth it? You bet! And I got to share the experience with you, too. 

With the duplicates and another magazine I brought on my trip, I tossed six magazines last night! 

The nice, orderly pile is on my puzzle table (thanks, Elle), and I plan to tackle one, if not two, each day. I found ONE page that I kept as inspiration for the scrap quilts, and that will go in a specific box for that fabric. The rest is gone. 

After pulling that stack from the shelves, I realized that if I only get rid of one magazine a day, I'll be at this for years! So it's good I'm starting now! 

I have more to share, but that's all I have time for this morning. 

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

PS -- By the way—I have been slowly and sporadically culling magazines; this technically isn't the start! But it's the start of the dedicated cull!