My personal library

What did I say about getting three things done in a day? Despite having good intentions, I only accomplished three things and not all of what I wanted to do! I finished a few projects on Mount Projects, but I'll share those tomorrow. They were needed for the machine embroidery class this morning. 

A customer quilt was also finished, and all quilts have been trimmed! 

Customer quilt - DONE

The third thing I did wasn't on my list, but it was a task that needed to be done. I'll be away for a few days at a quilt retreat this coming week, so all will be relaxing. Even though I need to catch up on the blog posts, I plan on doing NO WORK! It's all my "fun" stuff. So that's good. But there's a used bookstore near the retreat house, and I have to visit. But before I could, I needed a list of books. 

Otherwise, I end up buying things I don't need. In order to make a list, I need to take inventory of what I have. I read a lot of series, and some of these are older. The books aren't available on Libby or Hoopla, and they are certainly not available in the library. 

The first step was to empty the shelves. The top three shelves are my books, mostly novels. The bottom shelf is non-fiction, and I have pulled some books from there that are now in the donation boxes. 

Emptying the bookcase

There are a few non-fiction on the other side of the bookcase, but you can see that I've made a dent! So the next time the urge to borrow from the library hits me, I'd better get to these shelves instead! 

More non-fiction books

Of course, all the books ended up on the kitchen table. I'm sure DH was happy he was leaving for golf! 

The book sorting station

The big sort started. I sorted the books by author, and then I pulled out all the ones related to quilt fiction. Good grief—how many books does one need in that genre?

Quilt themed fiction

They are quick reads, and many are in a series, so I'm leaving them for the moment and focusing on some of the others. 

I pulled quite a few non-fiction from the fiction section, and they were put in the space on the bottom shelf. 

Non-fiction in the fiction section - GASP

And what's with the duplicates? Good grief!!! Now, some of these I did not buy; they were given to me. 

Duplicates

I actually have THREE copies of this book—these two and the third one, which is in a three-book compilation. 

Three copies of this book

I also found books I've already read and will not read again, so those went as well. I now have four boxes to donate and working on the fifth. 

I could be more ruthless, but there's no need at the moment, and this is my wake-up call to read those books or get rid of them!! I hope I can stick to that, as I love the library!

Oh gosh—I found this book that someone had loaned me. Yikes—I checked inside, and sure enough, there was a note with the owner's name. Hmm—she passed about five years ago, so I guess the squatter's rule applies! But it was highly recommended, so I'd better read that as I go through this downsizing process. 

A book on estate planning

At one point, I found the little picture book I made for M about one of the times Bear stayed with us. The cover has an adorable picture of Bear. I showed Murphy, and I swear she recognized him. Of course, the book is bigger than he is! 

Murphy reading Bear's book

I cross-referenced several of the series with what I've read, the order of books, what I own, and what's available through Libby and Hoopla. I now have a list of books that I "need." I only processed some of the books, but this is a start. 

We're going to be making a craft project during the retreat. One of the ladies ALWAYS comes up with something different for us to do. I won't share it yet, but I needed some fabric and decided that novelty fabric would be best. I have four boxes of novelty prints. I went through one box last night and found a couple of potential fabrics, so they got pulled. 

Sorting through the novelty prints

Technically, I didn't need to dig any deeper, but someone was looking for Scrabble fabric the other day, and I mentioned that I had some. So, I decided to continue the search. I grabbed the first box from the top and decided to take the bottom next. I've been through HALF of the novelty collection and did NOT find a single piece of Scrabble fabric. I know I have lots, so do I pick the second box from the bottom of the pile or the third? It's a 50-50 chance! 

The second box of novelty prints 

But it's a good thing to go through your fabrics every so often. I had a great time reviewing all the novelty prints I have. But what was I thinking? I was buying that stuff like it was penny candy! 

I'm so good at procrastination! Instead of working on my blog posts, I found many other diversions. I decided that I should tidy up that fleece. To my surprise, the larger pieces are already labeled! I refolded the pieces and double-checked that they all had sizes on them. I don't remember doing that, but I think Diane or maybe Helen Anne did that when we met at my house before the pandemic. 

The fleece pieces are labeled

I have a few pieces that still need to be measured and labeled, and then this tub will be full! I'm not going to put it away, as I hope to start using it for backings for Project Linus quilts in the fall. 

Large pieces of fleece for backing

I now have a full tub of fleece scraps that need to be sorted through, as well as the tub with the cut squares. 

Fleece scraps

I'm looking forward to the day (am I?) when I won't have scraps and junky stuff to sort through. Then, I can focus on sewing up stuff. But it's this junky stuff that no one wants to deal with that becomes a huge issue concerning space. So I'm trying to deal with it now, and then I can enjoy the other stuff later. OK - let's face it, I'm enjoying the scrap petting. It's therapeutic and makes me feel good knowing I'm taking charge and making stuff from scraps. 

I also emptied one more drawer in a cabinet. There are eight drawers in this cabinet, and after I empty the technology from one other drawer, that cabinet will be almost half empty! At this point, I have nothing that I can put in there, and that's fine by me! It would be nice to remove that cabinet, but I don't think I have room for the stuff in the other five drawers. But it's on the endangered list! 

An empty drawer

Of course, I had help. I swear she has to lay right where I need to sit, which makes my work more challenging. She is also fascinated by feet. 

My helper

And then there's Miss Cuteness herself. Of course, she's all smiles! She's on the sofa with her dad! 

Mom - I'm with my Dad!!!!

I swear we've had a bunny population explosion in our neighborhood. They were everywhere yesterday, but we usually spot at least one every day, and they love to live on our street! 

A bunny

Murphy is getting better at containing herself, but it also helps that I'm holding onto her leash with two hands, just in case! 

I have two presentations this morning, and it feels very weird to know there is something on the calendar! One of the presentations is done, and the other is not. The pictures are all waiting to be loaded, so it won't take long to sort them since many of them are mine! 

I have loads of things to do again today, but I'm in slow-motion mode these days, and that's OK. I'm going to try and finish up some niggling little tasks - like the fleece and looking for the Scrabble fabric. I'd like to leave Studio B looking somewhat normal. And the next quilt is loaded on the long arm! 

On that note, I'm out of here! 

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!


























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