Magazines

I love quilt magazines.  I don't treat them very well.

I get too distracted to actually read them cover to cover, but I like to thumb through them and look at the quilts for a bunch of reasons.  I also hate instructions.....actually, I'm one of those right-brained people when it comes to instructions.  They frustrate me and I get lost in them.  It's a good thing I can look at a picture to break down the blocks and make the quilt that way.

I still love to buy magazines.  There's usually at least one quilt in a magazine that justifies me buying a magazine.  I have my favorites that I almost always buy regardless of the projects.  I like Quiltmaker and BHG's American Patchwork and Quilting in particular.  I've also taken to buying BHG's Quilts and More.

This is what ends up happening to my magazines, though.

I buy them, look at them, dream a little, and sometimes immediately go out and get fabric to make a quilt that really strikes my fancy.  (Sometimes I start the quilt right away, but usually it all get put together and stashed.)

The magazines sit around for awhile before I get weird about worrying that I'm having issues like my mom.  I look through them one more time.  If I decide I would really never make a quilt out of the magazine, I put it in the give away bag.  I usually can find at least one project so I rip it out of the magazine and that goes into a pile for awhile.  After the pile gets big enough or messy enough, I might put in in a binder for safe keeping or away somewhere.

After a very long time....usually years....I go through my quilting stuff to decide what I really want think I'm going to use, etc.

I've been writing about cleaning up my quilting stuff in the past couple of posts.  I brought up my books and all these binders.  I've given a bunch of books away.  I went through my binders the other night.  I pulled out the projects that still struck my fancy and I'm throwing the rest of the ripped pages away.

Yes, all this is very strange and weird even to me!

If I really had the patience, I should try to save it all.  I've considered scanning things and saving on a thumb drive or something.  I actually should do this from now on with any of the magazines I buy.

I shouldn't buy a magazine unless I'm going to make a quilt right away in all reality.  I'd save myself a lot of trouble and money.