I decided that I'd give others a chance before my mags hit the burn pile. Tonight I have 44 magazines going to quilt guild for free. (I should make a sign....) It is all I can carry in the box. In 2 weeks is my other guild, and I'll take more over there. Lather, rinse, repeat. By Jove, we'll get them out of here!!

Oh, Lotti! That looks great!

i know i'm late - and i didn't really get rid of any magazines (did that back in february - went through everything i had - and 6 binders of mags a friend had dropped off - discarded loads - sorted everything else into 10 binders according to time of year and how to's), but i did get rid of lots and lots of stuff i'll never use again - 3 garbage bags - yeah. put up a new shelf today - thank you daniela - and have just finished putting all my fabrics - craft books - comic books - and all the crafts stuff away... yeah

as soon as i have some time - i'll have to manufacture covers for the "windows" to protect the fabrics from dust and light

No Houston for me this year, unfortunately. I am going to explore going to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in a couple weeks.

Lorna, does this mean that you won't be able to get to Houston this year???

Nothing like moving across the ocean to help with cleaning out all the things you haven't used while living in that house. Okay, okay, I couldn't quite part with any quilting magazines. I did clean out duplicates (how did that happen!) and catalogs. I did get rid of a couple shelves of nonquilting magazines, though. And, yes, they were in my sewing room. That was really difficult. I had several years (a decade!?) of Martha Stewart and La Cucina Italiana. When DDs came to visit for a holiday we would pull out the relevant issues and decide what to cook. We loved whipping up stuff that we wouldn't normally take the time to cook. So lots of memories tied up in those. But with the internet now a days...

I feel much lighter!

Lorna
Soon to move into a home in Brandon, Suffolk, UK near RAF Lakenheath and trying to learn to drive on the wrong, er, I mean, left side of the road.

Oh, Eileen! It's going to feel so good to clear out those magazines, and how wonderful that you have someone who wants (some?) of them!!

Margo, it's funny you brought this up. Just yesterday, I told one one of my firends that I'm going to purge my magazines and she asked for first dibs on them. I've been quilting since 1994 and have every single magazine I could get my hands on since then. I can't wait to get rid of them.
Why do we do this? I know I won't make any of the quilts but I kept hundreds, if not thousands of magazines.

WOW!! Rita, I'm impressed!! Maybe now you will want to get in there and play!

I have gone the whole hog and tidied out my fabric cupboard which my DH built for me. I folded all my fabrics using Margo's folding method (not all seen in the photo by the way) and I even put little labels on which tell me how much fabric is there so that I don't have to unfold them to see what's there. I have even refolded all my fat quarters and put paper binding on them to keep them together until I want them to come apart.{!-- ia0 -->P7250058.JPG{!-- ia0 --> This feels great! I now know where everything is, how much I have of everything and I have loads of space in the cupboard so that I can now tidy things away! Thanks Margo for getting me going with the magazine recycling idea.

Boy, I failed on this. Just returned from vacation last night. Was visiting DS and DDIL in upper Michigan. Attended a quilt show there and bought a pile of quilting books and mags. Used and cheap! My only excuse is I was with DD1 and we wanted to look at them while on vacation. My daughter and I share magazines and I have two DGDs who are into quilting so they will be looked at many more times. OK, I admit I am a collector. But, I still have room in the house!!

I'm with you, Agnes. Very few books grab my attention any more. I do enjoy magazines like American Quilter so I can see the award winning quilts from the AQS shows. However, now that that info is available on-line, I'm even stopping that hard copy subscription. As you can see, I stopped QNM in 2007.

Here is a new empty space in my sewing room. These shelves had been so full that all the magazines on the middle shelf had been scattered around the house because there wasn't room for them on the shelves!!

I shared over 6 years worth of older QNMs with quilt friends, and plan to take a stack with me to share at every doctor's office and hospital I visit until they are gone!!

Margo--You suggestion is one that never fails. One in, one out works for everything. I keep that in mind when I shop and often save myself $$$$ because what I am looking at proves to be nothing more than a slightly different take on what I already own. It also then saves me the trouble of finding a new home for the outgoing item. More time to actually enjoy my hobbies, is always a good thing. I have conditioned myself that I shop for specified items only and rarely stray to look at something that just catches my eye. As a result quilting books and magazines don't even appeal any more.

Late to this conversation...... I ususallllly pull out the articles and patterns I am interested in and put them into binders with plastic sleeves ....been doing this for years. I have binders marked : four/ nine patch patterns, art quilts, techniques, applique, machine quilting, inspiration, color and design, Interesting someday patterns, plus some other titles. Some of the books are very full, some are almost empty. Only rule is the article kept must be complete.

I also keep a file on a quilt design for quilts that I am planning i.e. my husband leaves quilt. I collected every leaf pattern, quilt designs and inspiration pictures I can find. I recently started his quilt and this is what I am using for the basis. Once I am finished I will probably keep the folder for future quilts. I am keeping these folders on one bookshelf. So far everything fits. Once my inspiration folders out grow this area I will probably cull them again and get rid of what I am no longer interested in.

I do go through everything once or twice a year and frequently cull out what is no longer of use .

Lady Rags