It's Important for Me to Know...

how I like to function as a quilter. I love buying magazines and often just browse through them, not even reading all the articles. I also have found that I don't use the patterns and usually take a photo for inspiration and make up my own pattern. Actually I think I've only ever made one thing from a magazine and that was a bag.
I have cancelled 2 subscriptions about a year ago and now I'm ready to cease another subscription. It's not that there's anything wrong with the magazines, but as I've been quilting since 1978, I find that many of the patterns are too simple or the articles are repetitive. I particularly noticed this as I spent today going through my magazine collection. I have far too many and they are taking up too much space. It would be worth giving them shelf space if I referred to them frequently but if I browse at all it's usually with books of antique quilts. I started thinning out my magazines a couple of years ago and used to tear out anything I thought I'd want to refer to again. Then I would file these pretty pictures and patterns in folders which may as well have been trash bins as I rarely looked at them again. I found that the same thing happened with patterns I downloaded and printed from the internet. I filed them and never looked at them again. It was easier to seek them again online and often there was also something else that sparked my interest more.
So today I spent a couple of hours going through my magazines and found that I saved very few pages of interest. I do like to cut and paste photos into a scrap book for quilts that interest me and I will continue to do that.
I think it's just a matter of finally knowing how I work and reducing some of the clutter that gets in the way of my progress. I know that my tastes in quilts will change but that's OK as they are always bringing out new magazines and books to tempt me.

I also plan to thin out my kits and patterns and will post about them soon.
Yesterday I managed to make another 2 sunflower blocks and I'm liking how they look. I'm working on being as accurate as possible and it's been good to practise my piecing skills.
Bye for now, Jan Mac