craft book – tierneycreates

My collaborative art quilt partner, Betty Anne Guadalupe and I will have a show, “The Collaboration”, opening at Twigs Gallery during the 4th Friday Art Walk, in Sisters, Oregon on Friday, March 25, 2016. The show will run through April 2016 and will feature art quilts we created from “rescued” quilt blocks (projects discarded by other quilters and reinvented/reimagined by us), and recycled materials.

Several of the pieces I have discussed on the tierneycreates blog, including We Will Not Be Discarded! and Tree Outside My Window, will debut at this show.

Below are images from the March 2016 issues of Cascade A&E Magazine (Central Oregon’s Arts & Entertainment Magazine):

Books, Music, Podcasts, My Minimalism Journey

Craft Book Purge

February 2, 2016June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Yes I did it. I purged some of my HUGE craft book collection (see earlier post Craft Book Hoarder?!?!?).

Last April when I counted, I had around 370 craft books (on quilting, sewing, beading, knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking, card making, etc.).

Last weekend, I was ready to again take on thinning out my craft book collection.

Over the past couple of years, I have been able to let go of a lot of “stuff” as I move towards a life focused on experiences, not “stuff”. I even let go of a large amount of fabric that I was keeping “just in case” (see earlier post The Fabric Purge!). My craft books, however, all seemed so precious, and it has been difficult to part with them.

Suddenly I was ready. Following the principle’s in Marie Kondo’s wonderful book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, and pulled ALL my craft books out and went through them one by one. This took nearly 4-6 hours to complete.

My primary criteria was: “Will I truly ever make something in this book?”. Using this criteria I was able to lighten my load by over 50 craft books.

The photo below shows the growing stack for DONATION in my laundry room.

The cool thing was even while I was re-shelving and organizing the books I had decided to keep, I was able to weed out even more that I realized I do not need.

Last Monday, with the help of Terry the Quilting Husband, I dropped off two huge bags of books to our local public library. They will either go into the library’s collection of craft books for circulation to library patrons; or they will go to the Friends of the Library which will sell the books to raise money for the library. One of the library staff gave me a huge “thank you” on donating the books – she was amazed how many of the books were brand new and in excellent condition.

I have no regret over the money I spent on these books I never used, because they are going to either circulate in my beloved public library or raise money to support library activities!

(Yes I still have a lot of books left and I love them all. Let’s see if next year I can do another craft book purge…)

Books, Music, Podcasts, My Minimalism Journey

Craft Book Hoarder?!?!?

April 7, 2015June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Isn’t realization the first step to admitting you might have a problem?

Have you watched the TV show on A&E Network – Hoarders? Well I am not at that level (yet), but I do have some concerns over the size of my craft book collection. I finally made myself count and I have 370 craft books.

I have crafts book on:

Quilting (of course)
Knitting
Crocheting
Beading
Pillow making
Bag/purse making
Potholder making
Scrapbooking
Organizing your craft space
Art inspiration
Beading
Metal clay
Felting
Etc.

In addition to craft books, I have quite the collection of crafting related magazines. I refuse to count them. I am still reeling from the shock that I have 370 (or more as I likely under counted) craft books.

So what am I going to do about it? I already gave away all the books I know I will never use to local charity thrift stores (some of the books I originally bought from a charity based thrift store, so I am completing the cycle).

What I would like to do (complete fantasy) is the make at least ONE ITEM from each book and then post it on my blog. That could be 350 new craft projects I would complete (at least 20 books are about organizing and inspiration not the actual making of a craft).

I am going to do it. Maybe. Watch in the future for an ongoing series of blog posts about actually making things from my craft books. Perhaps. For now, I am seriously going to work on curbing my acquisition of craft books. Definitely.

This post serves as an addendum to the post Living with Less?!?!?! to further support why I would be challenged to scale back to 100 personal items, though I still daydream of living this minimal.