Yep! Me! And....I do the same thing with recipes! It's a sickness.

But, that said...I do have one pattern that I really like (the Vintage Bunnies design) that I found online and it's not available anymore. So, the same applies to patterns as to fabric - if you see it and you want it, you'd better print it/buy it because it might not be there later. And in the case of free patterns or "inspiration" you find on the web, you might not be able to find it again! Ha!

I have managed to tell myself that I don't need anymore books if I have the internet for patterns and inspiration. That seems to be working to prevent my purchase of books and most patterns.

Teresa - who does not know of a way to curtail this habit!

Ohhhh can I relate! My DH says I don't craft, I collect craft books/patterns. Which is ok with me as long as he doesn't get upset. We all have to have a hobby. If I live till all my quilts are done, I may live for ever.

beverly

OK OK I'm right with you. I have so many patterns and old quiltmaker magazines with patterns but that don't NOT stop me from printing every "nice" pattern I find on the internet. Hey one never knows, I remember the day Quilter cache was down and we thought we had lost our best friend! So I say keep on printing! It's ALL recyclable.........

:-)
Vicky

Thanks, Ladies! I do not feel so alone.

Sally

I'm in the same boat, ladies...I have so many recipes,I could never make them all and if I did, lord help me.....And patterns, we'll that's another story....
Dorothy

Patterns and recipes - truly addicted here. I guess there are worse addictions!!

Liz

I confess, too. I only have one notebook (large 3-ring thing) stuffed full, and twice I've gone through and pulled a few out that I just knew I'd never make, and offered them to some friends. Who knows? - what if QuiltersCache DOES disappear, or my computer crashes, etc. etc. I have noticed that I do buy less books now, and the ones I buy have to do more with techniques, or history of quilting, rather than just patterns. You're definitly not alone in this, and it is just part of the "syndrome".

Oh the same here...and how about this...I have even bought a magazine just because I saw a neat pattern in the ads..LOL, but this is OUR hobby and collecting is part of it.
Jean

I do the same thing with Patterns just got to have them LOL
Red

Well Nana

I am only 50 and I been saving them too. I will never make everything that I save. But i have them for when the mood strikes me.

nanci (IN North Louisiana)

Looks like we are a bunch of junkies. I have lots of magazines and books on quilting but I still subscribe to one. I haven't bought any books lately but you know, sometimes I just like to sit and thumb through a few quilt magazines. I also like cookbooks and have too many of them but I don't think I will change at this late date. Stitches (Nancy)

Personally, I feel real good knowing I'm in such good company. ;o)

Teresa, who doesn't drink, gamble, or run around with wild men (anymore) so she has to have some vices, right?

I come up with a new idea for a quilt EVERYDAY!!! I am only 20 so hopefully i will get the chance to accomplish alot before I die. But at this rate there is allways gonna be more ideas then time. I am glad I got addicted to quilting early in life...

Leah

I never print until ready to do a project. I download the instructions and photos and save them to a flash drive.

If the computer croaks, I still have them saved - and I don't have to store paper which may or may not ever be useful.

I do have a binder with magazine articles and photos found elsewhere, but when the binder in full, I cull old stuff before adding new.

I can always find some sort of inspiration, so I don't feel the need to print everything. Life's way to short to drown in paper.

Mary

The way I look at it, all these books I've collected over the years is my retirement fund. I'll just start selling them off on EBay when the time comes.

I, too, am guilty of killing trees by printing off every pattern 'with potential' I run across. I just know I won't be able to find it again online, if I don't.

And, I'm also more of a planner, collector, reader, learner than an actual doer, but I have big hopes for previously mentioned retirement.

I think we all have a lot in common.

Faye

Hey, I'm the one who is always posting the free pattern links from the fabric manufacturers, so I am just as guilty as you are. BUT, I have started to ask myself, "Why not get up from this computer, and go make some of the projects I've downloaded?"

Recently, I have been spending less time chatting about quilting, and more time actually quilting. Sewing the binding on a newly finished project is much more satisfying than making plans that never progress past the stage of pleasant daydreams.

I also began to realize that the reason I wasn't spending more time actually quilting was due to the state of my room. I had a table for my sewing machine, but it had to share space with my cutting mat. The apartment sized ironing board was on the FLOOR! I knew it couldn't stay like that, but I kept trying to iron while sitting on the floor instead of doing something about it.

I finally did that something. Instead of medicating my frustration by buying more fabric, why not spend the money on FURNITURE instead? For the past few days, I have been assembling Ikea furniture, and my room looks 1000% better. My sewing room is more conducive to sewing and quilting.

Yes, you need lots of ideas and options, so your pattern collection is only going to add fuel to your fire. But, ask yourself ... are you a quilter, or just a pattern (and fabric) collector? Figure out what it will take for you to spend more time actually quilting. Then do it. Don't let your pattern collection end up in the trash heap after your death. Use those patterns NOW, or give them away, if you are not actually prepared to make anything from them.

This is a big guess: Perhaps you might be a perfectionist? I always said that I was one, but now I realize that I truly AM a perfectionist, and that perfectionism leads to procrastination. Somehow, the two are closely linked. Run a Google search on "perfectionism procrastination" and you'll see what I mean.

I am learning how to keep the procrastination at bay. I am completing more quilts, and procrastinating less with everything else I do. Even house cleaning!

I wish you could see the difference in the house since I've started down the road to less and less procrastination. And not the Dr. Phil way, where you just "suck it up" and "tough it out." That's how I got there in the first place. Toughing it out when a crisis arose. I am learning new habits, establishing new routines, and I'm already so much happier.

Think. Hard. What is keeping you from quilting? What bothers you and saps your energy? What can you do to change that?

I don't intend to preach. I'm just SO excited about my newfound enthusiasm for getting things done!

Good for you, MaryLiz! I can concur!
Teresa

Teresa, who doesn't drink, gamble, or run around with wild men (anymore) so she has to have some vices, right?

This is SO funny! When I asked my husband for another bird feeder he gave me the LOOK. I told him that I didn't smoke, drink or buy COFFEE out of the machines at work so I should be able to buy bird food. I didn't think of the wild men thing. TOO funny. LOL

Vic

I have had some good entertainment from this. I know that day one of my thoughts was how much time I spend planning rather than doing. Maryliz, I'm proud that you have made progress in this area. I do sometime and sometime I make a little headway but I then fall back into my old patterns. You are right about doing it to fill in for something. When I'm stressed it is much easier to print something from the computer than to think enough to actually sew. I do try to do smaller projects at those times.

You said a lot of good things but I love Fay's idea of using all those books and patterns for my retirement fund. :) And Teresa, I agree, a girl has to have some vices. Vicky, I really like your vice -a bird feeder. You both sound like my kinda gals.

I will try to do better. I may even get real brave and join the Girls with Goals. Was that it?

As I said on another thread this is grandchildren week at Papa and Nana's house. I flew 5 hrs today and picked up the first two. When we got in the house the 1st thing my 7 year old GD wanted was to see my embroidery machine work.
I'm working on training them!

Appreciate all your replies.
Sally

The ones I print out and keep in a binder are ones I just love to look at, so I get some pleasure from them even if I never get around to making them. However, I also save pictures and patterns in my computer--backed up, of course, in case anything bad happens!

Recipes...Yeah, I have clipped and saved far too many of those, especially considering that I am not a good cook and don't really enjoy cooking (because it rarely turns out well--I tend to try to do 2 things at the same time and end up burning things). What is wrong with me? Hope springs eternal, I guess...

Well Nana,i used to be just like you,but this year i got very serious about my hobbies,of which i have/had several.I not only quilt,but also do general sewing,crafts,tole painting,and am an avid cross stitcher.

I was printing off cross stitch charts like there was no tomorrow,and my bookcase shelves were starting to bow.So this year i started weeding out those things that i don't do a lot of anymore and those things that i know i'll never use etc.Just last month i gave the library 4 brown grocery bags and 1 box full of hardback books and magazines,and a week or so before that i sold some at a yard sale.
I gave them 2 years worth of BH&G American Patchwork & quilting magazines,as i don't quilt nearly as much as i used to.The books i gave them were in like new condition and some had never been used at all.

For 10 years i worked in a quilt store,so you can imagine my stash of fabrics as well as quilting books.I gave away a lot of fabric to friends that sew,to the thrift shops etc.Right now i have a bag of quilt scraps that i've been hanging onto for a couple of years sitting here ready to be picked up by the Am Vets thrift shop this coming thursday.

Seems like every week i'm getting rid of more stuff.I'll be 70 in March and i don't want my kids to have all this to deal with when i leave this earth,even though i don't plan on leaving anytime soon.LOL They would probably just trash it,so i call myself lessoning their load!!

Kathi

Kathi - I can relate to some of your thoughts - actually, alot of them. I have visions of my kids having to wade through piles of books, magazines, UFOs, fabric, clothes, clutter, etc., so I've been gradually clearing alot of it out. I'm 65 - hope to still be quilting at 85, but I just don't need all this stuff around me anymore. It feels somewhat spiritually freeing to lighten up the load a little. I've gotten rid of half the cross-stitch magazines I hoarded, to a friend that was thrilled to have them, and pass them on to her friends, too, and now I'm thinking of getting rid of more. Probably not the thread though, - yet.