One would assume with my husband home, recovering from heart surgery, that I would have heaps of time to stitch. Not so. Oh, I've played around with patchwork, and done a bit of stitching, but my heart hasn't really been in it. Still, I haven't been wasting my limited spare time. Like most of you reading this blog, I have a vast pile of books, magazines and miscellaneous articles in folders relating to patchwork, stitching and other crafts.
(This is not all of them)
It takes forever to find a particular article that I can remember seeing, but not remember where it is. So a while ago, I listed all my magazines, and wrote under each heading a list of the projects in each magazine that I was interested in. 
These pages got very messy after a while, as I added stuff and crossed out stuff.A couple of weeks ago, I decided to do something about it. I found a leather covered journal at Savers last year, as good as new, no writing in it at all.
I didn't know then what I'd do with it, but I figured it would come in handy. It has! From my tatty lists, I've copied down the information again, one magazine per page of the journal, with specific projects listed underneath, along with reminders for myself about any changes in style or fabric I thought of.
My friend Val saw this yesterday and asked why I didn't set up a spreadsheet or database thing on my computer. Well, several reasons really. Firstly, I don't have the skills to do those things on my computer. All I do is type. I've got Microsoft office, Excel, Word, etc. there somewhere, but I wouldn't have the foggiest how to use them, and by the time I learnt, I will have written up my book! Secondly, to put all the information on the computer, I'd have to drag all the magazines into another room, and switch back and forth between each magazine and the computer, to load all the information. Finally, if I want to find one of my projects, it is so much easier for me to look it up in my little journal, than turn the computer on, log into the relevant program and click around until I find what I want. Also, if the computer crashes (frequently) I wouldn't be able to access the files anyway, and my little journal isn't going anywhere except my craft room. Nuff said?
6 comments:
That's a very sweet piece to add to your collection.
You are a woman after my own heart. I'm a software developer and yet I still prefer the old pencil and paper for so many things. Every time I refer to my notebook, my co-workers think I mean my computer. Little do they know I mean the spiral notebook that I have next to my computer with all my hand-written notes!
I think you always have time for a little think about the projects whilst handwriting
Great find at the opshop and a good price too. It will give you the incentive to keep looking.
Give me pen and paper and a book to write in any time, quicker to open than a computer too.
Well done,Gina. I've been using a typewriter, then computer, since I was 12 yrs old, but still love to handwrite notes in journals. Hope your hubby's improving, mine has has a few setbacks this month, lots to trips up to the Austin. ~ L.
Congratulations on being oprganized! Me too, I still prefer writing whatever it is, be it the list of things to do, projects, WIPS, UFOs, the list goes on and on and I will still do the old-fashioned way, with pen and papers or notebooks.
The journal is a great idea. Much better than the computer for this purpose(in my opinion). You could even paste in little swatches of fabric and include notes of things you actually get around to making. You can also take the journal with you when shopping and match product to project or scribble in ideas as you think of them.
Post a Comment