Organising books

I do mine by catagory - then when I'm looking for, say applique, I find a book I had forgotten I'd got!

I need to start a section for Mathematical Quilts, Pat, but need your help on this! When will 'Book Number 1' be available?

I have my (almost 2000) patterns/books sorted into a number of categories and grouped on the shelves. So left-to-right, top-to-bottom my shelves have 3D (quilts with folded/pleated effects etc), Applique (traditional), Applique (contemporary), Bargello, Christmas, Clothing & Table, Colour, etc

Some of the groups are big - Quilting has a lot of patterns and the biggest section would have to be Applique (my personal favourite) - but it means I can go straight to a particular style/method. I have a couple of shelves for books that cross a number of styles or that are just for "eye candy".

The magazines are boxed as series (eg. all QMN together) in date order.

It helps that I list everything in an Access database with multiple search keys.

The "library" is getting a bit out of control ATM, and with so many people using it I have to check through the list about once a year. I have a loans book and everyone knows that if they take a book/pattern/magazine home they have to write it in the book. By and large it works pretty well. I do lose a few books every year, but I often find that this is because someone has helped mum by putting all the books away on the shelf, and my book got mixed up. A gentle reminder when I check the book will usually result in most books reappearing.

However, I teach and there are up to 30 people a week "browsing" my shelves so I try to maintain a system not much different to a real library. That is probably way more than most people need to do lol.

But I have always grouped my books on shelves. I like the speed with which I can find something when there is some order to things. I HATE spending time looking for things (note - that does not include aimless browsing).

I have three shelves of books in my sewing room and I have categorised them as follows:

The bottom shelf is all about crafts such as needlepoint, knitting etc

- nothing to do with patchwork and quilting. Titles will be stuff like "Creative Rug Hooking", "Soft Animals A to Z: Sew a Collection of 26 Realistic Toys" and so forth.

The middle shelf is about various techniques in patchwork and quilting

- here are the books like "Applique 12 easy ways", "An Encyclopedia of Crazy Quilt Stitches and Motifs", "Piecing: Expanding the Basics", "Star Quilts Outside the Box: Hexagon patterns from the Kansas City Star" and so on. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if a book is more about technique or more about the patterns in it. For example, "American Beauties: Rose & Tulip Quilts" has the techniques of making rose and tulip quilts, but is more about the quilts pictured within it.

The top shelf is full of books that have mostly patterns. The techniques will be straight-forward piecing and quilting. This shelf includes things like "Hearts Aplenty", "Frog Frenzy!", "12 Days of Christmas", "The World of Amish Quilts" etc. These are the sorts of books it is nice to just flip through when you can't sleep, because there are lots of pictures and you can get lots of ideas.

So I have a 3-shelf system, but each shelf is crammed. I donated about 5 books from these shelves and a bunch of others (I have 5 full bookcases!) when I moved. As I unpacked each box, it was easier to be realistic about what I am not reading anymore.

In addition, I have an annotated bibliography for my patchwork & quilting and craft books, where I can go to find out what I own, and what is within each book. Setting it up took a while, but now each time I buy a book or am given a book, I add it to the document, and it's easy to search by terms such as "applique" or features of pattern such as "frog" or "star". Maybe I should print a copy to keep by the bookcase.

-- Jo in Scotland

um,.,...we're supposed to store them in a organized manner??? whoops! Actually, I have a skinny, 2-shelf cabinet that holds most of my books and the magazines that contained 2 or more patterns that I wanted to try. I have a small3 drawer stackable storage thingy that has the single patterns, a few small fits (as in the finished picture and the directions/templates). The rest has not been tackled yet and is simply shoved under the futon in the sewing room for attention at a later date.

Larisa, hanging her head in shame

My shelf of sewing books is arranged by type: Quilting stuff at one end, down through things like bead work and pattern drafting, along by fitting and special techniques, to historical research for costumes at the other end. There's only one 4' shelf of sewing and costume related books so far, so I don't have them on the Dewy Decimal system, or catalogued on the pooter by ISBN yet...

Alphabetical by author. But I don't own more than enough to fill about a meter of shelf space. It's no great hardship to look through them when I don't remember who wrote what. I am equally likely to forget the exact title. My memory of what's in the book is often linked to the quilt on the cover, and I can't think of a good way to organize that!

Saw a tip in the last Threads magazine: To make a quick index, photocopy the spines of a year's worth of magazines. then you can quickly see what appeared each month. Of course, it only works on magazines thick enough to print all this on their spines. Roberta in D

"Patti" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@quik.clara.co.uk...

My collection is about the size of yours. It's in catagory order...eye candy (like AQS show catalogues) hand quilting, machine quilting, applique, quick piecing, complicated piecing, scrap quilts, japanese stuff.

Then I do have another shelf that has, block encyclopedias, autographed books and finally a couple big notebooks where I file magazine clippings for "someday".

marcella

I think I do mine similar to you Marcella. Loose category groupings. Unfortunately I'm a sucker for quilting books. I refuse to count them.

Most of them are on a shelf above my sewing machine, though some are on a table in the living room. No particular order to any of them, though the ones I reference with some regularity stay in approximately the same spot on the shelf. You'd think that someone who had been a catalog librarian in a former life would have a more organized system, wouldn't you? :)

Julia > I've been thinking about this for some time; and, seeing Val's post this

Ah! I had forgotten that phrase to use - 'eye candy'. Good, I have a few like that, and I have been calling them (in my mind) 'inspirational'; but they're not, because I don't think I could make anything like them. They're just lovely to look at. Right, so that's one group settled! Thanks Marcella. . In message , Marcella Peek writes

I have an Excel spreadsheet with all my books in it. I have a printed copy of it in my bookcase & the printed copy is organized alphabetically. However, I find that I often need to search by author, so I might print up a sorted by author copy as well. I input on the spreadsheet, title, author, publisher (why - because I leave near C & T books & they have a once a year sale & I've been known to pick up duplicate books, so I just print out my C & T books & bring it to the sale with me) & category if applicable.

On my shelves, I have general sewing, crafts, needlework separated from my quilting books. In my quilting book section, I have general information, such as Harriet Hargraves books, Fons & Porters Quilter's Complete Guide, etc separate from books with patterns in them. I also have separated from the pattern books my quilting motif books. I don't have my appliqué books separated out, because many of my books have both appliqué & piecing in them, so I just keep them together.

I also have a spreadsheet of my magazines. (And I keep a notebook up to date when a new magazine comes in & has a pattern I think I'd like to make. I have it sectioned off by Appliqué, Bags, Totes, Carryalls, Border Fabrics, Baby Items, Batiks, etc. I've thought about including projects from my books in there as well, but not sure I'll live long enough to complete that project!!!)

I used to organize my books by category, but I ran into a problem because so many books can fit into more than one category. Now I alphabetize them by author, which works well for me. In addition, I have a list of them on my computer (it used to be in Excel, but now it's in a program called Booxter, which is just great!). This way I can find what I want if I've forgotten which author(s) may have written a book about what I'm looking for. The list has all of the categories I'd have filed the book itself under if I'd been able to put it into more than one category. It sounds complicated, but it's really not! :)

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm Subject is organize, question is store..........

I have 3 (I think) bookcases in the cutting room. One is full of pattern boxes, sort of organized with clothing patterns of various types. Middle one is mixture of pattern boxes with patterns, mostly clothing, but some "craft/quilting", and books. Mostly clothing and general sewing books, except for one section of quilting books. third case has "Threads" and Sew News magazines, some quilting magazines and some quilting books. One shelf has pattern alteration and fitting books. There is also a pattern box or two that has/have patterns and templates and some other odds and ends of gadgets. The History of Clothing books are mostly on a shelf in the front room, and that area. Some of the needlework/crafting stuff is on another shelf unit in the cutting room. (The stuff I got when I was teaching school and doing 4-H.) fabric paint books and supplies are in the unit in the front room. There are quilting/patchwork books in several places, book racks, shelves, stacks in by where my recliner used to be, in the bedroom, on the desk and in various other piles.

I have a tee-shirt with a transfer that says "One of these days I'm going to get organized ----- In spite of my self." Not sure if the books out weigh the fabric or vice versa (an I am only talking about "my" books dealing with sewing/quilting/fiber and fabric.) Magazines are another story......

Pati, in Phx with more stash in more categories than I can deal with at the moment.

Patti wrote:

Much as I would love to emulate you, Pauline, I think that is all beyond me. I know my limitations, and I think you have reached them! Wonderful that you can do it - I applaud you. Thank you so much for setting it out - I will take snippets: like the 'general books'; and a list of the books on the shelves - the time might well come when the number of books exceeds my mind capacity. . In message , Pauline writes

I feel your pain, Pati! My 'stuff' is increasing - with all the good things 'around'! but I have a way to go to match you!! Perhaps I shouldn't try - I don't have elastic walls >g< . In message , Pati Cook writes

I have about 2-3 shelves full, about 3' shelves, including binders with magazine patterns, etc. When I had them sorted by loose type, I could find them right away. Then I had the not so brilliant idea of alphabetically by author. Now it takes me forever to find some books (like my applique ones for a class), and a flash of a second to find the ones by well known (to me anyway) authors. There must be a middle ground. I think I'm going to try the computerized listing idea. Sounds like the best of both worlds.

Hi, This thread comes at an opportune time for me. I was just looking for a book that I KNOW I own - called Simply Stars or something like that with star block patterns. I could not find it. I haven't checked in the Christmas quilt project box yet but I don't remember putting it there.

I have about 5 shelves - each about 36" long - on 2 bookcases with sewing books, and some craft books. As I was browsing the titles (and finding some I'd forgotten I had!) I was thinking, gee, this would be easier if the related books were grouped together.

I do that periodically but somehow it doesn't "stick" - I pull bunches of books out at once sometimes when I'm daydreaming about projects - but then when I have to make space to work I shove them back wherever they fit.

Some tend to stay together - I have 2 books of Snowflake quilts plus the Dover photograph library of snowflakes and those 3 books are together - but in other places there is suddenly a costuming book in the middle of a bunch of patchwork books.... I've just acquired a few books on beading and they were on opposite sides of the room.

So it's about time to go through and try to group them together in a reasonable way. It's great to see other people's categories and systems.

I tend to deal with overlapping categories by trying to put related topics next to each other so the overlapping books can be together. For example, if the categories "pattern-drafting" and "general sewing books" are next to each other, a book that covers both could sit in the middle. Then I don't have to decide which it is, I'll find it either way. :-)

Here are my tentative ideas for categories:

Costume books Pattern-drafting (clothing) General sewing books Piecing how-to and block dictionaries Quilting how-to and pattern books Artists/inspirations/eye candy Embellishment techniques Beading Dyeing and painting fabric Printmaking and rubber stamping books (stamping on fabric would be right in the middle!) Papercrafts: Card making, scrapbooking, and paper cutting.

I tend to have clusters within the larger categories, like I said with the snowflakes books being together, or the Hawaiian quilt books being together, but that seems to be easy to do when I have the larger categories in place.

The magazines are a whole 'nother story - don't think there's any hope for those. I have some in magazine boxes which stay tidier than stacks or shoving them between the books - but the magazines I look at over and over are the ones that fall off the shelf or end up on the top of the stack

- the ones in the magazine boxes just sit there. Until I decide I should throw them out, because I never look at them, and start going through them. Then I find all kinds of cool stuff, and can't bear to throw them out!

Gee, you'd think I did some of these projects with all the books I have on the subjects. Working full-time, it seems like I do a lot more collecting patterns and books than sewing! Trying to change that, but that's another thread....

Lynnette in San Jose, CA

That is exactly my dilemma, too: some authors I know well, and would find their books easily and quickly. Others I don't know and can only think 'I'm sure I had a book that included ... ...' By the computerised listing, do you mean a sort of cross referenced list? It's conceivable that I, with my very limited skills, might be able to manage that. . In message , TwinMom writes

I really like the idea of 'proximity sorting'. These answers are actually getting formed into a workable idea.

Thanks VERY much everyone. This is great. (I had no doubt that it would be, mind you). . In message , "(null)" writes