Yvonne

You make me afarid to organize my sewing room, my hall is really small. LOL

:thumbup: I'm sure happy to know that there are more "notebook" nuts out there. I also have some small 4 /12" x 6" photo books you can pick up in the dollar stores which are very handy for little tidbits, etc. I keep one just for shopping which contains a quilt measurement chart, needle size and type, batting types, yardage conversion info, etc., and bits of fabric that I may be trying to match up and other little tidbits. This is easy to carry in your purse and comes in very handy. :wink: :lol:

Marilyn

Thanks so much for that tid-bit, I think I'll borrow your idea.

Hi all you well organized people.....
You have your stuff in notebooks & separate ones at that?! Wow. I have mine saved in libraries on computer but don't think there is enough paper to print out & I know not enough shelf space to keep them on should I do so. LOL Lucky I have 2 drives with 7 GIG each huh? I prints em as I needs em. Betty 8)

I'm not much of a saver. I copy them from library books and ones I like on line. Mine fit in one folder; and I have a lot saved on the computer.
That's it. The more stuff I have the less I can find. :roll:

Hi Betty: Thought your idea of a computer library for your stuff is great and obviously will work well with info gathered from this program. However, I find it difficult and tedious to try and scan from a hard-backed book or even magazines that must be folded back. Even flat pages are really time consuming. I think from now on I will try to incorporate both methods - even that could save a lot of shelf/filing space. What do you think?

don't forget to back everything up to CDs once in a while. I lost a quilt design that took me days to develop ... and i should know better. i'm s'posed to be an IT Geek. LOL
:cry:

Hi Patrice,
Yes, backups vip. I am a newbie at quilting, just got EQ Design Wizard, just a starter design program, am just in the process of playing around with it right now but I am thinking as I do design something I want to save or do I will just pop a cd in & put it on there to begin with. Could very well save me a lot of disappointment. But thanks so much for sounding the warning. Betty 8)

Hi Marilyn,
I think incorporating both methods would probably work well. Anyway it takes to collect the information you need. Since I am a newbie trying to teach myself this skill I need more than most. LOL I have sewn for years but quilting is a very different process. I have probably studied, researched, read, watched videos, etc etc as much for this as any college course I ever took. There is a lot to learn. I don't have and don't expect to have the very expensive machines some do, I am pretty much a make it work with what you have person. I don't really do much scanning, even when my scanner is up and running, for quilting. If I see something on the net that appeals to me in form or use of color I keep it for reference. I have 1 file that is nothing but different tips or several opinions on how something is done, like photo printing for instance. With the books I have, if they are not spiral bound where you can open them flat, I am lucky in that they have a machine at work that I can spiral bind those. I stopped buying books though. You never have all the ones you want & they are only for reference, for me. I sometimes have a lot of back "filing" to do to get my files in the folder they belong in or even deciding how I want to sort but the computer is a wonderful tool for finding and keeping information & saving it on physical storage space for sure. As Patrice suggested though, do backups. Betty 8)

Let me introduce you to another product that makes keeping stuff found on the internet quick and easy. I also printed everything, and have filled numerous notebooks. The amount of paper and ink for the printer was just breaking me. Now I store everything on a neat tiny little thing that plugs into a USB port called a Travel Drive. Some are called Flash Drives. They hold an immence amount of patterns and come in different sizes. The one I have holds 256MB. But I have seen then at 1G and 2Gs. Now I just call up this little portable drive and print what I need when I need it. Trust me, this is the slickest thing going and can be used on any computer. I often take mine to the shop to show Pam something I found on line. Also, a side note, I have an old computor with W98 and it was no trouble to install. Later computers do not need a downloaded drive to operate it. It was quite easy for me to download and was using it in just a few minutes and frees my computer space. :D