My sister gave me this block tool and I only used it once or twice because the cards were very awkward to read. The plastic peg in the lower right hand corner of the cards kept them stacked in a numerical order, but the cards had to be fanned out to read.

I have been going up the walls trying to figure out how to get this thing bound and finally I called Office Max and I got it spiral bound today. OMG, what a difference this makes. Now it will lay flat and I can refer to any of the cards with ease.

I'm sure some of you may have the same tool. Get it spiral bound and you will use it more often. Here are some pics of the cards.

In my opinion, all quilt books, cook books and piano should be spiral bound. What good is a reference book that keeps closing when you use it?

What a great idea!!!!!!!

Was it expensive to have it done?

I finally had to put a heavy piece of glass on the open book so it would stay open. For cook books that is good, the glass cleans up easier than paper, but for sewing it is not a good solution.

I didn't know that you could get an already published book spiral bound. Sounds nice.

Great idea!

I have all the books that I buy spiral bound.

Great idea!! I have that same book and the same problem with it! I am off to office Max! Thanks so much for sharing!

I do that with all my quilt books so I can see them while using them to sew. I think I pay around $4 a binding. Sometimes I put several books from the same publisher in one binding with clear sheets between the books. I go to what used to be Kinkos but is now Fed Ex Shops or something like that.

I have that too and what a great idea I will definitely be doing that

I have a crochet stitch dictionary that is falling apart. It's my favorite. I had not even thought of getting it bound like that! I have Office Depot gift cards and Staples rewards that will need to be used up (summer rebates) I am going to have to do that!

Thanks for the tip - it was a great idea. I haven't seen that block tool thingermabob before. I'll have to look in to it. :)

I have the same fan-out cards.
I never thought to have them spiral bound. Thanks for the idea.

Wonderful idea. I am going to Staples this week to get my favorites done up like this. Wonderful idea.....Thanks for sharing.

i had my Carol Doak Paper piecing books re-bound, they were given 3 holes and placed in a binder, makes it easy to copy the paper piece patterns when needed. and it is very inexpensive to do! i have that same block tool, never thought about rebinding that one, but sure makes sense! thanks for the tip!!!

I'm in the process of having all my quilt books bound at Staples!

Spiral binding is great and surprisingly inexpensive....but ..... if you have all your books done, and put them in a bookshelf, how do you find the desired title? Is there an insert for the spiral, which would allow printing the name of the book, and the author? If not, someone should invent one!

Very smart!

A lot of my books don't have the title showing anyway. I am going to google and see who does this around here!!!

I had my "Ultimate visual quilt Guide" punched for a 3 ring binder, a little more expensive to buy a large binder but this way if I find additional reference material I put it in the binder also, I keep a sheet in front with any add-ins listed.

When I was in high school we sold a cookbook for home ec (back in the olden days) as a fund raiser, and it was spiral bound so it lays flat on the counter. The fund raiser organizer challenged us to determine why it was spiral bound before telling us the reason, and someone suggested it was bound such so that the crumbs would fall out of the book!

What a great suggestion tho, thanks to all for the great hints, tips and other discoveries! That's what I love about quilters - they don't treat their short cuts as proprietary information, but are always willing to help others.

For those with Iphone, the Block Tool is available as an App. I have it on my ITouch and it works great. Very easy to use.

About $4 at Office Max.

I must admit that since I got it bound, I can't put it down. It's such a fun thing to hold now. You can't imagine how excited I am. It's the little things that make me happy.

Good idea!

i spiral bind all the free patterns i print off the internet. i try to collect a few that have a common thread -- scrappy, fat quarter, etc. then have them bound. i can store them easily and find i refer to them and use them more than if they are in my filing cabinet.

I have had several of my quilt books spiral bound at the office depot stores. Very cheap to have done.
They have several sizes of spirals depending on the size of the book. Works really great!

Amen!

We had our embroidery design book from Dakota spiral bound for the embroidery business. So much easier for us and the customers.

I think so many of us do this with our books that the publishers should consider it to begin with. It really helps and less than $5.

Great idea!
I would have thought the peg could be snapped open, so you could remove any card from the stack any time you wanted.

I bought a book making machine from ABC distributors for $20. It is made of plastic. Haven't tried it yet.

I took my quilt books to Staples and had them spiral bound, its been a few years, so don't recall cost, but not alot...

Bubblegum, Thanks for starting this thread! I have all of my reference books for scrapbooking and quilting spiral bound at Staples or Kinko's (now FedEx Office). The cost depends on which clerk is working that day . . . but it's about $5-$6 per book.




Gramalama9, I know what you mean about trying to tell the spiral bound books apart on the bookshelf. This week, I put little "key tags" on my spiral bound books to help with this. I used key tags I had in my scrapbook supplies -- cleaning out THAT stash -- but you can buy a small box of them in any office supply store for cheap. I tied the key tags to my books with string, so I can just move them out of the way when I'm using the book. If you want to get fancy, you can also buy metal jump rings in an office supply store, and use those to attach the key tags to your spiral bound book. If you want to get really fancy, then cover the key tag with different colored paper to correspond with something meaningful in the book (maybe all books in one series is one color, or your most used book is your favorite color, etc.)

Great Idea! love it!

I had 12 of my quilting books done this way and I am very disappointed. When they're on the shelf you have to check each one to see the titles. I won't do anymore this way. I'm very surprised that sooo many of you are happy with this???!!!
Happy quilting, Kutso

YES. and Bible study guides :)

If you happen to get those little tags tangled, try spacing the un-spiraled books in between those with the tags.

Several years ago I had all my Carol Doak books spiral bond so they would lay flat and I could print out the pages to paper piece with. I also have that Block Central so may have to take it and do that. I took them to a place called Kindo's and it was only $2.00 or $3.00 then. Probably more now.

I don't have the block tool. Can you describe it and its
uses for me, please?

Fantastic idea! All books that we use for reference, patterns, ideas should be spiral bound. My bead weaving books are for the most part spiral bound and it sure makes working with a pattern much easier.

For an even cheaper solution, try your local college or university. I run a resource room for education students at a university and we have a book binder machine here. We are open to the public for our services. It would cost only 50 cents to have a book bound here. You would have to do it yourself, but it is very easy and I am glad to show people how to operate it.

You can do it even cheaper if you bring in your own box of binding combs which can be bought at Office Depot or Staples in boxes of 25, 50 or 100 for considerably cheaper than 50 cents apiece. I do not charge for just the use of the machine. All part of our community outreach.