I found a pretty complete binder of the Spinning Spools at the Goodwill for something like $2.00 and was just looking through it the other day.

For people who have started quilting more recently, the old way of doing things was rather quaint but it is how I learned and largely why I can draft patterns easily now. For the most part all I had were old books at the library that just showed block diagrams. No directions, no settings even for the most part. I'd consider these books to be "intermediate era" now as we do more and more with rulers and other construction methods whether paper piecing or strip piecing or whatever.

I remember these! I have both binders but didn't keep the contents. No one at guild wanted the plastic templates and patterns. The packages stayed on the free table for three meetings. I also have the Big Christmas Quilt one too, only one pattern had been opened in that one. The binders are wonderful to keep print outs of patterns. I use one for bought patterns and one for print outs. The Christmas one for all Holiday patterns. It's fun to find quilting items that use be coveted by quilters in their time.

I don't think mine are complete and I've thought about looking online to see just how many patterns are missing so I can complete them. I love these books and completely agree about being quaint, I learned just like you did so having these books is like a super bonus. I still trace my pattern pieces sometimes, just sit down with my templates, pens, a cup of coffee or tea, some soft music and can get lost for hours just tracing them out.

Before he found these, I have like three binders that I was keeping for quilting info, articles, patterns, etc. I may just do what you did and put everything into one of these books, it would definitely cut down on all the room all these binders are taking up!

I *really* wish I hadn't gotten rid of my "Best Loved" books! They were the first patterns I ever tried doing (but I should have taken a class...so I got discouraged). They were such fun to receive every month!

I found a complete set of the Best Loved at a library used book sale. It was on the $1 table. I use the binder but didn't keep the contents. As onebyone said, no one at my guild wanted them either.

On my list of organizational stuff to do in my sewing room is to do something with the various pieces of paper, templates, etc. A large notebook would be a good place to start, maybe get some organizers now with back to school sales going on.

I'm particularly looking for a set of instructions I wrote up for a class years ago. So long ago Windows 7 and those little hard 3.5" disks were the storage devices. I know I saw at least one of the pages loose in the sewing room sometime this past year, if I had even one page to work from it would help, I still have the original EQ file.

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More of his garage sale finds....

It's too bad so many computer stores have gone 100% digital, ten years ago you could walk into any store with a 3.5" and get the files transferred onto a memory card.

I bought a 3.5 drive that plugs in through the USB port! The disk that I think it is on lets me read one folder but not another. We have one backup system that I think is still Windows 7 but I'm not sure... going to try it on that system.

The data restore prices are higher than its worth to me, especially with no guarantees.