Tell your husband they are your magazines, you are keeping them, end of discussion. Then tell him to go soak his head. For a long time. Till no air bubbles rise out of the water. :mrgreen:

I have found that my tastes haven't really changed, but my ability and confidence has. So patterns that I never even considered in the past because there was NO WAY I could have done them, are now appealing. And I'm now confident enough to try techniques I wouldn't have considered in the past. Let my family pitch them in the recycling bin after I'm dead! LOL

As do I. Inspiration at different times, comes from different sources. What you "loved" 3 years ago--you probably won't "love" now.

I decided I didnt want to keep all the magazines, so I also use binders. I cut out the pattern and then file them by categories. For example, I have one binder for pieced quilts and sub-categories for bed quilts, baby quilts, wall quilts. Then other notebooks hold applique quilts, combination quilts, and other things like single blocks, or applique templates. I also have a section for finishing, and helpful hints. It works for me, but I had to make sure and mark the contents on the spine of the binder so I could find things easily.

Oh...I also have one category just with "inspiration" pictures. Sometimes the advertisements have beautiful quilts or fabrics pictured, and it sparks an idea, so I put that in the inspiration section. I also put pictures that I have taken at quilt shows in there.....with one section just for close ups of some of the FMQ that I have taken pics of....

I use a binder and protective sheets. The pattern and the templates all fit in one of the binder sheets. I can also store the tearsheets from magazines or free patterns that I have copied from other sources or printed off the Internet.

I took a large binder and sheet protectors and filed the template, directions, and pics together. separated with tabs for different types.
I also fixed one for crafts and one for sewing.

what a great idea. Will have to use that for myself

I decided on my own that if I was ever going to make any of those quilts I needed to organize them for my own sanity!

I went through every magazine and tore out the quilts I liked. I then put them in the top loading sleeves (got mine at Staples - 100 per box) that can be put in three ring binders.

After this was done I organized them into categories. For me it was applique quilts, baby quilts, traditional quilts, Christmas quilts, etc.

I then put these categories into binders. I bought the 3" binders and then some tabs to divide my categories.

Everyone thinks and works differently, but this is what works best for me.

I know someone who could NOT even think about tearing her magazines up, so what she did was take a color copy of the quilt she liked in each magazine. Usually the magazine name/date are on the bottom of the page, but if not, she would write that in. She then organized all of her magazines on a bookshelf. This way she could look through the copied pictures (she also put these in binders) and when she came to one she wanted to make she only needed to go to that magazine on her bookshelf.

Have fun!

Suzanne in VT

This is what I do, including the rethinking about some patterns. I put the post-it at the top so I can put the magazine in one of those holders. Once in awhile I will go thru a holder to see if I still am interested in that group.

I was tearing out the patterns I wanted to keep and storing them in a 3 ring binder, but then that got out of control. Now I scan them and store them on my computer. Much easier to find and they take up much less space.