Great minds think alike! I do the same thing. :)

I also put post-it-flags on very special patterns I want to make in magazines and store them in a separate magazine holder from the rest. Meanwhile I'm also trying to go back through the scads of magazines I've collected that do not have anything I'm interested in making and will pass them on to a quilting friend.

Unfortunately that project is probably going to take years as it's waaaay down on the "To Do List". :o

I won't go into how my collection is organized. If I came across shelves and shelves of quilting books; I would first look at the ones that are about something I want to learn, or that are about something Im really interested in and want to expand on.

My shelves are grouped by technique. Traditional, baby, PPing, contemporary, educational., etc.

I like to pick up Q books at yard sales and 2nd hand shops. I once found one with many notations in it about the quilts made from the patterns and it is my favioite book just because of this passing on of information. So I now also love to write in my quilting books, listing what patterns, dates and info on instructions or how I changed it up a bit. In my way, I leave my little impression for the future.
peace

I have mine sorted by technique.

Mine are filed by the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) method right now. When I have time, I will probably arrange by subject...HAH!

Mine are arranged by technique, type of quilt (baby, log cabin, scrappy, etc. I also have several 3 ring binders of hints, patterns, etc. that I've downloaded and they are generally arranged the same way.

Mine are arranged by how high the towers will go before the avalanche. Usually in four categories: 1. before rotary cutting, 2. after rotary cutting, 3. hand & old time machine quilting, 4. quilting techniques from "Continuous Curve Quilting" to the present.

I have mine by technique PP, applique, art, traditional, baby, FMQ, etc.....

Technique, definitely!

Jan in VA

To arrange them by technique.

To preview and then scan what I want I just plain 'ol do it one book/magazine at a time. I prefer to scan and save what I want to keep so I will have less paper clutter. Then i can recycle a complete book/magazine.

ali