I must confess.

I HAD a 5 shelf commercial bookcase in my sewing studio FILLED with books and magazines.  (Hey, I’m a librarian by trade!)

Today, I still have the bookcase, but 60% of the books and nearly all the magazines are gone. What’s left will be arranged by subject (garments sewing quilting, embroidery, general reference, craft business, kid’s sewing, etc.).

I donated the last of the books to Better World Books this morning. Apparently, several others in my area must have had the same idea!  The organization has several collection bins locally. I had to go to 3 separate locations before I found a bin that had room to take my books.

Moving forward:  I’ve been sewing for a long time.  Honestly, it seems that much of the content published in books and magazines today is simply old content repackaged and gussied up a bit. I already have a good print collection in my personal library. In the future, I’ll look to borrow books from the local library or simply flip through them at the newsstand.  My wallet will thank me!  My print magazine subscription list has also been narrowed down to: Block Magazine (Missouri Star Quilt Company) and American Patchwork & Quilting (Meredith).

While I prefer printed books and magazines for pleasure reading/browsing, I find myself moving more and more toward a paperless office with the record-keeping side of the business.  I use an app to keep up with the die-cuts for my Sizzix and Accuquilt Go! systems.  It took some time to input the data, but boy, does it save time when planning projects and needing to see a photo of the finished applique for placement of the cut pieces.

Can we just show pictures of cute puppies or vintage sewing machines everywhere until we get some awesome photos of the solar eclipse on Monday?

I am over all the negativity in the news media.  And the double standard.  And the lack of decorum and civility.

Just. Stop. It. NOW!

*Sniff.*  *Sniff.*  

Old Faithful (what I dubbed the very first sewing machine I bought for myself some 20+ years ago) is no more.  She’d been relegated to the stable of sewing machines kept at school for Friday clubs, but I occasionally borrowed her for kid’s classes at the quilt shop when needed.  Which is why I went rummaging through her accessory box on Wednesday afternoon looking for a specific foot (found it!).  I also left the machine out on the news desk to be put away in the morning (as I had done many times before).

Well, Thursday morning, I heard a crash and one of my students came running out obviously upset.  One of the boys had tried to move the machine so they could set up for the morning broadcast.  Yup.  You can guess what happened. Old Faithful hit the floor upside down and broke in several pieces – bobbin winder, presser foot lifter, bottom case cracked.  I tried to get her sew, but it was very wonky and strained.  My fault for leaving the machine out. The boy who had dropped the machine was so apologetic and literally cringed like he expected me to lay into him. What good would that do?  It was my fault for leaving the machine out.

So, Old Faithful was given a proper send-off  this afternoon. Hopefully, none of the scavengers at work resurrect her from the dumpster and set her in my office over the weekend.

The sewing machine was put in the dumpster for a reason people. Does.not.work. and not worth it to try to fix.  Believe me, I got my money’s worth out of her over the past two decades!