15 Minute Studio Spiff Up #8

It's time to start a new area to spiff up in our studios.  It's going to take me a couple of weeks to get this area the way I want it -- partly because I have a lot to do and partly because I've got a lot going on this week. 

This week's assignment is: 

Time to organize and straighten up your books.  

Yep, I've been avoiding this chore for quite a while.  A year or two ago I started listing all of my quilt books in an Excel file.  I'd really like to have a list of books that are in my collection so I can quickly check to see if I own a book rather than have to look at each title.  I found the beginning of my computerized list and have now been adding to it.  When all books are listed I will organize them on my shelves.  This shelf hasn't been listed yet. 

Having been a school librarian I have a thing for "edging" my books.  That means the books line up evenly along the front edge of the book shelf.  And, oh my, they look so nice and neat when they are edged.  But the big issue will be how I will organize them. My first thought is alpha order by last name of author.  That works pretty well unless I don't have a clue who the author is but I remember I want that appliqué book.  One thing I didn't add to my Excel list is subject headings.  Oops! Hum, nearly 80 books have been listed and no subject indexing.  Not too smart from my point of view.  

This shelf is where I'm moving books after I list them on the computer.  The books to the left of the slanted books have been entered.  Wait, I've got nearly 80 books on the list and that's not enough books on the left.  Hum, part of the list has already been done so I guess I haven't come to all of them.  I need to finish my computer list and then make this look good. 

Do you still buy lots of books?  I find I really don't. I have these two shelves for the most part.  The copyright dates on my books range from the early '90s up to 2014. I've lost my first quilt book, Quilt in a Day's Log Cabin in a Day -- it was published in 1980. As you noted in my last post, I'm still making log cabin blocks! Between the books I currently own and the easy access to quilt patterns on the internet, I really don't need to buy too many books. 

So how are you all doing with your "spiff up?"  Next week I need to have my secondary sewing machine desk cleaned up as I've got my friends Nancy, MaryBeth and Sharon coming down for a mini retreat.  We were going to go down to the beach but the weather there has been awful. The Outer Banks has had below freezing temps off and on for a week or so plus snow a couple of times this week.  We're looking at getting 7 or 8" more snow overnight at home. Most of the snow from last week has melted but not too many days are getting over 32º.  Spring ... spring?  Where are you? I guess I need to get some more spiffing up done and quilting! 

Happy Quilting All!