If you didn't know better...

I am culling my library pretty hard and getting rid of the books that no longer delight me.  As I go through I'm realizing that if you didn't know me and you looked at my shelves, you might think that I am a quilter.

More accurately, you might look at my discard box and think I was a quilter. That would be closer to the truth, but only slightly.

I did dabble with quilting briefly in and shortly after college. I even got so far as to finish one quilt top, get it basted (using three different techniques in a vain effort to find one that didn't make me want to hang myself with a spool of quilting thread) and started tying it as I had no room for a quilting frame. The kitties thought that its presence in my wicker project basket transformed both into a marvelous cat bed, and so it has remained ever since, half the safety pins and basting still in place. Binding was right out.
I don't mind a bit, because they love it more than any human ever would. It is still the sleeping spot; Bunny's in it right now this second.

That was the closest I ever came to completing a traditional patchwork quilt project.

The truth of the matter is, I love the look of a well-executed quilt. Particularly the tessellating ones like Snail's Trail or Milky Way. Absolutely beautiful. I admire the people who make them, because they require a great deal of planning and precision, and I do not have the aptitude to do that.
Actually, I suppose I do have aptitude for planning and precision, but the 40+ hours a week I get paid for it pretty much empties the storehouse. A quilt like that isn't fun for me to make. The truth is, part of the reason I have so many quilting books is that on some level I was convinced if I just looked enough, I would find a method that would make quilt-making not painful.

Didn't work so good.

I need to find a quilter who wants some large handknits done, so we can trade. They can make me a Snail's Trail and the paper-pieced Pegasus quilt I have a pattern for, and I'll knit them a couple of sweaters. We'll each pay for the materials for the projects we're getting back, and the labor will even out. And we each get to do a hobby we love on someone else's dime, kinda.

So anyway, most of the quilting books are going. Not all, though. I do crazy quilting, and some techniques, especially applique, still work. (And some of the stuff like in Fantastic Fabric Folding I will make work, because it's just too cool not to.)

Just a random thought

I wonder: how well would beadwoven bookmark made of seed beads work? Would it be too thick, or would it be OK? I'm almost sure Delicas would work fine if the normal Czech beads don't. I know they're supposed to be the same size (11/0), but they're not. They're so not.

I'm going through my craft magazines and culling pretty hard, and the beadwork magazines are getting hit the hardest. Some of them have patterns for loom woven or peyote stitch bracelets. I don't wear bracelets, but I do use bookmarks. I'm just wondering how they'd port over.