Too much information

and too little ability to process it.

I admit I am a pack rat and I have WAY too many books and magazines related to the textile arts. Usually I can find the article/item I want in a few minutes (OK, less than an hour): it's in such and a book or in such and such a magazine published about whatever year (memory linked to another life event). I found the quilt design I wanted quickly because it was linked in my memory to the OS trip we took in 2000.

However, today I spent more than 3 hours looking for an article on a particular technique. I knew where it was published (Taunton Press' Threads), I thought I knew the approximate date (prior to issue 100) and I couldn't find it anywhere. I did find a number of unrelated articles that I want to revisit and I have pulled those issues from the boxes. But I didn't find what I am looking for.

I have more than 100 issues of Threads. I was a subscriber until a year or so ago. While Threads is available locally it is very expensive and it was a worthwhile investment for me. Then there were a series of issues that failed to engage my attention and I did not renew my subscription.

There is so much information and inspiration in the back issues I have that I will never manage to use it all. This also applies to all of the other magazines I buy. But it is so much fun just to flip through all those back copies and discover forgotten treasure.