Craft Book Challenge

I'm joining Leisl for her Craft Book Challenge.  She is challenging herself (and anyone else who's interested) to make at least one item from one of the books in her existing collection of craft books per month for the year.  She's also encouraging people to be flexible and make the challenge fit their own style which I think is a great idea, so my goal is to make at least one item from each book in my existing collection before buying any more books.  So if I make one thing from each book in January, I can buy a new book in February.  If it takes me all year to make one thing from each book, I can't buy a new book until January - or well until I  do make one thing from each book.  Easy right?

So I'm thinking as I type, does that mean patterns, too?  And on-line pdf's?  Yep, I think so.  What if Oliver & S comes up with a great new pattern in the meantime?  Yikes.  Nope.  I've just gotta do it.  I've gotta have some kind of discipline in my life. 

I kind of want to do something similar with fabric like only buy more after I've used some.  I'm chuckling as I write this, because I mean that really sounds like common sense for every other part of my life.  Like I don't usually buy a new gallon of milk until the existing one is almost gone, and I certainly don't buy two phones or two toasters because I think the second ones are cute.  And most non-craft people (like my husband) would probably totally laugh if I tried to explain this.  I mean, do carpenters have a stash of cute little nails?  Do they get excited when the latest line of glue is released and just HAVE to have it?  Anyway, my fabric idea was to use a yard, buy a yard, use a fat quarter, buy a fat quarter, etc.  But I really don't think I can do it.  Maybe after years of therapy?  What do you think?  Are you a fabric-aholic?  What do you do keep it reasonable when it comes to your fabric stash?

Okay, so back to the Craft Book Challenge, here's my collection:

Not bad.  It really shouldn't take me too long.  You can see that I don't have that many books, but I'm really hoping my collection will be augmented after my last Christmas celebration tomorrow.  I think I actually already have made at least one thing from each book, but I can do better.

Check out Liesl's post about the challenge if you're interested in joining up yourself.  The more the merrier.  She's got a really cute little button which I'm about to add to my sidebar.

On a completely unrelated note, do you follow Pioneer Woman's cooking blog?  Did you see the meatball recipe she posted today?  I think I need to go make that right now.  I'm going to have to stop reading cooking blogs if I'm going to get anywhere with my New Year's Resolutions.

Comments

[christina]

And I had to chuckle when I saw your collection! :)

Your challenge does look reasonable at this scale. My collection takes up a tall bookcase... or umm, maybe two if you count fiber crafts... in other words, I'm beyond help at this point and honestly, I'm beyond guilt as well. I see them as reference tools, not frivolous toys, and I use at least a few every month, so thankfully, I'm already meeting the overall message.

As for fabric, well, at least it's not as bad as my fiber stash. I look at it this way -- some people collect Hummels or golf clubs or jewelry -- I collect craft supplies, and usually I make practical use of them, at some point. No worries, no angst, just good clean fun.

[Cammie]

I'm horrible about getting more fabric than I can deal with. I have officially been cut off from garage sales by the hubby. I was getting too many clothes that I wanted to turn in to something else and I now have a bookshelf, 6 plastic storage bins, and a side table FULL of fabrics (by the yard and reclaimed). I have bags upon bags of scraps. It's getting bad. Oh, and my closet doubles as storage for fabric too, I have a few shelves in there with fabric too! But hey, at least you make something with your obsession, that's more than most can say. And my personal argument any time I walk in with more fabric tends to be "But it was on sale!" or "But it was in the scrap bin and marked down and I've wanted it for sooooo long!".

[Rissa]

I like your plan! But I definitely wouldn't have the staying power to do it - good luck!! :D Can't wait to see what you create!

[Krista]

I have a very similar New Year's resolution actually. Except my goal was just to make 3 things from my craft books (about 12 books). I didn't want to raise the bar too high. haha. I was in a fabric store one day and another customer said to me, "you know drug addicts and crafters are the only ones who have stashes!?" It made me chuckle.