Episode 199: What Do I Do Now?!?

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Atlanta pix! To your right, me and “Meeting of the Geese,” and below is me and the most amazing Quiltin’ Jenny! Isn’t she gorgeous?

 

 

 

Author Frances O’Roark Dowell (l.) celebrated the launch of Birds in the Air (Milton Falls Media, Sept.) with a trunk show and book signing on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, at the annual meeting of the Atlanta-area's Chattahoochee Evening Stars Quilt Guild. The show featured a number of quilts by Dowell (Dovey Coe, The Secret Language of Girls, Trouble the Water) incorporating variations on the traditional Birds in the Air quilt block, a central element in her new novel -- her first for adult readers.

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To your right, a gathering of Twilters: me, HollyAnne, Quiltin’ Jenny and HollyAnne’s amazing baby, Ian.

And below, signing books. That marvelous creature directly to my right is Miss Adelle, who drove up from FLA! To her right is Marie, one of the amazing Chattahoochie Evening Star quilters. What a great guild!

 

 

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What newsletters do you subscribe to? I just signed up for Quilting Rainbow’s newsletter, which is quite fabulous (and not just because the current issue has a nice mention of Birds in the Air!).

Other newsletters I enjoy:

Meg Cox’s Quilt Journalist Tells All

Abby Glassenberg’s While She Naps

Jessica Skultety’s The Wonky Press (a modern quilting newsletter)

What am I missing? Let me know!

Seems like we’re hearing more from people who are leaving the quilt and crafting industry. Here’s a post about one quilter’s reasons why: http://kristawithersquilting.blogspot.com/2016/10/what-happened.html

There’s also a recent Crafty Planner podcast in which Sandi interviews a former craft business pro and podcaster Diane Gilleland (Crafty Pod) that’s worth a listen. It seems like a lot of folks are rethinking their decision to monetize their creative passions.

Thanks to Jane for sending me this link to a Leah Day tutorial on burying threads!

Reading:

Just finished Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst, which I liked except for the last ten pages.

I recently read a really quirky and fun nonfiction book by Amy Krous Rosenthal called Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life.

And I finally finished (after a second try) Truly, Madly, Guilty. If you like Liane Moriarty, particularly her characters, you’ll enjoy this, perhaps with a reservation or two. The critics, it should be noted, have not been uniformly kind.

Have a great week!

7 Replies to “Episode 199: What Do I Do Now?!?”

  1. I think fabric makers got greedy and the industry focused on fast and easy. Harsh? Yes. 14 dollars a yard is what some shops were asking. To much when you need 10 to 15 yards to make a big quilt. Let’s get back to creating beautiful quilts for the love of it.

  2. I listened to the Crafty Planner episode and I cried with them. I know that there is a business part of creative industries and those who make a living in it….so it was a great episode because I hear so many messages out there that don’t talk about very real issues. Long hours , travel, stress etc.. ..
    I need to say your birds quilt are fab! I have to settle my self down and read a book. Maybe while I am on my 2 week vacation starting tomorrow I will start your book. Can’t wait to read your shorts thru your website

    I subscribe to newsletters but find I skim them and only get about a quarter of the info in them. Even the local quilt shops. I am terrible.

    Thanks for being so encouraging of my fledgling podcast, I appreciate your kind words and comments!.

  3. If you want to get your book in front of a lot of quilters, have you thought about doing a book give away in conjunction with someone like Bonnie Hunter or Pat Sloan? They both have huge followings. I’m going to do my part by buying your book for a couple of quilty friends for Christmas.

  4. Regarding being in the quilting industry, something I heard Tula pink say a few years ago and again recently at Sew Pro was that she spends 20% of her time actually designing fabric and 80% of her time marketing it. I think she’s wildly successful in the quilting industry because she understands the business side of things as well as the creaetive side.

  5. Thanks for noticing my quilt and thanks for being inspired. I have a few other Fabric of the Year quilts with the white in different places in the design (bottom, corner, top, etc) I don’t know what to think about QuiltCon rejects. I saw the quilts at the show and thought many of the quilts looked similar in structure: a few design motifs and a lot of background, straight-line quilting. Then there were some like VFW’s skeleton quilt, which didn’t seem particularly modern to me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, because I did. I also thought it might have gotten in because of the interesting use of panels. My cynical self said it got in because of her name. Who knows? Quilt jurying is so subjective, thus I think it is really important to like the quilts you are making (as you said last time). If you don’t like the quilt you are making, why make it?

    I am trying to keep track of all the BITA quilts you have made so far. Great marketing, BTW! Is it possible for you to put up a gallery of them? I see bits and pieces of the various quilts, but don’t think I have seen all of them together.

    I took some time to look around your website. It is really getting to be professional looking. Good work!

    I have to go ready fro a political event, so I’ll finish up the episode later…tomorrow…next week.

  6. Just finished your podcast and was truly surprised to learn of Christa Withers decision. I think burnout comes very quickly in this social media world. Typically though, when one person steps down another steps in – for instance I am just beginning to start the process of getting my longarm business up and running -although I have had my machine 4 years – I left corp world, took a lengthy vacation and now am ready to get back to work.

  7. I am back! Finally, I know. This is my life. 😉

    I was very pleased to hear about Pam and Quiltin’ Jenny and also about your experiences on The Stitch.

    I love it when you said you are a person (writer??) of many domains. It is great. I have a few, too, but most point to my two main sites. What a great idea to compile a list of quilt fiction. There might be some Library of Congress subject headings that could help you. I wonder if you could (and would want to) have readings or joint web events with other authors like Marie Bostwick? Do you think you will include mysteries with a quilting theme? I have a list of mentions of quilts somewhere on my site, but I don’t update it regularly. Most of the books mentioned on my page are not quilt themed; quilts are just mentioned in some way.

    I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself, but I am glad you mentioned it. I put in a request at my public library.

    Hope you signed the copy for Jenny Doan. 😉

    I heard you mentioned Sandy from the Crafty Planner podcast. I think we have to put a moratorium on people named Sandy doing podcasts. Or perhaps it is a trait of Sandys? Perhaps Sandys are predisposed to podcasting? 😉

    Your comments about the quilt industry and pricing and relationships were all very interesting 😉 to me as well. I have been thinking about this topic. While I am not trying to pay my mortgage payment with money from my blog, I do like to see traffic and like it when people comment. I saw my comments completely nosedive while I was on vacation. I don’t like to tel people I am away so I prepared all the posts for a month in advance. Yes, I posted a lot of tutorials which are not of interest to everyone. However, to see the comments completely nosedive was very depressing. I plan to change the blog and go back to my original intention which was posting for me when I felt like it. I do that still, but tend to post everyday and sometimes that is just to put something up for my readers. Now, since people don’t seem to be reading, I don’t need to do that. We’ll see.

    Hope you are doing well.
    Jaye

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