OH -- guess what happened yesterday. Abby Glassenberg has a blog, a creative business making stuff animals, and she also writes a weekly newsletter about quilting industry news. The blog is called While she naps. I love the newsletter as it contains all kinds of info on stuff that's happening in the industry as well as new ideas. As you know, the big news this week was the closing of Westminster and FreeSpirit fabric companies - home of some very big name designers.
As I was reading the newsletter yesterday and she chatted about the closures, I saw a link "Elaine". No - could that be me? Sure enough, Abby picked up my blog post about my "Advice to fabric companies". Let's just say that there has been a lot of traffic on my blog. Here's the link to another person who posted about the closure on LinkIn.
If only the consumers ran the show!!!
I'm bound and determined to make the best of that 50-hour gift that I got last year. I have to say that I'm very happy with the results. I'm learning new ways of managing my time. Instead of trying to shove paperwork into a few minutes here and there and getting nothing done on time, I'm devoting the entire morning to paperwork. I hope the amount of time will decrease as I catch up but for the moment, that's what I want and can devote to the effort. And I don't feel cheated because that is what my schedule is. Plain and simple! I fell like I'm actually working a real day job!!! Well almost.
I certainly feel ahead of the game - well not entirely as I'm behind on a few things, but at least there's a plan in place and it's working. I'm extremely happy with the routine. And no interruptions from colleagues - only two very active dogs. But once they get settled, they are fine.
That leaves the afternoon for quilting. That's not a ton of time, but if I'm efficient and schedule properly, it's plenty of time. I'm catching up with the customer quilts - I'm in the single digits at the moment and hope to keep it that way with efficient planning.
The evenings are the best as I get to do whatever I want! And for the moment that's reading. I'm reading another very interesting book about the addictive nature of digital devices. I have to share this with you because it blows my mind. The book is called Bored and Brilliant by Manoush Zomorodi who is the Host of WNYC's Podcast "Note to Self". Anyway here is the gist of why the developers make these games/apps so addictive.
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| Bored and Brilliant by Manousch Zomorodi |
Facebook, Google and any other big players out there base the success of their apps/products on NUMBERS. Things like number of times the app was opened, how long did the user spend in the app. These stats (analytics) are readily available to anyone who has a Facebook page (not a Facebook account). Company's measure their success on how many times the app/page is opened so guess what - they make it so that you NEED to open that app multiple times in one day. Like some of the farming apps (for instance), you need to check your "farm" multiple times a day to get points or free food or whatever you're supposed to get. The more clicks, the more success and Facebook, Google and the rest of them are happy.
They DO NOT take into account things like - does the app provide a service to the user. Nope - they count success as time in the app, number of clicks (on a computer) and times opened. And here's the shocking thing about all of these companies and their apps - they are making their BILLIONS off of YOUR TIME! The more time you spend on an app (including Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and all the rest of them), the MORE time you spend - the MORE money these big companies make. Isn't that shocking?????? I'm glad I never got addicted to any of these apps. I use some of the apps, but only a handful. I don't play games, except Scrabbble where I spend maybe 10 minutes a day. I'm sorry to Facebook, Google and all the rest - MY time is MY time. I'm only going to live so long and then I'll be gone and I would hate to be on my death bed and say - I wish I hadn't spent so much time on my phone.
I'm not sure that I'll read another book like this - this is my second, but the psycology behind the addiction phenomena is fascinating. But time to move on and get back to quilting books and I have some quilting books to share with you tomorrow.
But today, I'm sharing my Farm Girl Vintage. I taught this class a while back, but GASP - I never made one block. I honestly don't know what I did with all my time way back when.
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| Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt |
It's already time for our second class and we'll get to see some show n tell. I think one of the reasons I didn't make the quilt before was I didn't know what fabrics to use. When I was in the US at a retreat last year, I stumbled upon this FQ bundle called Farm Fun by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda Fabrics. Well - that looks good enough for me!!!
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| Fat Quarter bundle |
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| Mini charm pack |
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| Homework blocks |
There was one more block but I haven't quite finished it. All of the block instructions come in two sizes - 6 inch or 12 inch. I made ONE twelve inch block to show the class the difference in size, but I do believe that I'm going to make all the rest in 6 inch. I haven't quite decided what my final quilt will look like. That's part of the fun of this class - it's a design class so we can make whatever blocks we want and put them together however we want. It's going to be fun. I can't wait to see the first show n tell on Saturday!!!
As part of the NEW ME, I'm getting my butt to the gym more often. Today was a yoga class. Oh god - while I love yoga, I've a lot to learn. There were only three of us in the class. My knees are much better than they used to be, but still not 100%. So a couple of poses like Child's pose are harder to do. This yoga was called ROOT - slow movements that you hold for longer periods of time. I like that. But after the instructor guided us through several movements of a "Flow", we had to continue on our own!!! ACK!!!! I did not bad on several of them, but one I simply couldn't remember the moves. I must have looked like an idiot!!! I did a lot of downward dog for that session!!! All is good - I was definitely looser by the end of the class and that's what it's all about.
On that note, I had better get the day started. There are a number of things that need to get completed today.
Have a super day!!!
Ciao!
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