Another one (or four) bites the dust...................

I wrote a while back that having my designs published in a magazine is the kiss of death for the magazine. Here's the link to that post if you don't remember. Well, it's happened again..........

I have mostly been writing for the magazines under the F+W Media umbrella. Just easier to deal with one company. They publish magazines like McCall's, Quiltmaker, Fons and Porter, etc.

Last week, F+W Media announced that MORE magazines (four in fact) are being shut down. THREE of them are quilting magazines. I don't care about the knitting magazine, nor do I care about Cloth Paper Scissors, but I do care about the other two. One is Quilty for which I have at least one quilt sitting here to be made and the MOST AMAZING quilt ever about which they wrote the article, the pictures, the whole nine yards and now what???  I'm pretty sure that it was for the Quilty publication.

They do shift the quilts to other publications if this situation happens because it has happened before when they ceased publication of 100 Blocks as an example. But I wonder if this particular quilt will get the same treatment.

I don't think I have anything waiting for publication in the Modern Patchwork magazine so should be good there, but it just lessens the pool of publications for the designers.

There is no question that magazines are struggling today. The most common reason is the internet. There's so much available on the internet which is usually free so why bother buying a magazine which you have to read and then do something with. I've noticed that almost ALL modern magazines have gone by the wayside. Why when modern quilting is supposed to be all the rage? Because the readers of the modern world are more likely to hit the internet for inspiration. And perhaps the modern world isn't as strong as it's thought to be???

It's interesting to see this change and it's going to get worse. Just like we see magazines close, there will be closures of fabric companies, fabric shops, and designers will move onto other things or retire. That's just the way the industry is at the moment. Let's not forget that Quilter's Connection (one of our Canadian magazines is looking for someone to take over the helm of that publication). But if no buyer is found, that magazine goes away as well.

I guess this all begs the question - why do people want in a magazine? Patterns or public interest stories? There are several new magazines that have popped up. No ads in them and it's mostly human interest stories. But if you want to have a look, it's Quiltfolk and Curated Quilts. Quiltfolk has published 8 issues. It's totally human interest and if you want to get their patterns, that's an extra $4 per month or something to that effect. It's not cheap - $75 US per year. Curated Quilts is a bit different - more on that another day.

What bums me out even more is that I just renewed my subscription to Cloth Paper Scissors for two yeas and I doubt I'll get my money back. That irks me!  They should honor that subscription with something else in their mix.

I'll keep you posted as to what's the scoop as I know it.

We had a great chat amongst some longarm quilters at our meeting. I took two quilts that I felt I needed some advice about. One shouldn't be too bad to get finished - the other one - well they like to think big in that group and they have grandiose ideas so I now need to become a master of my software so I can make that happen.  Hmm - software for the longarm, software for the embroidery machine.

I'd better just block some time off and sit down and learn.

I got nothing done yesterday. By the time I left the meeting and got home - I had errands to do (and I voted at the advance polls), I didn't really feel like doing much. I did design some quilts (3) in response to submission requests from the magazines. These publications are OK for now. I'll keep designing until there is no one to design for. Then I can figure something else out. OH - I'll have more time to learn software.

This morning I was getting ready for MONDAY SEWING and I was looking for something. Then I spotted this on the shelf. Hmm - a Halloween tin and it's almost Halloween.

Decorated lunch bucket

 Gosh - I remember searching the internet for that lunch box. It's metal and I LOVE it. But wait a minute - there's something in this tin. What could it be?

What is all this???

Oh yes - now I remember. We did a group project and made blocks for each other. My theme was Halloween. Oh gosh - I'd completely forgotten about this. There's a book in there - what year did we do this? OH - 2011!

After that confession yesterday about how many quilt tops are waiting to be quilted, I can't even begin to imagine how many UFOs are sitting in that studio. We won't even talk about those that have fabric selected for it, but not started. Just focus on those that are already started. I know there's a LOT. But we're not going to worry abotu that. We're going to focus focus FOCUS!!!!

On that note, I've got to get ready for Monday sewing. My note to the Motivational Monday group is FOCUS. There's no other way. We've got to prioritize what we want to get done and then we need to break it down into steps in the Task Master and then we've got to respect those commitments.

Speaking of committments - I did a bad thing the other day. I was looking at the things to do for Quiltcon in Nashville and they're having a swap - a mini quilt swap. I swore I would NEVER do any of these again. BUT I signed up! It's ONE small thing and I've been very good all year so I'll get more info on that in a couple of weeks.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!