AI is NOT helping the Maker Space

A reminder: if anyone wants to join the second session for Making Scrap Quilts Beautiful, hosted by Thimbles and Things (taught by me), a second class has been opened, and it is filling fast! I wouldn't wait if you are considering joining. That class starts on September 20. You can get all the details at this link. The class is ONLINE, so anyone from anywhere can join! 

I gave the first session a wee bit of homework yesterday, and I'm seeing some pretty interesting quilts! 

I am back in work mode - at least for yesterday! It's funny how some days you have all the energy to conquer the world, and the next day? Well, not quite so productive. Oh - I get things done - just not always what I need or want to. Perhaps I should say my focus, not my energy, is the problem!

I finished another audiobook yesterday. Only at the end did I realize the audiobook was abridged, but it was still very interesting. And all I can say is my heart goes out to those living in war-torn countries and countries where women are not respected. And even in our first world country, some women are badly abused by their spouses. It's terrible that anyone has to live in those conditions, and under so much fear for their lives and the lives of their children. 

The book is called "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini. I learned at dinner last night that the author is a man. OH MY!!! That was interesting. How the heck could this book be written by a man? But he did a great job, and I think he covered the woman's point of view very well, considering his nationality and the topic of the book. 

His family sought political asylum in the US when he was 15. He writes to raise awareness of the Afghan people and what has happened in their country. The books are hard subject matter, and although they are fiction, a great deal of them are "real." I haven't read any of his other books, but I might have to read the first one - "The Kite Runner." 

Let's just say that a lot of progress was made yesterday, and I'm happy. 

The backing and the binding are made for Down on the Farm, and I hope to get it quilted before the end of the year. We'll see how that goes, but at least it's in the pile. OFF MY plate at the moment. 

Down on the Farm ready to be quilted

Then I decided to get myself in gear and get the metal bars sewn into the leader for the long arm. I had already stitched the channel a while back, but I needed to stitch pockets so the magnets didn't float around in the channel. So I stitched the edge of the channel, then inserted a metal bar, then stitched that pocket closed, and then along the edge for the length of the next pocket, inserted another metal bar, until the entire 14 feet was stitched. 

YES -- I had to insert the metal bar from one end into the channel and scoot it down to where it would reside. I don't know if that makes sense, but I stitched one long seam, with little jogs to close the pocket. It was easier than stopping and starting. 

Sewing the metal bars into the long arm leader

It really wasn't a big job as I anticipated. As is the case in almost all jobs that we procrastinate on. Why do we do that to ourselves? 

Before I knew it, I had reached the last pocket. 

Sewing the last pocket

Then I placed the leader on the bar of the long arm. It was super easy to hold it in place using the magnets, as the bar is metal. 

The magnets hold the leader in place.

Now that the leader is in place and quite sturdy with the magnets, I can tape it to the metal bar by myself. I hope to get that done this afternoon, and I might even attempt to load a quilt. I have two other leaders to switch from pinning to magnets, but just getting this one done is awesome. The rest will come, but I need to get the long arm back up and running. 

I have to laugh because someone at Monday Sewing mentioned that if you are learning something, it's not enough to just make one - you ned to make several to master the technique. I learned that with my table. The first assembly was a challenge; the second was fast! Now that I know what I'm doing with the leaders, I suspect the next two will go much quicker. Except it is a ton of work to scrape off that goop. 

Next on the agenda was to get to work on my UFO for this month. Of course, some appliqué was holding me back. So I got out my threads, and I started my satin stitch. 

Satin stitch appliqué

And of course, there are two blocks!!! Because I started making two quilts about 25 years ago! 

Working on two blocks

The trees on the left are done, leaving the boy on the sled and his dog. That will take a bit of time, since the pieces overlap and are small. But that is my goal for the day! I hope to get a few other things done, but at least if I get that done, I'll be happy. 

As for the current jigsaw puzzle? I finished it last night. 

Jigsaw puzzle done - almost.

Dang it, but there's a piece missing. I bought it at the thrift store. BUT WAIT --- I had noticed a few pieces were falling off my design boards as I was working, so I had a peek this morning. AHA - look what I spotted. 

The missing piece

That piece fell off the design board and onto the shelf, so I was able to put the last piece in this morning. 

The last piece

Yeah!! No missing pieces - I love that, and I only paid $5 at the thrift store. I probably got a discount because I rarely buy anything at full price. So that was a very good entertainment deal. 

Jigsaw puzzle complete!

Am I getting faster? I think I am. Am I ready for a speed puzzling event? I doubt it - I'm not nearly that fast, but what the heck. It will be fun. 

I didn't have any large zippered plastic bags, so I got some at the dollar store the other day. I always pack the puzzle into one of those bags and put an elastic around the box. That just helps to prevent pieces from going missing. 

I'll be meeting a few of my puzzle friends next month, and I might pack up these puzzles and see if anyone wants them. If not, they go back to the thrift store. 

And yes—the next one is ready to crack open tonight. That one is the theme puzzle for September, which is to work on a Eurographics brand puzzle. Last month, with the theme of Wild Animals, over 800 people submitted a picture. Well, I noticed one woman submitted more than one entry, and that is within the parameters of this event. But she makes it very noticeable. When we take a picture of the finished puzzle, it needs to have a piece of paper with the code word on it. Hers is very distinct. Oh well - if that makes her happy, then it makes me happy. 

Let's face it, some people are fully retired and probably spend all or most of the day puzzling! 

Our library has been closed for most of the summer as we are getting a maker space and new carpet, among a few other things. The library is now open, and I popped in yesterday to see if the quilt had been taken down. Nope—it's still hanging, which is good. The last time they painted, it got taken down, and it took a long time to get it back up. I don't think it gets a lot of sun, but it is looking faded. 

The library quilt is still hanging.

I didn't look around much, but I spotted the new carpet. Where is the maker space? I didn't see that. 

But look at the pretty display of books. Typically, you see the spines pointing out, but this time, it was the pages. Isn't that pretty!! I bet most of those books are fantasy, which isn't a genre I read. I checked a few, and yes, they are mostly fantasy. 

The pretty pages of books

I found a quilt book on scraps, so I brought that home to browse for any tidbits! 

Good grief-- now Murphy seems to have developed a cough. I'm not sure where that came from, but I need to see if I can get into the vet today for meds for her. The poor thing! Of course, like people, she mostly coughs at night! But she is happy as a clam to sleep upstairs, so all is good at our house. 

I'm going to go on a wee rant here about AI. I know that people use various AI bots to do stuff for them. However, I don't see the point of using specific AI bots when our Google search does the same thing. YES - I know they have their own AI now, but it's just a glorified Google search, and Google has always been good to me. However, I will confess that I used MapQuest the other day when searching for a location. 

It's getting harder and harder to work "normally" when all these companies are strong supporters of the political unrest. 

Anyway, that was NOT my point. My point is that so much stuff that we see on the internet is AI-generated, and much of it is NOT specified as AI-generated. People are struggling to tell the difference, although for most of it, it is easy to spot. 

In the world of makers, AI - enhanced photos of projects are lending a VERY BAD image to the industry. I spotted someone on IG (might have been a store) saying that people are complaining that what they are buying or making is NOWHERE NEAR the look of the picture they saw. 

I see it all the time. Here's an example. This is a picture of the original project—NO AI involved.  

Original project - No AI

And look at the AI-generated picture. Totally different. In this picture, those leaves and flowers look 3D and made of some non-fabric material. I'd be ticked off if I went to a class and expected this and made the above picture. It's not a huge difference, but the enhancement is detrimental to roping new quilters/sewists into our world. 

AI- generated version

In a world where people can't tell the difference, this is going to keep causing so many problems. When researching anything, AI is only as good as the material it scans. I say, let's keep using our brains, figure stuff out ourselves, and leave AI to, well, I don't know who. But there is a place for it, but certainly NOT in the maker space. 

The big argument is that AI will quickly compile from various sources, but why can't we go to the sources directly and gather the information? What I dislike is that I learn so much from going to a site - that step alone increases my knowledge base rather than just the narrow focus of the search I asked some AI bot to perform. Keep your options open - stop being complacent and letting AI dictate what and how you gather information. Let's do some of this work ourselves, and I bet you will learn more than you could by using AI. 

On that note, I'd better get myself organized. I have a few things I want to get done today, and there's no time like the present to get started. 

It's going to be a wonderful day!!!!

Ciao!!!!