For those of you who use Blogger you know that they have changed to a new format for blogging. I am not loving it. It takes longer to blog, longer to load links, scrolling forever to add labels, and basically scrolling forever for everything. You can only see the tiniest amount of information on each screen that provides a nice clean look, but it is HUGELY impractical. So please bear with me while I try to survive yet another unnecessary obstacle. (EYEROLL)
Also, I love and read every single one of your precious comments. I reply to each one as they really are the reason I keep blogging. But the new format allowed me to delete a whole lot of comments before they were published, and I have no way of retrieving them. I'm so sorry that I didn't respond to those comments, but I did read them! And in my defense, the 'publish' button is right next to the 'delete' button and I didn't even realize what I had done at first. Sigh.
Teaching...
I haven't been on a travel/ teaching trip since February. I miss seeing all of your wonderful smiling faces and sharing laughter and love of quilting with you!! Meeting all of the amazing quilters out there is what makes this 'job' so rewarding. But thanks to a certain pandemic, all of that has necessarily changed.
The good news is that I am now offering some new teaching options. I have spent days putting together comprehensive PowerPoint presentations that include overall quilt photos, detail shots, and bullet points of information. I plan to deliver these LIVE via ZOOM to your quilt guild very soon! I already have 4 guilds booked for my STRIP QUILT SECRETS trunk show!
Soon, I hope to add voice recording to my presentations and offer them as online class purchases for individuals in my shop. I might even be able to sell these to groups for them to watch and interact together.
Also, I hope to figure out the technology to do interactive online workshops with the guilds that I have scheduled, and open the format up for future guilds.
There's nothing like the REAL THING but hey, we are going to make the best of all of the changes and have fun doing it! My sweet friend Audrey told me that she was so impressed that I wasn't afraid of trying new formats. The truth is, I'm not afraid, I'm TERRIFIED. But that won't stop me! Put me in a room of 250 folks and I will gladly take the stage. Stick a camera in my face and ask me to rely on technology and I panic.
Luckily, I'm the most stubborn person I know.
Longarm Services...
Lots of you have been sending me sweet emails inquiring about my longarm quilting services. You can find all of the information HERE. The quick version is, print a form, fill it out and send it with the quilt, I will quilt it and ship it back to you almost always in a week or less, but definitely less than 2 weeks.
Email me with a notice that it's been shipped so I know when to expect it. You can choose thread and design or let me. You can send batting or purchase it from me, you can ask me to bind it or just trim it. But write it all on the form so I don't get confused! I will invoice you when I am ready to ship the quilt back and you can send a check, Paypal or Venmo me. And yes, I can show you how to do those things!
Website...
The website needs to be updated to reflect the changes of online teaching and online classes and I will get to that as soon as I have all of the information ready. I pay someone else to upload and manage information on my website, so I need to be sure I have it all correct first. Thanks for your patience.
Secret Sewing...
If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that there haven't been as many quilts lately. I have a good reason for that. I have been doing a bit of secret sewing and I hate keeping secrets, but it will be worth it I promise!
Staycation Sew Along...
The sew along that you all so enthusiastically voted for is still going to happen. I just need to get some of these technical issues sorted out first. I love that you are excited to sew together, I am too! Hopefully it will happen in August.
Your support and enthusiasm means more to me than I can say. Your longarm business and online orders keep me smiling. While I can't make up for the financial loss of this pandemic, I can move forward to try and find new ways to connect with the quilters I love so much! From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for each and every email, comment, purchase and opportunity to quilt for you.
XOXOXOXO
Diane
our guild has not met since March. There are no plans of when this meetings will continue. I feel that many guilds will have a lower membership at renewal time. I will keep looking for what your will have for home viewing and teaching. Love your work and blog.
ReplyDeleteI hear you loud and clear about the New (and not improved in my estimation!) Blogger...
ReplyDeletedifficult to traverse for sure...and no instructions--Puh-lease--give us a break here...
Hang in there Hugs from afar Julierose
I'm confused by all the struggles with the "new" Blogger. I haven't really had any issues. I'm wondering if it's so new and improved it just doesn't work well on older computers. Or, maybe my blog posts look awful and no one is telling me! I did notice this week they changed the add a "New Post" icon to a button and put it on top of the left column navigation bar. Also, when pictures are added to a post, now they seem to automatically enlarge themselves to the size you usually use. I almost always enlarge my photos to extra large size using the Blogger interface, but yesterday, every picture I added automatically enlarged itself to the large size. I guess it's still a work in progress!
ReplyDeleteWow! Between your blog and prepping virtual classes that’s a lot of new technology to learn! Good for you, I’m sure it feels frustrating at times
ReplyDeleteI've read so much about the new Blogger issues, but haven't experienced much difficulty myself. Yes, it's different and I'm not using the old "Legacy" format, but no problems for me thus far. Could it be that I use Chrome as my web browser? Would that make a difference? (Fingers crossed that I'm not jinxing myself!)
ReplyDeleteFortunately, quilters are kind and patient and appreciate all the work you’re putting in to provide online content! Did you get my message about booking you for Ninigret Quilters? Sent last week via the contact form on your website. Hope to hear from you and see you on Zoom!
ReplyDeleteI for the most part stopped blogging because blogger made it so difficult to make the posts. I couldn’t take it! Recently I challenged myself to get back at it and it seemed they had improved so much. I’m hoping all my blogging friends have not left me behind by now. Hopefully they will discover me again soon. I’ve always enjoyed your posts so much. Don’t be discouraged and keep up the good work! Congratulations on your technological moves for the future!
ReplyDeleteI don't blog (partly because technology has left me behind), but from what I read the "improvements" were made for those who blog using their smart phones. It seems like those who use iPads have a lot of trouble. Also, I guess there no documentation or support and it changes all the time. I know several bloggers who say they may give up their blogs because it's too frustrating. Google certainly picked a bad time to turn everything upside down. It's not like we don't have enough stress in our lives right now. So 3 cheers to you for your determination to adapt.
ReplyDeletePat
I tried changing to the new blogger but I could not find anything and uploading pictures was so frustrating I changed back to the old version. I hope I can keep using it......
ReplyDeleteFunny, because I've hardly noticed any changes in blogger.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to get some tech help on the Zoom situation!!
I don't like the new blogger either. I think we need to make sure that we let them know when we encounter a problem. It is definitely harder to do things now than it was before.
ReplyDeleteI am hearing a lot about blogger. From my side, the blogs are not as scroll friendly on my iPad hitch is a bummer. I would love to join your staycation sew along. I am recently retired and ready to get back to sewing and quilting.
ReplyDeleteSo far it hasn't made me change, and based on all the comments I've seen about the new blogger, I'm not doing it until I HAVE to do it!! Looking forward to seeing your 'secret sewing'! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your tenacity in learning new technology! It's not easy but so appreciated. I can't wait for all of the new things that will be coming soon,
ReplyDelete