I spent the weekend with my sisters, and cousins. The place we were staying in upstate NY was out of range for the my cell provider, and the house we rented didn’t have wi-fi. For a person who works social media as part of her job being without internet access was really challenging. Really challenging.
One of the things that we discovered is that we all like to color. Sunday afternoon we needed to pick up a few things, including stuff to color. For me this included a simple Zentangle set, complete with the three inch tiles so commonly used. Three of the tiles in the above Instagram pic are those tiles, the fourth is an 8 1/2″ x 11″ drawing page, much more my preferred size. I do love the Pigma Micron pens that come with the set. There are two pencils as well, that remind me of the pencils that are given when you go play mini-golf. We found coloring books, and pens/pencils at a couple of different places. I went with yet another set of pencils, and will at some point make a carrying case for them.
We are already talking about where we might go next year. Coloring will be part of that.
And then (here’s where I really missed the social media) Jake Finch wrote Notions: Quilt Magazines – Relevant or Not. You may have heard that Quilter Newsletter Magazine will publish its final magazine in October. QNM is one of the magazines I subscribed to early on. What I really appreciated about it is that the editorial took quilt making seriously. There are so many words vying for attention in my brain right now that I’m having a hard time writing! I’m bothered by the thought of yet another magazine related to our industry shuttering their doors. There are PEOPLE involved here, and for me that is the crucial thing here. There are people who are losing their livelihood as a direct result of this.
And on top of it American Quilt Society announced that the will no longer be publishing books. Again there are PEOPLE involved here. People who work in the quilting industry. People who are involved in making quilts, writing patterns, writing copy, editing patterns, editing copy, taking pictures, editing pictures.
Again there are so many words vying for attention. My heart goes to the people who are a vital, vibrant part of quilt making. People who are now looking for work. Quilt professionals who will not have their books published by this well respected publisher. I’m not sure at this moment how AQS is going to manage this aspect of the book publishing division.
I can see that the future of quilt making is bright and vibrant. However this feels very heart rending. Because PEOPLE.
PEOPLE are at the heart of quilt making. That is the essential key here. PEOPLE.
I love the people I get to work with in this industry, you are my friends, students, and customers. You encourage, and support, and help shape who I am. You, as a person, are a vital, important part of this industry. And as we move forward we will need to exercise our creativity to figure out where we go from here
Happy Quilting,
Teri
