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I’ve been tagged by Paula of Sew Confused. She describes this as “a few questions designed to help us get to know one another a little better.”
WHAT WAS I DOING 10 YEARS AGO?
I had just escaped 
from the best-paying, but most stressful job I’ve ever had. Since then I’ve been working at regaining my health. I’m still here, so I guess it’s working. 
WHAT ARE 5 THINGS ON MY TO-DO LIST TODAY?
Trace the two tops in Kwik Sew 3115
Select fabric and cut out the camisole (above)
Weeding the garden for a half hour or so
Prepare for tomorrow - clothing washed, Father’s Day card ready for my dad, check written, etc.
Paid work (one hour; it’s Saturday!)
SNACKS I ENJOY:
I am a big fan of raw almonds. Easy to carry with you. Keep well.
On the other hand, I’m always ready for a chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie. Well, one without casein/milk in it, anyhow…
I love strawberries…but they don’t love me —>> Itchy welts
THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A BILLIONAIRE:
Hire someone to help me organize the house where I live. And repair and paint the barn. And someone else to paint and do the other prep work needed at the other house.
Expand my online businesses by hiring help (neighbors and friends.)
PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
Armington IL
Goshen IN
Hyden KY
Matalgalpa Nicaragua
Urbana/Champaign IL
Henry IL
Tiskilwa IL
Peoria IL
Chicago IL
not necessarily in that order…
WHAT TYPE(S) OF WORK HAVE I DONE?
Tractor driving and other grain and hog farm work
Crew chief of corn detasseling crew
Pizza factory line
Waitress
Crafts director at summer camp
Student Travel service clerk (university)
Food service director
Postal service rural carrier
Fabric store clerk/assistant
Natural Foods department head clerk
University graduate teaching assistant
Univ. graduate research assistant/associate
Self-employed dissertation editor
Contractor for Univ clothing research study
Univ teaching: “Cross-Cultural Aspects of Clothing and Dress” and “Consumer Science Intro”
Investigator for court-ordered custody studies
Quality Assurance Coordinator
Quilt shop clerk
Farm & trucking company office work and general go-fer
Online businesses (book sales, textile collectibles, magazine subscriptions, used farm equipment)
Several volunteer positions over the years: head cook, cookbook recipe testing, mediator, office work/Excel input, banner artist, musician, ‘community host’ for an online forum, etc.
SIX (6) PEOPLE I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT.
This is hard, especially since I waited so long to respond to Paula’s nomination…
If you haven’t had a chance to do this yet, please write to me…
Thanks, Paula. That was fun. It’s been a long time since I’ve tried to remember all the places I’ve worked. It’s always interesting looking back. It did occur to me that this list is the ‘outer’ view of what was happening in other parts of my life… family and health issues, for instance.
Yesterday I talked some about the ‘late’ textiles group at OTWA. Today I’m continuing the discussion of integrating a sales site and a blog based on some things I’ve read recently. I’m also thinking through a bit more about why I originally started this blog.
I’ve been reading at the PatternReview.com thread: Web site Talk - Building Blog Readership about some of the issues of combining blogging and online income production. I’m starting to think that there may be a legitimate place for a blog along side a store or other things like Kathleen’s book sales.
On the other hand, when I started this blog it was mostly because I needed to share my sewing and love of textiles in the worst way and didn’t have a good way to do that otherwise. I also figured that if I committed to posting about what I was working on I’d be more likely to work at it more consistently. I’ve never been very good at keeping a record of the stuff I design or make - I tend to keep the scraps and the notes I’ve taken and the other bits and pieces all in a box or something, but never really ‘recorded’ anywhere. Friends and family members keep showing up with stories of me making stuff for them that I can barely remember working on. In addition I figured I might keep some of my memory more accurate if I record things as they happen - Even in 4 months I can barely remember where I purchased some of the fabrics I’ve used or which pattern I used to make a specific garment. I spent a full afternoon last month fixing factual errors and inconsistencies in the few posts I’ve made since I started the blog. That was eye-opening!
But I didn’t start this blog to advertise. I have posted a link to the store, but that was so people who know me from years past can find where I’m currently spending time. I also maintain a couple other online sites that aren’t textile related at all - my used book sales and my dh’s site where he sells a few pieces of used farm equipment.
I’ve been wondering for several months how (or IF) to integrate my web sales with my blog. I finally decided to write about it here.
Some background: For about 8 years I co hosted a textiles forum at OTWA (Online Traders Web Alliance) until the site closed down about a year ago in July 2007. Mapledr and I hosted an online group for folks who loved textiles and also sold on eBay or on their own websites or on group collectibles sites like Ruby Lane.
In addition we helped many people track down IDs of their textile related items, helping date older fabrics, helping come up with good titles/search words for ebay auctions, etc. We didn’t project ourselves as experts, but there were enough of us with widely varying interests and backgrounds that we often were able to be a big help to folks looking for ID help, etc.
It was a lot of fun and I made many good friends. When the site closed with fairly short notice we didn’t quite know what to do with the group and the information we’d amassed and consequently didn’t pursue setting up another one somewhere else.
At OTWA it was assumed that everyone who participated either sold stuff online or was a buyer. Because of that we did some buying from each other and got some exposure to other online buyers without doing direct marketing there other than signature links on our forum posts.
Since OTWA closed I’ve noticed some big gaps. For instance, I’ve barely maintained my online store (and a move to a different host left me with degraded photos and loads of work to redo it all.) It feels as though I lost a lot of the connections and some friendly pushes to improve things in my online businesses, yes even some healthy competition.
Since I’ve not been productive sewing-wise, I decided I could show you some items from my past…
This quilt was pieced and hand quilted by my mother-in-law as a gift nearly 15 years ago. She was taking her first steps toward quilting as a hobby and said she’d make us a quilt if I picked out the colors. Since I wanted a ’scrappy’ quilt I also got to pick the fabrics. Such a sacrifice. I also cut all the strips. It’s huge: 120″ x 120″ but it still looks great as the topper on our king size bed. The blocks are about 20″ square.
The fabrics for the logs came from my great-aunt Mary’s bits of indigo, leftovers from my sister’s quilted jacket (I show you that later), scraps from my MIL and mother. The fabrics I purchased included prints that reminded me of parts of our past and present lives: sewing tools, golf clubs, chickens and chicken wire, ladybugs, buttons, needles/thread, morning glories, dogs, batiks, birds, radishes and cows. Yes, my husband and I both grew up on farms in Illinois. I have always been of the opinion that a person should stretch the boundaries of “what goes with what’ when picking fabrics. On the other hand each of the fabrics did have to more or less fit into either the dark blue or the white sections of the cabins. I do think fabric selection was somewhat more difficult in the early 90s, than it would be currently with all the nice reproduction fabrics that are currently available. In any case, it was fun!
The centers are 4X the standard size to emphasize the red and yellow centers. I had seen a photo in Quilters Newsletter Magazine of a similar quilt taken in front of a quilt shop in Paris in the 1980s sometime and had written myself a note to remember the colors and layout! It would still be just a memory if it weren’t for my very practical and productive (and wonderful!) MIL.
Some day soon I’ll need to replace a few of the antique fabric strips. I’m still looking for just the right indigos.
