Scheduling?

Here are today's pictures of finished quilts.




The last few days I’ve been invited to join several new web groups. Hmm… they must have heard I’m trying to cut back on my internet time and thought they would tempt me to abandon my goal. There are far too many web groups and all of them very tempting! It seems that all the ‘big name’ quilters are starting web sites or groups that require membership to read the information contained in the site or whatever they may call it.

These sites are what I call ‘online guilds’. They operate much the same way an ‘in person guild’ operates. There is membership, participation, teaching, challenges, activities, show and tell, along with other things common to guilds. So how many guilds can one person belong to and still operate a machine quilting business?

I had to ask myself; would I join 15 or 20 ‘in person’ quilt guilds here in Louisville? If I did join that many guilds, when would I have time for actually working? I would be constantly going to guild meetings and participating in their activities. Where would that leave the time devoted to customer quilts? The only difference between an ‘in person’ guild and an ‘on line’ guild is the distance I would commute to participate. On line I am traveling to another part of my house; in person I would travel to another house.

I have noticed one common question in place after place on the quilt net circuit. It might be on an email list. It might be on a discussion forum. It might be on a blog ring. It might be on a website. The most common question seems to be “how do you schedule your time”. The people asking this question appear to be the same names I see in place after place while surfing around myself. I keep wondering why they are participating in several daily online groups instead of quilting? Did they schedule online time among their machine quilting time?

So let me ask you this…. How often do you see the “big name” quilters on the sites of other “big name” quilters? Do you see Linda Taylor (Gammill fame) posting to any discussion group? Do you see the names Sharon Schamber or Karen McTavish or Carol Beyer Fallert or Ricky Tims or Alex Anderson, or any one of dozens of big name quilters, show up on any site or discussion group other than their own? Why? It’s my opinion they don’t participate in discussion groups because they now have a “big name” so there is no need to market themselves in groups anymore. They have graduated from being one of the online crowds to a marketable personality.

I also believe the big name people are extremely smart business people, or maybe it is the significant other who is extremely smart. They saw the need for one person to do nothing but quilt while the other took over all other duties. I don’t even believe the quilter is the one actually running the sites. I believe it is the significant other who is running the site and posting.

Heavens, if I had someone do everything for me while I did nothing but create quilts I could become a famous name person too! Yes, I do believe that. I have the knowledge and capability. I just don’t have someone who believes in me enough to be willing to take over all other duties for me while I create. I don’t have anyone to market me.

Nor do I have anyone to pay the bills for me while I indulge my fantasy to create a quilt to win a major quilt show someday. No one believes in me that much. Not my kids, not my friends, no one but me believes in me.

So this has been my thoughts for today. I could finish this post and surf around for two or three hours but customer quilts are waiting. I could go join a group or two but that won’t get the work done or the bills paid. No, I will stick with the one or two sites I belong to for now. Maybe later I will unsubscribe from one and join another...who knows what the future will be? I am sticking to my rule of limited internet time until I find someone who believes in me too.