Wednesday, January 2, 2019

New Year means New Beginnings!

Happy 2019 to all of my cherished readers!

When I used to have to work for others, I always despise the annual exercise where you had to list things you would Stop, Start and Continue to do.  I would always just list the items that I knew my boss wanted to hear.  Now that I am my own employer, I find this exercise to be quite helpful to organize my goals.  Of course, as my own boss, I now have the power to make it happen!

So here are just a few things in the works...

Continue


Of course, I will continue to host the Oh Scrap! party every Sunday.  
That is my favorite day of the week!



I plan on a number of scrappy finishes over the year too.  Not only these RSC quilts that are in the works, but many others that a bouncing around in my mind just waiting for me to start cutting fabric.

I am also thinking about bringing back Scrap-A-Palooza.



I have been making good progress finishing up a number of my older UFOs.  I am down to 17 projects right now and I hope to continue working on reducing them down to at least a dozen.



Start




I want to start posting a mid-week blog post like I used to do in the past.  I want these posts to be focused more on process, views of my design walls or tutorials and tips (like the hera marker tip I shared last week.)


I am also back to posting more faithfully to my Facebook page in 2019.  I am toying with starting a Facebook Group for scrappy quilters.  It will be similar to our Oh Scrap! community for those that prefer the FB platform.  Let me know what you think?


Stop



These lovely backings I picked up from Connecting Threads are probably going to be the last fabric I buy/share for a long time.  My stash grew in a lot 2018 and I need to work it down before anything new can come home with me.  I may need to buy something to finish up a project but right now, I can't imagine that there will be anything that I don't already have!



And if you haven't heard, Craftsy dumped a bunch of pattern designers from their database.  I still have my Wiggle Time pattern there but they dropped the rest of them (including my Spin! pattern which is a best seller - go figure!).  So I guess I am forced to stop selling my patterns on their platform!

I have opened up a Payhip account where you can now find all of my patterns (including the Exploding Bowtie) and Etsy still has all of my patterns listed.  Sadly, all of the links throughout Pinterest and other social media that link to my Craftsy patterns are now dead links.  There is just no way to track them all down.  It really is a bummer and will probably affect my income in 2019.

So if you find yourself with some extra time, feel free to send a little hug my way and pin/like/heart my patterns and blog to your favorite social media.  I appreciate the love!

I will continue to think about what 2019 will bring.  If you have any thoughts, feel free to let me know in the comments or shoot me an email.

I really do appreciate all of your friendship and support!





Linking Up:


*This post contains affiliate links.  I appreciate the support!

19 comments:

Libby in TN said...

I'm really bummed about the Craftsy business, tempted to boycott altogether but don't want to neglect those that are left. Glad you are finding a new outlet. Also happy to hear you may resurrect Scrapaplooza!

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

So glad you're continuing with Oh Scrap - it's also a favorite of mine, and I'm always thinking about what I'll post for it! I would definitely join a scrappy Facebook group, too. I saw all the stuff about Craftsy, so downloaded my copy of Wiggletime because I didn't want to lose it. I finally know what I'm going to make it out of! So many things to make! :)

JanineMarie said...

So good to see Oh Scrap! is still in the plan! Oh, and I just checked the hera tip. Genius! So much better than putting in pins and then sticking myself with them!

Quiltdivajulie said...

NOT happy with Craftsy/BluPrint -- not at all. So many of you pattern designers/sellers and the class teachers have been treated badly. Perhaps you need to create a new Pinterest board with all of your patterns linked to their new sources and add something in the description box of EFFECTIVE 1/1/2019 --

Anja @ Anja Quilts said...

That's a great list. Good luck. The Craftsy fiasco doesn't seem to have worked out well for a lot of people. :(

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

as a Craftsy affiliate I am really disappointed that they didn't share any of this news with us - we could have shared it on our blogs too so more people would have had warning about the patterns and would have had time to download them - I lost some of mine and have had people asking me all week what is going on and I hadn't been able to answer them until today when they finally sent their affiliates a letter!! I hope you are able to get your pattern business going on other platforms - very disappointed in the way they are doing business.

Jayne said...

You have some hefty goals for 2019! I'm super glad you'll still be hosting 'Oh Scrap'!! Craftsy has forced our hand! It's quite disappointing.

Ellie said...

Glad you’re continuing with Oh Scrap! It’s a favorite of mine! As for Craftsyi feel they are trying to force everyone int their membership platform. I’m not interested!m

Robby said...

I'm also glad Oh Scrap will continue, it's inspirational. And I thought Craftsy really dumped on designers and all of their users. I'm aiming to do any pattern purchasing from non-Craftsy sites. Just pinned your great Exploding Bowtie design, can't imagine why I didn't do that before. Good luck!

chrisknits said...

Sorry to hear about your Craftsy situation. Their method seems to make no sense, but then I am not on their staff, so who knows. Good luck in gaining back your exposure!

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

I like your goals - and yay - scrap a palooza!!! I loved that. Thanks for the new link to your payhip store - I think the business decision of Craftsy is going to hurt everyone!!

Chantal said...

Yay! Oh Scrap! is still on board. Thank you for making this possible for us. ;^)

Gee said...

So glad you're keeping Oh Scrap!! I don't use FB, so would not participate in a group. Glad I found you (thru Craftsy) before they made this current (bad IMHO) business decision...will visit you at Payhip. Thanks for all you share!

Pamela Arbour said...

I am looking forward to seeing what you have coming up this year. I always enjoy your posts. I guess they just didn't think they needed the pattern platform anymore. I would think that they would want people to visit their site as much as possible, but I guess not! I am glad you found another avenue to sell your patterns. I am sure that is what the other designers will do.

Marianne said...

Craftsy did a really poor job of rebranding. While I am not a seller, as a buyer, I would have liked to know they were shutting down pattern shops so I could have purchased what I wanted beforehand. And to sneakily do it around the busiest time of the year. Not nice!

PaulaB quilts said...

Don’t know what I would do without Oh Scrap each week. Thanks for being so faithful to us Quilters, as well as being a mentor to me when I was a new blogger.

Kate said...

I'm not very thrilled with Craftsy, they really didn't treat their supporters very well (neither those who listed patterns or those who bought them). I'm looking forward to a another year of Oh Scrap and hope to link up more this year than I did last year. Good luck on all your quiltly goals for 2019.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

I still find it hard to believe that Craftsy dumped so many people. I love your goals and efforts to keep your business going. Glad you are continuing your Sunday linky as I have a few scrappy projects planned for 2019. Thinking of you and sending hugs your way.

Marti said...

I'm happy to pin your quilt patterns. I'll have to see if you have them all in one place for me to find. I'll post a link to your new location on my blog too if that will help. I used to get a lot of traffic on my main blog, but not so much on my quilt blog now that I've separated it out.

I know Craftsy had the right to change how they use their site, but agree they could have handled this better. I never thought about all the broken links that will hurt you and others.

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