If your project list is anything like mine, it’s crowded with ideas and plans for new and unfinished projects. I often say I could go a couple of years without a new idea and still not run out of things to work on!

When faced with such a smorgasbord of choices, how do you choose what to tackle?

This is a list of the questions I ask myself whenever I start a new project, and usually my answers give me clarity about my choices:

Is it a clear YES? Am I passionate about it, or is it something that must be done to meet a promised obligation? If it isn’t a clear YES, it’s often a NO that we just haven’t come to terms with!

Can I finish the project by the deadline in a way that makes me proud of my work? This is a big point to consider if you’re trying to build a reputation for your work, and this is where tracking your time helps you make these decisions.

Can I finish the project by the deadline without being super-stressed out about it? There’s enough stress in our lives without adding more!

If I work on this project, what might I be missing out on? Is there another project that will make me feel more fulfilled? Is there something else I would rather do or learn?

Is it the best use of my time right now? Will working on this be sweeter if I get other obligations done first?

Am I working on it because I already have invested time and money into it? Sometimes, we throw more time and resources at something because we think that honors our initial investment; it’s called sunk cost bias. But if you stop to ask yourself “Would I buy this fabric again and use it for this pattern again” and the answer is NO, then abandoning the project might be the wisest use of your time and money.

Will making this project affect my important relationships? Will I be cheating myself of time with my favorite people? Time with good people is so very precious.

Can I hire out or delegate any portion of the project? The actual quilting has always been my least favorite part of the process, so I began hiring that out to two wonderful long-arm artists a couple of years ago. Yes, it took a shift in my budget, but I now have time to do more of my favorite parts (designing and sewing the tops) – and I no longer stress (or stall) when something needs to be quilted.

Can I change my process to make a step easier or more efficient? While I love to finish my bindings by hand, I’ve started finishing them by machine sometimes so that I have more time for other things. I also recently bought a new, faster machine!

Am I doing this because it’s popular? Good things are popular for a reason, and there is great camaraderie in being in a group or quilt-a-long, but do I really want the finished product more than I want to do something else?

Will it teach me something I want to know? I recently took a very cool curves class from Jen Carlton Bailly, and came away with a handful of blocks that begged to become something bigger. But what I wanted was the knowledge of how to sew curves, and I got that in class. So I put one block with the instructions in my reference binder, and donated the rest (and some supporting fabrics) to my guild’s charity sewing program. My cast-offs will be someone else’s treasure, and I don’t have this cluttering my to do list or taking time I would rather spend differently. I give you permission to do the same!

Remember, you probably got into your hobby or practice because it was fun. A few strategic decisions will help keep it that way!

The post Studio Habits: SHOULD you make that project? appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.

This time, it’s in a Facebook group known as the Worldwide Quilting Group. The administrator, Sandy Stubbs, has been scraping tutorial and pattern content from other sites, stripping it of attribution or links to the original source, and posting it. MANY of our well known designers have had their content stolen, some even had pages of books copied.

The image below is a tutorial that was stolen from Jacquie Gering’s site:

STEALING IS WRONG. We all learned this as wee kiddos, and it’s still the law of the land. Yes, this IS stealing. I know a lot of people think it isn’t because, hey, it’s all free on the internet, right? But no. If you take something that ISN’T yours, it’s stealing, plain and simple. And there is no polite euphemism for thievery. If you stole a car you’d go to jail.

So I imagine that a rationalization could be that it’s not stealing if the content was free at its original source. But here’s the thing… we post free content to be traffic drivers to our sites. WE ARE IN BUSINESS. Being in business means we aim to make a living, to earn money from our talent and skill. It’s a well-known business idea to offer tutorial content for free to bring customers to our site and hopefully get a sale out of them – it’s the loss-leader concept of internet commerce, and it operates on the similar premise of the deeply discounted stuff at a big box store on any given weekend. I know that some people think that sullying the sweet face of crafting with bold business marketing is somehow unsavory, but for heaven’s sake! All who work in quilting are businesswomen and men. We are here to earn a living.

And while our living is in jeopardy every time someone copies a pattern, or steals content like this group above, the people who really lose out are our customers. When we find out our work is stolen we get closer to quitting in disgust, and it certainly makes us pull back on our generosity. When we quit, our customers lose the ability to find great patterns to make. We are the Geese that Lay the Golden Eggs, and when our eggs are stolen, we die an inch at a time. Eventually there will be no more eggs.

EVERY SINGLE ONE of our customers is responsible for protecting the rich content we make. 

Think hard about that.

The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs, illustrated by Milo Winter in a 1919 edition of Aesop’s Fables

Just about every quilt made relies as much on the pattern as it does on the fabric. And I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard “I spent all that money on fabric, I’m not spending another $10 on a pattern too.” And all I can say to that is, “Would you buy all the trimmings for thanksgiving dinner, and then steal the turkey?” No, you wouldn’t. And if you did, you’d be arrested.

So again, please:

• Support us by paying for the things we make that inspire you.
• Don’t steal by copying. (How not to be an accidental content thief)
• Don’t let your friends copy things you’ve paid for.
• Help us by linking back and attributing the source of anything you share so we get an opportunity to market to new eyes.
• Tell us when you see our stuff being stolen.
• Don’t blame us, the victims, when we come after you with legal measures.**

**The above group blamed and attacked the content creators when they were challenged, and have since blocked anyone who brings up that this content is stolen. They have also hidden the group now. This is so very disappointing, and I hope that other members in the group continue to report their crimes outside the group. A classy group would have stayed public, apologized, deleted stolen content, and attributed/linked up free tutorials. 

And to those of you who DO pay for everything… blessings upon you and may your threads be never tangled! Thanks for hanging in with another post about stealing patterns. And yes… I’ll stop writing about theft when it stops happening.

The post Why Stealing Patterns is Like Killing the Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs appeared first on Hunter's Design Studio.

I sadly deal with more than one company who doesn’t start processing my payments until they are on the cusp of due, which means by the time the check is cut, signed, stuck in an envelope, mailed (usually on a Friday) and finally in my mailbox, it’s about 10 days overdue.

Imagine using this rationale with your credit card company. Right.

I don’t understand why a company would choose to build a process that essentially abuses their suppliers.

Their business is built on people like me making the things they want to sell. I’m the little gal at the end of the chain. I suppose I could short my long-arm artist, or screw over my assistant or printer to make up for it. But I’m not going to do that. I need what these people offer to the success of my business. Besides, it’s not who I am. I can do better than that.

And so can they.

Imagine an industry built on respecting each other, and making agreements that help EVERYONE rise. If we can create a $4 Billion industry out of the passion of hobbyists, surely we can create supportive and kind business practices.

…

Dear (person at company)

Thank you for your efforts to track this payment down. I appreciate it.

My agreement with you is for Net 30. This means that this invoice should have been paid in time for me to receive it by January 29th, not cut on February 2 and then mailed (and still not received as of today’s mail delivery on Feb 9)

What can be done to prevent this delay from happening again? I’m sure you can relate to my needing to rely on income coming when it’s supposed to, not to mention the cost of the time I have to spend chasing down payment that could be put to far better use – like making more things for our customers.

I realize a lot of companies in the quilt world have gotten by on this type of slow paying, and obviously suppliers like me are at your mercy.

But I’d like not to be. I’d like our agreement to be respected as a partnership where we both do what we say we are going to do, and we do it in a way that supports each other’s business goals, and respects what we have to offer each other.

My responsibility is that I make something that you can make money from, and that I ship it when you ask for it. And may I point out that you make DOUBLE what I make on this transaction (your profit is about $7, mine is about $3.50). Without designers making patterns for your customers, your business will eventually peter out. Yes, we will lose your sales but we still have other avenues through which to sell.

Your responsibility is to pay me in such a way that it honors our agreement and partnership. I truly don’t understand why your would create a process that essentially abuses your partners. Why would you want to?

And my hope is that you can change it.

Sincerely,

Sam

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