Reminder!  Thursday, July 4, 2019 Thimbleweed Quilter's meeting has been Cancelled! There will be No meeting on the First Thursday of July. Please join us on the Third Thursday July 18. 

Pattern Copyright Info

Hello Quilters. I wanted to bring up something that I feel is important and that is concerning pattern copyright laws. When I say pattern, I am talking about pdf patterns, paper patterns, patterns from books or magazines and online tutorials as well as these are all considered patterns.

When someone teaches a class at Thimbleweeds or elsewhere, the teacher cannot copy the pattern and hand it out to the students as this is illegal and breaking the copyright law. The students are either required to purchase the pattern that is being taught (whether the teacher is the pattern designer or not), or the teacher can teach the class and have the students take notes without buying a pattern. The teacher can also get permission from the designer to copy parts of the pattern, but if that permission is not obtained then you cannot copy even a part of the pattern.

I have written a few patterns myself and I cannot stress to you how much time it involves to create the item and write and take photos and edit and have the pattern tested and edit some more. It can take months to finally have a pattern ready to sell. And then when sales are so few that it hardly makes it worthwhile to have written the pattern and you find out that one person who did buy your pattern has copied it to teach and you don't make a penny off your hard work, that is not fair or right!

I test bag patterns and quilted items for a few online designers too and I know the amount of work they put into their patterns. They are designing for a living and so have to pay for more professional programs in order to make their patterns look top notch. As a tester, I see all the things we testers question the designer about to make sure it is clear and not confusing or there are no typos, etc. After months of their hard work, they deserve to be paid and not have people copy their patterns to give out to their friends or quilt group to teach. Contact the designer and tell her you want to teach their quilt or bag, or whatever and I am sure she will offer a volume discount of some kind to your students. PLEASE DO NOT COPY PATTERNS to hand out to others!

There is a law from the late 1800's that says that it is the images (sketches, photos) and the text is copyrighted on all patterns, but not the idea of the pattern itself. So as long as you rewrite in your own words and use your own pictures and to be ethical, change at least something in the pattern, then you can call it yours. In other words you can get inspiration from something you saw and create a pattern of your own to sell or give for free. You just cannot copy verbatim an existing pattern, even if you are giving it away and not charging for it. In fact if you write a pattern, copyright is implied automatically.

Also once you purchase a pattern, you can make an item from the pattern and sell the finished item, or give the item away, as the pattern designer cannot tell you what you can do with the pattern once it is purchased. You can even give away a paper pattern or sell it at a yard sale, since you did not copy the pattern, but are selling the original pattern itself. However, when it comes to pdf patterns you cannot email them to give away, since that is essentially copying the pdf.

I get concerned when I see members teaching and then copying patterns and charging for the printing costs, especially if they are copying a designer's pattern without their permission then this is a violation of copyright law. So a heads up for those teaching classes here or anywhere, have your students purchase the pattern or do a story board showing the steps with your own examples and have students take notes or photograph your story board. While it would be a costly endeavor to be sued over copyright violation for both parties concerned, it could happen if one day someone just wanted to prove a point, even if they didn't win much money after paying for attorney and court fees.

One more point is that if you copy patterns that you could have purchased from a local quilt shop, then you are not helping to support that shop. They would lose potential business because you copy a pattern instead of having students purchase the pattern from a local shop. We have several members who do work for the local stores too and what if they told their bosses what Thimbleweed teachers are doing. Those shop owners might not be too happy about that.

I do not know for a fact that anyone at Thimbleweeds has violated the copyright law, but before it happens and a possible lawsuit results from it, I wanted to just give everyone a heads up about what is legal and ethical about teaching from a designer's pattern.

Quilt for Glenda C

Thimbleweed Quilters donated this quilt to our own member Glenda C.

Quilt Show Volunteers

Thank you to all the wonderful quilt show volunteers this year. Thanks to everyone who brought quilts to hang in the show, for the raffle quilt and to those who came to the show. It was another great day and the weather was gorgeous too!

These ladies who volunteered for our annual quilt show in the park received some goodies from Colleen.

Shirley & Marie were given a connecting crown (plus bags of M&M's in their hands). They later "cut the cord" so they wouldn't have to walk so close to each other and so Shirley could stand up tall again!

Hello Everyone,
I hope you are having fun with the Spring Retreat or your own projects. Spring is such a fun time to let the breeze through your sewing area and create new things. There are new Show & Tell photos. Also please see the Attic Windows Challenge tab. It's coming up fast and you don't want to miss out on being able to display your quilt at the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Fiesta Thimbleweed Quilters booth.
Our annual Outdoor quilt show is coming up on April 28 too. 
Finish It #1 for April is due May 2. Lots happening this month with Thimbleweed Quilters. Join in and have fun!
Happy Stitching, Holly

Hello Everyone,
I hope you all had a great time with Daryl's Selvage Class. I'm excited to see what you decide to do with the concept! Today's meeting went smoothly.  You can check out the new Show & Tell from today. Sign ups for Fiber Arts Festival volunteering have begun. You might want to find a shift that suites you and get in to the show free the day you work! 
Happy Stitching,
Holly

Selvage Class is Almost Here!

March 7th is the Selvage Class. I hope all who signed up is ready to learn and sew after our meeting. I am ready, but I am starting to feel a bit nervous as the day draws near.

I know I will do fine once I get going, but I do tend to get that butterfly-in-the-stomach feeling beforehand.

Please make sure that you have all the items that you need from the list I emailed to those who signed up. By you coming fully prepared to class that will help to ease any anxiety I tend to feel before teaching.

I have made several new items out of selvages to show you on the 7th to inspire you. Plus I will bring a few of my older selvage items as well. There are so many possibilities to use up those selvages! Let's get creative!

Okay I think I am feeling better about teaching already.

See you on March 7th ready to sew some selvages!

Meeting Feb 7, 2019

Hello Everyone,
We had a nice group for our meeting today and enjoyed finding out more about what sewing and quilting opportunities are coming to Thimbleweed Quilters for 2019. Please check the Show & Tell tab for some lovely inspiration. 

The next meeting on February 21 will include a visit from Elizabeth D who will be teaching the April Spring Retreat quilt option. Those present will get to vote on the choices she has to offer. After the meeting will be the rescheduled Soup & Dialog. Please contact Faye H about what you would like to contribute. There is a new list so let her know what you have in mind. 

Please read the post by Daryl that follows this one and let us know what would help your Thimbleweed Blog experience.
Thanks and Happy Stitching, Holly P

Blog Stuff & Communication

I am glad to help out Holly with the blog when I am needed, so you are welcome. 

I also like to add things to the Freebies Section (see tab page at top of blog), when I come across things I think other members might have an interest in. I added a couple items this morning under Quilts in the Freebies. One is how to make a 9-patch block using 2 fabric squares. A lot of you know how to do this, but we have newer quilters that might find this useful. This particular link shows you a formula to use to get the size block you need. 

I also added a link to a Quilt Block Library, where you will find a lot of quilt blocks and each block may have more than one size to choose from.

I hope that more of you will read the blog and check back often to see what is new here. Holly puts in a lot of time on this and it is a nice form of communication when some things are too late to add to the emailed newsletter. But sadly the statistics of how many read the blog are extremely low, so I do know that hardly anyone will read this post. Not that many even view the Show & Tell either. 

For those few who do take the time to read the blog and are reading this post right now, what can Holly (and I) do to help bring you here? I mentioned to the group a while back about signing up for email notification and wrote about signing up for email notification here on a previous post too. Whenever there is a new blog post written (as I am writing here), you would receive an email. But sadly only 6 people (including Holly & myself) have signed up for this. If you only come to view the Show & Tell, you would not receive an email for that because pages (the tabs at the top of the blog) are continuously added to and are not a new post by itself, so only new posts would you receive an email about. Would it help if Holly (or I) were to write a short post and list what's newly added? Like I mentioned at the beginning of this post about the new items I added to the Freebies section? Then if you signed up for email notification, you would receive an email about the posting. Or if you just popped onto the blog and saw a post telling you something was added to one of the pages, would that help for you to visit that page? Please let Holly or I know what would help to bring you here to read YOUR blog. Or is having a blog is worth the effort that is being put into it? Do you read the email newsletter? Is that enough? Or maybe just the emails from Holly are sufficient? How many even read their email at all? I notice more and more people are abandoning email to Facebook. But that's a whole other story, so don't get me started, lol!!!!

I am writing this on my own accord. I did not speak to Holly or anyone else about this, but since I am an admin and saw the pitiful page views on each posting, I felt bad for the work Holly has put into this blog over the years and only 3-6 people have taken the time to read it? Perhaps Holly & I are included in those 3-6 people, which makes this even sadder. I have been writing my own personal blog for 11 years this March, so I know the effort and time it takes to do this. However, all the time it takes to write and post for about 3-6 people to read is not really that worthwhile to continue in my opinion. Maybe Holly enjoys writing the blog and posting the photos even if only 5 people are viewing it? That is something she will have to decide for herself if she wants to continue. I am not saying this for her to quit the blog (no Holly!), just pointing out some observations and wondering if it is worth the effort in having a blog at all? Most of the members would rather go on Facebook, so maybe that is where things should be posted instead? So, those other 4 people who are probably reading this post, what do you think?

What are the best ways for members to communicate with the group? Blog? Facebook? Email Newsletter from the city? Email reminder and more from Holly? Or only at meetings in person? 

One reason I bring up the topic of communication is that as a teacher of an upcoming class, I didn't receive many responses back from those signed up for my class and 2 emails came back to me. So how do I let students know what to bring to class when they won't respond to me? I don't know if my email went to their Spam and they never read it at all, or if they deleted it, or if they read it but didn't bother to respond back? I will hand out the paper supply list at the next 2 meetings, but if anyone in my class doesn't show up to those meetings and doesn't contact me, then they won't know what to bring with them. I did the best I can do.

With all these modern ways to communicate with one another, why is communication so difficult? 

January 17, 2019

Hello Everyone,
First I want to say a big THANK YOU! to Daryl P for filling in while I was away. She is a blog expert and having her added touches to our blog are appreciated.

Our meeting today was a 2 for 1 since we were snowed out the first Thursday of the month. There are some new and interesting classes coming up like Daryl's Sewing Selvages class in March and a new technique of paper-piecing in April. Some old favorites will be presented, starting with Tara C leading the Fat Quarter Bag at our next meeting in February.

Look for today's Show & Tell under the new 2019 tab. There are some great ideas and inspiration to see there. Ardith A. presented a mini-challenge - Try your hand at an Attic Window block! More details will appear here on the blog soon. This challenge should be completed for the first meeting in April. Ardith will share the next challenge block then with 2 more to follow during 2019.

May your new year bring lots of quilting fun.
Happy Stitching, Holly