Shotgun shacks in Greenwood, Mississippi. In 1997 I moved from my college apartment in Baltimore to Itta Bena, Mississippi, a town of just over 2,000 people in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. I was there to teach French and social studies at Threadgill Junior High in Greenwood, twenty minutes down the highway. In the…
Archives for March 2016
A Tour of My New Studio
In 2005, I put the sewing machine I’d bought in Junior High on a thrift store typewriter table in the corner of our bedroom and started sewing every day. I had a bin of fabric scraps from my mother-in-law’s basement and a pile of 1960’s soft toy books from the public library. I sat on…
Podcast Episode #69: Janine Vangool of UPPERCASE
On today’s episode of the While She Naps podcast we’re talking about magazine publishing with my guest, Janine Vangool. Janine is the publisher, editor and designer of UPPERCASE, a quarterly print magazine for the creative and curious. UPPERCASE publishes content inspired by design, typography, illustration and craft. Her magazine and books celebrate the process of…
Etsy Unveils New Shop Look
Yesterday Etsy emailed it’s 1.6 million sellers to announce that April 5 shops will have a new look. “We’ve redesigned the way shops look on Etsy to put you in control of your creative business and brand,” Etsy Administrator Shadi Jurdi said in the Etsy Seller Handbook post explaining the redesign. “The new design brings…
Felt Daffodils
When I migrated my site from Typepad to WordPress a few random things were lost. One of them was the template for these felt daffodils. I’ve had it on my to-do list to redraw and upload the templates and this weekend I finally did it! While I was at it, of course, I made five…
Sewing Goes to Silicon Valley: Elizabeth’s Journal #2
Elizabeth Caven is the founder of UpCraft Club, a company she’s hoping to build into the leading online distributor of digital sewing patterns (in the same way that Audible is the leading distributor of audio books). In order to achieve this goal, she’s spending four months in a startup accelerator in Silicon Valley called 500…
I’m Finally Going to Figure Out Google Analytics: Join Me For a Webinar
I’ve had Google Analytics installed on my site for years, but I have a confession to make: I never check it. I’ve tried. Really! I’ve read tutorials, watched videos, and logged a bunch of hours just sitting in front of my monitor clicking on things attempting to sort and make sense of the data. At…
Podcast Episode #68: Heather Lou
On today’s episode of the While She Naps podcast we’re talking about sewing your own clothes with my guest, Heather Lou. Heather is a Montreal based sewing pattern designer and blogger at Closet Case Files. She was once a shopaholic Vogue-reading fashion obsessive, a lifestyle she says left her with a packed closet, nothing to…
Craftsy Launches In-House Fabric Line, Boundless Fabrics – Seeks Designers for Exclusive Kits
Craftsy has launched an in-house fabric line and is now seeking designers to create digital quilt patterns for exclusive kits. Called Boundless Fabrics, the line launched with a collection of solids sold as yardage and pre-cuts in the supplies section on Craftsy.com. In September of 2015 word spread that Craftsy was launching its own yarn…
How to Find and Keep Track of Blogs
This week I’ve been writing an article for the Studio Art Quilt Associates Journal. My assignment was to write about blogging so I’ve been talking to a half-dozen art quilters about their blogs. One of them is Rebecca Hosta and during our conversation she asked such a terrific question. She said: One thing that has…