January 10, 2012

Addicted to magazines? You'll love Pinterest!

A portion of my Pinterest page

Heading out to Barnes & Noble is a regular activity. I love magazines (well, duh?). Inspiration, energy and thoughts fill the pages and magazines are a good way to prep my mind to begin a new issue of American Quilt Retailer — especially at this time of year with the sky steel gray and holiday festivities fading into the distance.

So imagine my delight upon jumping into the fun of Pinterest. I had been dragging my feet as friends suggested I give it a try. Did I really need one more online place to visit? Well, why not? And, yes, now that I’ve joined in, Pinterest is rapidly moving to the top of my “favorites” list!

Pinterest is an online social community where people create visual, categorized “bulletin” boards of photos they find interesting. It’s a way of telling friends “Hey, look what I found! You might like it too!” People with like interests can discover all kinds of new things. Visit your friends “Pinterest” boards. If you see an image you like, you can “repin” it to your board, so you can view it again and again. See a photo you like on the web? You can grab that image and “pin” it on one of your Pinterest boards. Links will follow photos. So if you like a recipe on a favorite blog, “pin” a photo of it on your “food” board. Your friends can click on this yummy-looking dish and discover a new blog and a new meal. It sort of lets you create and share your own online “magazine” of ideas and it brings the entire Internet down to a manageable size. Head to Pinterest.com. Request an invitation, which takes a couple of days to arrive, and start pinning. Feel free to “follow” me and I can follow you!

Just beware, this too is addicting! — Susan

December 20, 2011

Issue 103 — almost ready!

’Tis the season for looking back and looking forward — and ’tis the season for joy … and, yes, stress. We create both of these emotions for ourselves, don’t you think? For me, I must thrive on a good balance of both — as I do both so well. But, really, how joyful would joy be, without a little stress on the side? And, as we stress along, time passes, stress vanishes and all is well in the end, right?

Looking back, I stressed and stressed over my decision announced in the last issue — you know, the one where I decided to go from six print issues of American Quilt Retailer each year to four print issues a year with new online content? I thought this would be a good move for all. Well, now looking forward — scratch that plan. I have (again!) stressed, and changed my mind, and we will continue printing six issues a year. Six issues is what we know how to do best, and we will proceed doing our best to suit your needs and the needs of our advertisers. You can read more about this decision in this upcoming issue.

The cover of this issue, a pattern called “Oh, Boy!” from Carrie Bloomston of SUCH Designs, and our “Fall Quilt Market Review” present a look at the new products geared towards “the guys in our lives.” This has all been especially joyful to research and write, and it all is so timely. One of my two favorite guys, Jay, the little super hero shown above, is getting married at the end of this month. A lot of looking forward and looking back going on around! As an avid “sewist” and crafter, for years (until he outgrew me), I made stuffed animals, clothes, costumes, toys and this magic cape complete with a cool silver falcon emblazoned with a super “J.” May you find ways to bring such joy to your sewing mothers and grandmothers with some of our featured products.

Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender in “Experts Speak” speak of changes, a new year and a new attitude. If we can create joy and stress, we are also the ones to create attitude — and make it a good one at that! Jim Salinas in “Just Ask Jim” implores you to change another attitude and not blame cash flow woes on over-buying. He makes a good case — as he always does. More attitude adjustment needed? Some changes can make us take an “up in arms” attitude — talk about creating stress? Remember when people were “up in arms” over Internet shops? We got over that, didn’t we? Internet book sales? Internet pattern sales? Roseann Kermes in her column “Make it Happen” talks about how there is no need to be “up in arms” about downloadable patterns. She has taken what she at first saw as a negative, and has turned it into a positive. See how you can utilize online content inside your shop. Roseann also has a slew of suggested new attitudes to embrace as you look forward in “How do you want your 2012 to look?” .

Then Beth Ferrier in her “Off-Grain” column on page 38 will make you smile. She said, “Given time, the aspects of our lives that keep us feeling stuck can shift away. Problems that seemed too overwhelming to continue will be resolved at last, freeing us to once again take the next step. The trick is to be patient …” Looking forward to new beginnings, you can turn your ship around with changes “grand or small.”

Magazine done — check. Christmas shopping done — check. Now on to the big wedding celebration and looking forward to new beginnings for all!

Issue 103 of American Quilt Retailer will mail January 3, 2012.

Merry Christmas! — Susan

December 20, 2011

Count 'em — six issues!

There will continue to be six issues of American Quilt Retailer!

Such is the way … the best laid plans often go astray. But sometimes “astray” is the best way — when all is said and done.

In the last issue of American Quilt Retailer I made the big exciting announcement that starting in January we were going to publish only four issues each year and increase our online content in a special area on our website called The Backroom.

Well — scratch that. I’ve changed my mind!

As word of the new plan spread, we really didn’t have many complaints. The only real negatives came from two ladies at market who we decided were rather grouchy to begin with. We had positive comments of support or sort of resigned comments like “… well, yes, the Internet is the way things are going.” You were all very polite.

However, hearing advertisers express disappointment at not being able to reach you — our readers — in print six times a year — well, let’s say it made me pause. American Quilt Retailer is not only important to you, our polite readers, it is important as a communications vehicle for our advertisers. What was I thinking!

Although change is good and change is fun, doing what you know how to do, and continuing to do what you do best, really does make sense in the end. Readers have always told me they love the magazine — the look and feel. Ahh -— alas, the world will not give up magazines and books. We are visual, touchy-feely beings, aren’t we?

So everything is back to normal: six print issues — January, March, May, July, September and November. I haven’t decided how the web content will proceed — just needed to turn my attention to undoing what we announced in October and to getting this print issue to press. But we will keep you posted — online!

You can continue to count on us — six times a year!

November 21, 2011

Quilt Market upbeat!

This photo of Deb Luttrell, one of American Quit Retailer’s columnists, says it all — Quilt Market in Houston was great!

Deb Luttrell owner of Stitchin' Heaven

Does she look like she is having fun or what?

After getting to Houston, Becky set up the entire booth and I actually had the pleasure of going on two field trips.

Thursday night before market all of the members of the Advisory Council were invited to take a bus trip to LaGrange, Texas for a private viewing of the new Texas Quilt Museum. For decades Karey Patterson Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes, founders of the Texas Quilt Museum and International Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival, had dreamed of having a permanent venue to feature quilt collections like the ones seen for brief periods of time during Market and Festival. La Grange is conveniently located just off a major highway and between Austin, San Antonio and Houston. The first exhibit, “Texas Quilts Today,” features a selection of the quilts in Lone Star III, the third book in a series of books on Texas quilts. Even though we arrived after dark a stunning mural painted on the outside wall greeted us. Notice the quilt shadows. Even though I shot this with a flash, the quilts are so realistic, I need to explain that the shadow is part of the painting!

The mural outside the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange

The building, smelling of fresh paint and polished floors, was impeccably restored to make the perfect showcase for any quilt collection.

Karey Bresenhan proposes a toast in celebration of the completion of the Texas Quilt Museum.

The Texas Quilt Museum officially opened to the public on Sunday, November 13. Next time you’re nearby, it is definitely worth a visit!

On the following night while Becky continued to set up the booth (thank you, Becky!), I went galavanting off again! This time to “The Prairie by Rachel Ashwell”, a bed and breakfast ranch recently purchased and styled by Rachel Ashwell of Shabby Chic in Brenham, Texas (not far from La Grange, if you’d like to plan your own field trip!).

We dined on fried chicken, salad and positively delicious chocolate brownies before getting a tour of several of the cottages. After the usual pre-market frenzy, in the quiet cover of a fall night, it was hard not to crawl right in one of the fluffy down covered beds!

Liliput Lodge at The Ranch by Rachel Ashwell

Our chuck wagon chef

Set for supper

Temptation!

Attention to detail everywhere!

Even the sidewalks were cool!

Rachel — it was a wonderful evening!

Good job, Becky!

Good job, Becky!

All in all market was very upbeat. Becky manning the booth said it was the second busiest market we’ve had in the last five years! Everyone was in a good frame of mind and seemed to be happy. Roseann Kermes and Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender presented well-attended Schoolhouses for AQR.

Roseann Kermes

Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender

I walked the market all weekend seeking and finding lots of goodies which will be presented in the next issue! You’ll have to stay tuned to see more! — Susan

October 19, 2011

Coming soon to a computer near you!

One of my favorite evening activities is reading blogs and other interesting articles on the Internet. It's easy and enjoyable to connect and learn.

How would you like to receive even more information — information that you can read in your evenings — from American Quilt Retailer? Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it! Well, in today’s lightning fast world — we can do this for you!

We have some big news: starting in January 2012, our paid subscribers will receive four print issues each year instead of six! Now wait, let me finish … The four print issues will be called Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. In between these important four print issues, every two weeks we will post new columns in an easy-to-read format on our website in a special “for paid subscribers only” page called The Backroom. These columns will be from our regular team of writers. You will receive just as much material as you would have received in the two dropped issues!

The Backroom will be password protected, and you must be a paid reader to access it. Our webmaster is working out the technical details for us, and when this new feature is ready in January paid subscribers will receive information from us on how to get into The Backroom.

Then, in addition to the online columns posted every two weeks, I will be adding news briefs, ideas as they surface and links to other Internet articles I think you might be interested in. These added bits of info will come at one time, most likely in the weeks between the columns as I do not want to bombard you with something every hour — you are very busy, and we also do not want to over-step our welcome. I will also continue writing my blog, here on the public area of our website.

So, now there will be three easy ways to get your news from us — in each print issue of American Quilt Retailer, in The Backroom and on my “Missing Pieces” blog. And — we have a few other ideas we will develop as things progress!

The Backroom will also have sponsorships from industry vendors with direct links to their websites so they, too, can keep you up-to-date with immediate news.

At first we will use e-mails to help you know when we have posted something, and we hope it will become an easy habit to check The Backroom frequently. Be certain to bookmark both our website (www.americanquiltretailer.com) and The Backroom. And — be certain we have your current e-mail address as this will become an important link for you to gain your information. (If you currently receive e-mails to download our FREE-to-use pattern PDFs, we have your e-mail.)

Subscriptions will remain $45 for one year and we will fulfill your subscription with the number of print issues you have remaining. For example, if it is time for you to renew, you will renew for four print issues and all the in-between columns and news in The Backroom. If you have just renewed and are expecting six issues you will still get six print issues. Your subscription will just continue to run into 2013, and you will also have access to The Backroom during this time.

As this continues to progress, please let us know what you think, and feel free to make suggestions so American Quilt Retailer can continue to be your best industry trade resource.

So, starting in 2012 we will be doing even more to help you improve your business and stay informed. Now, information will come to you much sooner, more quickly and more frequently than I have been able to give it to you with only six print issues a year. We are excited about this change — you have no idea how often I think of things to tell you, and they have to wait for a blog post or the next print issue — this is going to be good! — Susan