It's TV on the Internet

The Silver Lining

Uh huh. We in the industry have been surmising--and hoping--that since people aren't spending money on new houses, cars, vacations, etc. they were hunkering down and making things. Sure enough, Jo-Ann Stores and Michaels  are seeing an increase. BTW, so are booze sales, and at about the same rate.

~Jodie

Thing-a-Day

What a great idea. Beat the winter doldrums, give yourself a kick in the rear, by committing to one month of doing something creative every day and reporting it to the world.

"Join artists and creators of all types and backgrounds in a collective creative sprint. Thing-a-day invites you to join a daily creative endeavor where everyone who signs up commits to making one thing (project, sketch, exercise) per day and shares it online on this collective blog. Take advantage of the opportunity to share ideas and receive constructive advice while developing new work."

I'm having fun participating. So far 1,418 participants have posted 4,024 things and wrote 4,498 comments. One can post a comment or give a quick thumbs up to projects. Great encouragement.

What a wonderful use of social media!

What is QNNtv?

Quick History of QNNtv: QNNtv has been online for 1 ½ years now. Perhaps a bit ahead of its time, QNNtv has weathered a shaky leadership at the start, earned credibility back from its industry, and now with the underlying buzz being "It’s all about the Internet” is enjoying the embrace of the quilting industry in developing excitingly creative marketing and educational programs taking advantage of the unique opportunities the Internet provides.

What makes us different from other video sites? We serve a true niche, with a rich library of special interest programming. Our viewers offer a targeted demographic. Our purpose is simply put: we enable creativity. The magic of QNNtv is the marriage of how-to programming with the capabilities inherent in the Internet that allow viewers instant access to further information, patterns, tools and supplies to realize their own creativity sparked by the programming. Magic!

More Press Says Sewing is Hot!

First it was knitting and now it's sewing. The press is abuzz about how in sewing is. The Home Sewing Association has been keeping up on the print press, reporting that newspapers such as Time to the Wall Street Journal have caught on.

As I reported previously, NBC Nightly News ran a story and now the Today Show aired a piece.

I took time out this evening to plug a USB cable from my laptop to my Bernina and stitch out an embroidery design I had designed this weekend. While I've done this several times before, while I was watching the animation of the computer as the sewing machine stitched, I kept saying out loud, "This is so amazing!" I can't imagine having never found sewing and not having that thrill even after 20 years at the craft. getting fabric in my hands or myself in the chair at the sewing machine gives me an immediate sense of well-being. That's why the mission of HSA it to "get people sewing" and mine at QNNtv is to "enable creativity": to share the joy!

Instant Gratification Patterns: Online Shopping

The crafting industry is full of fabulous products, but it's the designers who create projects and write and publish the accompanying how-to instructions in books, magazines and patterns that keep the demand for those products hopping. For designers, the most direct route to bring their project instructions to market, and the one offering the greatest control and potential profitability, is developing and marketing a line of patterns.

Taking this route, the designer maintains control over the content of her patterns, and the timetable from inspiration to market can be as little as a few weeks versus months for magazine articles and years for books.

Until now the pattern designer, four or six patterns in hand along with the subsequent investment in printing, made the rounds of quilt shops, slowly making a foothold in one shop at a time. Setting up booths at quilt shows, purchasing ads in magazines, and creating a web site with e-commerce capabilities would then follow. then there's manning the phone and web site to send out printed patterns onesies and sixsies at a time... Not much time left for developing product.

Enter the Internet and the ubiquity of the color ink jet printer.

Here's the scenario:

The designer has created the pattern in an electronic file. She either

a) pays a printer to print them, then warehouse them, and ships as orders come in.

Or

b) she prints patterns from the file on her computer on demand.

In both cases shipping and fulfillment are involved. Why not eliminate the printing and shipping steps by connecting the dots directly between the electronic file and the customer's color printer? Talking about instant gratification!

At QNNtv we have been offering a limited selection of instant gratification patterns for over a year. (I like that name, "Instant Gratification Patterns" it is!) We have learned what works and what doesn't work and are planning a re-launch of the program. The major lesson is that we need to educate our viewers about them: what they are, how to download them, etc. and do it visually. It's on my list for an upcoming studio taping session.

As Beth Mauro wrote in her article on this subject, Pay-Per-Project Online, for the crafts trade magazine CNA, shortening the time line between new product introduction and the availability (and easy access to) how-to project instructions creates a win-win-win for crafters, product manufacturers, and designers. An industry like quilting and crafting revolves around fresh projects that spark a crafter into saying, "I'm going to make that!" Giving him or her the tools to do so--quickly--is the most direct route to a successful finished project and a beaming "I made this!" That's what it's all about!

P.S. Now let's couple those instantly printable patterns with video-on-demand showing how-to make the project--now that's magic!

NBC Says Sewing is In!

The media has discovered that sewing is all the rage! On December 23rd the NBC Nightly News ran a story during their prime time news segment, “Sewing Finds a New Life." The segment reported that there have been five million new sewers in the last five years, Singer Sewing Machine Company has doubled their sales, and there is a waiting list for classes at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, MD.

While the chant in the industry is "We have to get young sewers in our we'll die" (I have my own perspective on that one) this influx of a new generation of crafters is already happening. According to this report, my conversation with Donna Smith at G Street Fabrics, publication of new magazines such as Cutting Edge and Craft:, and the experience of such hands-on stores as Quiltology in Lincoln Park in Chicago, sewing is hot with thirty-somethings. It's a bottom-up rather than top-down revival, inspired by the need to create with one's own hands and have something tangible to show for one's efforts at the end of the day. It's all about expressing one's individuality and the need for the satisfaction of "I made this!"

As an industry let's cultivate these new creatives and bring them and their design sense into the fold to lead the way in making sewing and crafting attractive to their generation's sensibilities. Let's hand them the baton!