This month’s theme question is “What online stitching communities do you enjoy?”
Well, I do belong to a number of online communities and some of them are stitching-related.
I am still enrolled in the Cross Stitch Crazy forum, a closed group which is now more active in private Facebook group. I am active on the Facebook page, not in the Yuku forum any more. Having been a member of this group since the days when it was tTHE most active group on the late lamented iVillage, I feel that I know most of the people in it and feel most comfortable there.
I am enrolled in, but inactive in, The Stitcher’s Village. I receive the newsletter and read it through but rarely participate in the forums and do not post in the galleries. I used to but as the format changed over the years, keeping up with it became more trouble than it was worth to me.
I am enrolled in six needlework groups on Stitching’ Fingers. I receive occasional notifications, usually from the crash quilting group, but again, rarely post. It also went though a “reformatting” a few years ago and I find it hard to follow threads the way they are formatting, have found and even harder to participate for that reason. (The last I heard from Stitching Fingers was in September and the moderator/sponsor was bowing out and saying the site might close by December if no-one else came forward.)
I am also a member of Craft Bubble 2, a successor to Craft Bubble which went under some years ago. This UK-based site covers all sorts of crafting but does have a needlework section in the current version. Again, the change in format has pretty much put me off and I rarely visit.
I know that I am still considered enrolled in a few others but since I never go there, I can’t remember the forum names, and in the event I do get an email notification, I can’t remember my user names or my passwords so I can’t get in without a big hassle.
I am no longer active in the Quilt Journal Project or the Bead Journal Project (which has also moved to a closed Facebook group). I decided to opt out of their challenges this past year to recharge and rethink my interest in these needlecraft Primarily, they were just a place to post progress on the yearly challenges and not really a community, per se, in the way that Cross Stitch Crazy was/is.
I do subscribe to a large number of newsletters, thanks in part to having been a member on the now defunct iVillage.com, where I was a community leader on a cross-stitch forum. Most are from online and redbrick shops and that is how I keep up with what is new in the field.
And I subscribe to a number of blogs written by other stitchers as well. While I don’t always comment, it feels to me like more of a “community” feel on a blog these days than on forums. Guess I have evolved form the days when I preferred forums to blogs! ;-)
Basically, I find that online stitchery communities have less to do with stitching and more to do with
a) public galleries of one’s work and/or
b) small talk about all things going on in the lives of people I do not know, or do not know well.
Simply said: a lot of time for little return on the investment, in my opinion. And based on the lack of recent activity on some of these forums, I think others must feel the same way.
~~~~~
Last WIPocalypse, I was:
Here is where the wedding sampler, “Love Is…”, now stands. Not quite halfway…
Well, I do belong to a number of online communities and some of them are stitching-related.
I am still enrolled in the Cross Stitch Crazy forum, a closed group which is now more active in private Facebook group. I am active on the Facebook page, not in the Yuku forum any more. Having been a member of this group since the days when it was tTHE most active group on the late lamented iVillage, I feel that I know most of the people in it and feel most comfortable there.
I am enrolled in, but inactive in, The Stitcher’s Village. I receive the newsletter and read it through but rarely participate in the forums and do not post in the galleries. I used to but as the format changed over the years, keeping up with it became more trouble than it was worth to me.
I am enrolled in six needlework groups on Stitching’ Fingers. I receive occasional notifications, usually from the crash quilting group, but again, rarely post. It also went though a “reformatting” a few years ago and I find it hard to follow threads the way they are formatting, have found and even harder to participate for that reason. (The last I heard from Stitching Fingers was in September and the moderator/sponsor was bowing out and saying the site might close by December if no-one else came forward.)
I am also a member of Craft Bubble 2, a successor to Craft Bubble which went under some years ago. This UK-based site covers all sorts of crafting but does have a needlework section in the current version. Again, the change in format has pretty much put me off and I rarely visit.
I know that I am still considered enrolled in a few others but since I never go there, I can’t remember the forum names, and in the event I do get an email notification, I can’t remember my user names or my passwords so I can’t get in without a big hassle.
I am no longer active in the Quilt Journal Project or the Bead Journal Project (which has also moved to a closed Facebook group). I decided to opt out of their challenges this past year to recharge and rethink my interest in these needlecraft Primarily, they were just a place to post progress on the yearly challenges and not really a community, per se, in the way that Cross Stitch Crazy was/is.
I do subscribe to a large number of newsletters, thanks in part to having been a member on the now defunct iVillage.com, where I was a community leader on a cross-stitch forum. Most are from online and redbrick shops and that is how I keep up with what is new in the field.
And I subscribe to a number of blogs written by other stitchers as well. While I don’t always comment, it feels to me like more of a “community” feel on a blog these days than on forums. Guess I have evolved form the days when I preferred forums to blogs! ;-)
Basically, I find that online stitchery communities have less to do with stitching and more to do with
a) public galleries of one’s work and/or
b) small talk about all things going on in the lives of people I do not know, or do not know well.
Simply said: a lot of time for little return on the investment, in my opinion. And based on the lack of recent activity on some of these forums, I think others must feel the same way.
~~~~~
Last WIPocalypse, I was:
- planning to have the birth sampler framed and sent off to my niece = DONE. She received it and liked it
- hoping to start on a wedding sampler for a different niece = Started but it’s embarrassing. I haven’t stitched enough to blog in October. I just seem to dislike this WIP so much. But I shall persevere!
- hoping to maybe get out “Save the Stitches” and make some progress there = NOT done. The stitching mojo needs some real work!
Here is where the wedding sampler, “Love Is…”, now stands. Not quite halfway…
The bottom two rows of words as shown here are to be completed/outlined with a different color
This coming month, I will continue to plug away as the wedding sampler but I make no promises!
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