Hanging Heart By Mom

I've been playing around a little bit with the banner for my blog.  It'll probably change again because I don't care for the lettering that I used but I'll look at it for a day or two before I play around with it some more.

For today, I just added a new Hanging Heart by Mom to my Etsy shop:

 Even though Mom doesn't really do much crazy quilting, I can see where she's picked up some embellishing habits from me!

Also, a little birdie told me that Mom is working on some St Patrick's Day Tussy Mussy's!  I usually hang out over at Mom's on Friday's so I may have them to list next week sometime.

If you like using these sweet little vintage images on your crazy quilting and other crafts, you might enjoy visiting my Vintage Images Pinterest board.  You'll find a nice selection of vintage photographs, vintage greeting cards and vintage illustrations.  Pour yourself a cup of tea and allow a good amount of time because there are over 10,000 images on that board!

It Was Spring Yesterday

But today, there's a very cold wind blowing.  It's sunny though so that helps!  I want to get back out in the yard and clean up some more but that wind is a bit cold for me.

I took Lucy to the vet this morning and her weight is holding at 7 pounds 2 ounces.  The special kidney diet is working.  She's sleeping now but she's been more talkative these past few weeks.  I ordered a special vitamin supplement for her for kidney health.  Our vet said it can't hurt so I'll start giving her that as soon as it arrives.  My sister has been giving it to her 19 year old cat who also has kidney disease and her numbers are already getting better after only a week or so.  Lucy's numbers are in the normal range now but this should help along with the special diet.

In other news, I finished up my little seascape cellphone pouch:

I made this for a dear friend who's birthday is April 6th.  I'll run to the Post Office tomorrow and mail it to her.

I've also been stitching on this little 6 X 6 inch door pillow block:

When I finish up on the computer I'll start adding my beads and sequins.

I added some more Color Combinations to my Pinterest Color Palette Board including a few of my own.  For Crazy Quilters who struggle with what colors to use, these palettes should help to narrow things down.  Choose a palette that you like, print it up and match your fabric colors to that.  It's a good starting point for anyone who is new to crazy quilting but feels overwhelmed by where to start.

Finally for today, I wanted to mention that I won't be making anymore of my Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls for my Etsy shop.  I'm going to make them just as gifts now.  So if anyone wants one of my little cats, there are still a few left in the shop.  Order while you can!

Color Palettes and Combinations

Since I'm working on a project that I can't share at the moment, I thought I'd offer a suggestion for anyone who struggles with choosing color palettes and color combinations.  Whether you're a crazy quilter or a sane quilter, you might find this helpful!

Ya'll know I love Pinterest!  Yes, it's a time consumer so I try to put a limit on how long I spend there but it does have it's benefits!

I've put together a board for Color Palettes:

Color Palettes

Even if you don't struggle with color combinations for your quilts, you might enjoy finding some new color combinations.  Or you might just enjoy looking at the pins.  They're really pretty.

I know that choosing a palette can be overwhelming, especially to someone who is new to crazy or sane quilting so please hop on over and see if this board gives you any ideas!

Christmas Stitching

I finished up this Crazy Quilt Christmas Block this morning:

Not a great photo but I'll post another one next week once I get this sewn together.

Also, if anyone out there likes Pinterest, be sure to follow me there!  I know, Pinterest is addictive but I pin a little everyday and mom likes to pin too (on my account) so be sure to see all the pretty things we find!

Bunny Pillow

I did a lot yesterday despite not feeling particularly well.  I made some muffins, took my garden window apart and cleaned it, washed my kitchen valences and rehung those and walked a mile and 1/2 with my neighbor Peggy.  Then I took easy and did some stitching.  This is an update on my crazy quilt bunny pillow:

I'll probably finish this up today.

A final note on sharing content.  In regards to my recent discussions on Pinterest and copyright infringement, I would like to let everyone know that it's absolutely okay to share content on social networks.  But there's a right way and wrong to do it.

Sharing cool websites and articles is what the internet is all about.  Without sharing, bloggers wouldn't have readers, shop owners wouldn't have much in the way of customers, so on and so forth!  It's an important part having fun online.

The best way to share content to social networks is to use the "share" button.  Here on my blog, you can find it at the top of the page.  If you use Facebook, Twitter or Stumbleupon, just click that share button and when it's posted to the chosen social network, a link back to the source site is always included.  That's the key to legal and proper sharing of content.  Always be sure that there is a clickable link back to the source.  That was part problem with Pinterest.  With the sharing and re-sharing of photos, the link to the source was quite often lost.

Personally, I encourage legal sharing of content.  Feel free to share the links to my tutorials and blog posts!  How can anyone else find the information useful of people don't share?  Most sites have those share buttons on them.  Just use those and you're okay!

Oh, and then there's my shops.  Maybe people get tired of me constantly plugging my shops. It's my income.  It's how I make my money.  At this time in my life, it's the only way I can make money.  Again, I'm okay with anyone who wants to share links to items in my shops.  I need all the help I can get!  There is a share button in the sidebar on my Kitty & Me website and Etsy provides share buttons for Twitter and Facebook as well.  Please feel free to share using those share buttons!

The internet is a lot of fun and it's supposed to be.  But as with anything else, there has to be a few rules or guidelines.  Without those, it's a free for all and that takes the fun out of it.  Let's have fun and let's share.  Let's just do it the fair and proper way!

Here is the link for the Add This Share Button in case you would like to put it on your blog or website.

No Pin Code

Although I've had several  kind and understanding people contact me regarding my concerns about Pinterest and copyright infringement, I've also run into a lot of opposition on the subject.  A LOT!

May I say that just because it's on the internet, does not mean that it's free for the taking!  It seems to me that some people don't understand what copyright means or they don't care.  In most cases, it's that they don't care.

I won't get myself or you all worked up with this issue.  I spent years chasing the copyrights for my cross stitch designs all over the internet.  These included patterns that I had for sale, patterns that were published in magazines and books and patterns that I offered for free.  As you know, I no longer sell my cross stitch patterns and I've deleted every free pattern (with the exception of one) that I've ever offered because I got tired of finding them on other peoples sites.  And there was no reason for it!  All anyone ever had to do was to link to my blog.  Well, too bad now!

With all that said, if you would like the instructions on how to add a "no pin" code to your blog, please hop over to Sharon B's Pintangle Blog.  It's very easy to do and I have already added the code to this blog.  You can also find a link at Sharon's blog on how to keep your Flickr photos from being pinned.  I've left Sharon a message asking if she knows where to add the code to my website (I have a little trouble with HTML) and if she's aware of anyway to keep my content at Etsy from being shared.

For those of you on Facebook, no worries there!  Facebook already has a "no pin" code installed on their site.  Photos on Facebook can not be pinned on Pinterest.  At least not at this time.

So in other news, I've been stitching on my bunny pillow:

Other than a bit of cleaning and laundry today, I'm planning on having a good amount of stitching time so we'll see where it goes!

Pinterest and Copyright Issues

It has come to my attention, that the website Pinterest has policies that are quite controversial regarding copyright issues.

They claim that all photos pinned gives them the right to use those photos as they choose.  Well, I'm not sure how they can make this claim a policy because people are pinning photos from all over the internet without permission from the copyright holder's.

I confess, I have enjoyed Pinterest for several months now and thought of it as a social network as well as an indirect way to promote my blog, website and Etsy shop however, it's a dangerous situation.  It never occurred to me that my copyrights were being infringed upon.  Please note:  I own the copyrights on all photos posted here on my blog, on my website, in my Flickr albums and on my Etsy shop!

If I post photos from anyone else's website here on my blog, I always ask for permission and I always include a link to the source site!  Not only is this the "legal" way of doing things, it's also proper etiquette.

I will be removing my boards from Pinterest momentarily and I would like to ask that if any of my photos are on your boards, please remove them as soon as possible.

I would like to point you in the direction of Sharon B's Pintangle blog.  Sharon has posted an indepth discussion on the subject of Pinterest and the copyright implications of using the site.

Pinterest

Just a quick blog post for today.  I have a list a mile long of things I need to get done.

I wanted to share this awesome website that I found.  Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can post photos of things you find all over the web and organize them into your own catagorys such as recipes, home decor, craft ideas, things to buy and so on.  It's really fun to collect these photos in one place.  A link back to the original source is included so you can go back to the website if you want to.

 This is a lot of fun!!!  If you join, look me up!