Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Changes and Dodging a Bullet

This is a quilt I made almost 25 years ago. It is an off-center Log Cabin, begun in a workshop with Jane Hall in 1995, finished in 1997. It's about 30" square:


The other day one of the Sunday Sew and Sews asked about it as it has been hanging on a rod in my studio for about 20 years.  I took it off the rod to show them and it was SO DUSTY! Embarrassing! This baby needed a bath.

After pulling a big collection of fabrics for a new project, I thought I'd better pre-wash the darkest ones. Here is the complete collection, give or take a few: 


Here are the darkest fabrics, after pre-washing:


What is the problem, you say? I washed the quilt in with these DARK fabrics and FORGOT to add a Color Catcher! I only realized that after the load was washed and I was putting everything in the dryer. I quickly grabbed the quilt and studied it for signs of bleeding fabrics on the white logs of the quilt. 

I must be living right because there was no bleeding anywhere and all the fabrics and  the quilt look fine. Sheesh! I won't try that trick again.

 I enjoy writing this Blog--begun December 31, 2011. It serves as my Diary/Journal and a way to teach what I know how to do to others who want to learn that stuff.

We are approaching 3200 followers. Most of those follow by email--using the built-in email subscription service that came with Blogger, the base platform for blogspot.com blogs. Recently, we were notified that in July 2021, Feedburner, that subscription service, would be going away. 

Thousands of us who use Blogspot.com to publish our blogs are looking for solutions. Some come at a cost to me--something I don't want to use. I have not monetized this Blog, so there are no ads for you to close or skip past, and I don't want there to be. But if I had to pay $50-100/month to provide access to an email subscription, that money would  have to come from somewhere.

So, at the moment, this is what I know are your options if you currently follow this Blog by email:

1. Use Bloglovin.com to follow all the blogs you like to follow. I use this and have been very happy with it. Daily I get an email showing me a few of the blogs I follow that have a new post. I go to My Feed on bloglovin.com, an account I set up there, and can read through any new blogs that are posted. I can see the info in a simple format or open the Original Post to have access to all the sidebars and Comments section. Free to me and the bloggers. I have a link right here for you to use to go to Bloglovin.com. Currently, almost 740 of you follow this Blog that way.

2. Use Feedly.com--the same process as Bloglovin'. The free version allows you to have 100 blogs in your account. I have not used it but almost 100 of you do.

3. If you have a Google account, like if you use Gmail.com, you can follow with Blogger--there is a Follow link right here for that. Currently, over 270 of you use this method. I don't know much about it but am guessing it's very similar to the two methods above.

4. OR you could remember to come to this Blog every Wednesday and Sunday, when I usually post, to read the new Blog. Personally, since I follow at least 50 blogs, that would take me a lot of time to do. Some of those post daily, some weekly, some hardly ever. Most I would forget to go look at and would surely miss a lot of quilt-related information I don't want to miss.

As new solutions become available, I will let you know about them. Until July, those who follow by email won't see any change. After July 1, POOF!--I might be gone from your inbox and I would truly miss you. 

Any of you who know of solutions to this--which will effect many thousands of Bloggers who use Blogspot.com, please Comment Below with your suggestion. Thanks!

Let's quilt.

Barbara

5 comments:

  1. That is a beauty of a little quilt. So glad that the wash without a color catcher didn't do any harm.
    I don't know how this is going to play out without the Feedburner widget. Over half of my followers are through that. I follow over 100 blogs, but I do it through the blogger dashboard, so I am okay following, I just want those followers who are attached to Feedburner to have a way to switch that works for them.

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  2. Whew! I'm glad your beauty is still a beauty! I've switched to Bloglovin.com to follow the blogs on my reading list. Although there are a few that I haven't been able to find to add to my list. I've also added the Bloglovin.com widget to my blog for followers. I will continue to add blogs on my subscription list that don't show in the blog I follow. Like you, I wouldn't remember to check a blog for new information and I wouldn't want to miss out!

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  3. So glad you dodged that bleeding bullet. I also write a blog and do not yet have a subscription. I tried that for a while and got thousands upon thousands of Russian, Chinese, and other "users" who clearly were bots of some kind so I disabled it. I have been looking around for a solution recently. I will be interested to see what you do. Cheers, BJ

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  4. Beautiful quilt, So glad the fabrics did not bleed. Yes, I agree about the email subscriptions. Bloglovin' and Feedly are free and dependable. Plus, you would not be seeing nor storing the personal info of followers (Bloglovin' and Feedly do that when they sign up). Keep us posted as you find out more solutions.

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  5. Hi Barbara, I know a good Feedburner alternative - follow.it! Please have a look here why we're a great alternative: https://follow.it/blog/feedburner-stops-email-services-switch-to-follow-it-now/. The switching process is very quick and we are always happy to help you :)

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