April Round-Up and An Instagram Lesson

Here we are at the final day of April, and I have prepared a collage to corral all my activities for the waning month.

In the top row is my finished mini-quilt using the swap blocks shared with the friends in the Frankfort group. Next is the lovely FQ pack of dainty calicoes purchased online, followed by the fixed and finished Jelly Roll quilt that I attempted (and screwed up royally) back in September.

In the middle row I have two pictures that feature treasures from a box of fabric and linens from my mother. The embroidered pillow cases were a wedding gift to my parents in 1956, and I made the table cloth from a generous length of sturdy fabric buried down in the box. The final picture in the middle row are the newly-recovered barstools using remnants of the family room curtain fabric.

The bottom row shows the pincushions I gifted to the retreat participants, the finished Thimbleberries quilt begun at the '17 retreat, and my DH, as he approaches the finish line of the Cap City Half Marathon in Columbus. This race was Saturday, and he did so well for not having run competitively in about 35 years. It was quite an accomplishment!

Now, I am going to digress a bit, and talk about making these photo collages. There are many iPhone apps out there that will make collages, but the one I most often use is simply called Layout. It is compatible with Instagram, which I find myself using with increasing frequency. More often than not, I use the 3x3 option because it reminds me of the 9-patch block I love to make. Perfect for the quilter, you know.

Over the past few weeks, I have been seeing many collages on Instagram that look like the one above - the quilter is pictured in the center and is surrounded by examples of her work. It accompanied the hashtag (#) quiltvsquilter. The hashtag was created by an Australian quilter names Cat - her IG name is tincatsew.  She started a quilter's version of one that artists had going called #artvsartist. So the #quiltvsquilter is a way to see the quilter behind the quilt. Most often, we see the quilts but have no idea of the people who made them. Mine, above, features some of my most recent finishes - mostly from the year of the UFO, along with some others that I could quickly access.

I still consider myself to be a novice at the whole 'hashtag-IG-tagging-following' business, but one interesting phenomenon occurred after I posted the collage above with the quiltvsquilter hashtag. Before I knew it, I had over 100 "likes" - by gosh, I think the previous high might be 25. I mean, really, I have very little interaction of this sort with my IG posts. Now, I don't do it for the likes, but I admit, it feels nice to get them! My main reason for Instagramming is that I like to look at quilt pictures! I find quilters with similar styles to mine and follow them. Sometimes, they follow me back. The only way to be followed back is to post pictures. I admit to being gratified when a quilter likes something I have posted; it validates that what you are making is appealing to others, not just yourself.

Well, I have certainly rambled on a bit, haven't I? Like I said, all this new technology is fun, but the learning curve is wide - and getting wider all the time for this old gal.

Hope your April has been great, now let's make May even better!!
Happy Quilting, Friends!