I am still settling myself here. If you’ve been with me a while you will recall that I abandoned my blog nearly ten years ago to go wandering in the wilds of academia. During that time I did a PhD, taught some undergraduates at university, and then fell sideways into a job providing admin support for postgraduate research students. I am still doing the day job for three days a week. It pays the bills but my heart is still here among the tangled threads and bits of old quilt.
I’ve been spending my two free days a week focusing on my textile and mixed media work, and posting it on Instagram fairly regularly over the last few years. What frustrates me a little about Instagram (and social media in general, from the little of it I engage with) is that the pace is very, very fast.
Quite often I want to say more about the work I post on Instagram, but it feels as if there isn’t the time or the space there to slow down enough. It seems to be all about likes and views and follows. If you put more than one photo on a post, they get stacked up so that you have to swipe through them, and there isn’t any sensible way of writing about each picture at length unless you do it in separate posts. The whole thing seems to be designed for scrolling at speed. Maybe I am getting older and slower, but increasingly I want a quiet, calm space that is mine, where visitors can drop by if they want to and be still for a while.
I figured the best thing to do would be to come back here, where I have my own space, where I can be as slow as I like and say as much as I want to about a single image. I have started a fairly lengthy adventure making a nineteenth-century-style sampler book and I will have a lot to say about that. I still can’t use my hand for sewing so I probably have a couple of weeks to set this up the way I want it. It’s kind of exciting, in a quiet slow sort of way.
Karen, it’s lovely to have you back! Many congratulations on achieving the PhD – a mammoth task!
Thanks so much, Eileen. Lovely to see you again!
Hello
Hello again Jude. Good to be back among friends 🙂
Yes
Completely agree with you about the crazy speed of everything these days, but I have to say that once you have found/created your tribe on IG it can be a very rewarding experience because there are many people out there who also hate the fast lane and really appreciate wordy, wandering posts. I’m also glad to see you back here! 🤗
Thanks so much, Chloe. I do enjoy Instagram, and I also like to read longer posts there. I will still be there as well as here 🙂
I had a little laugh the other day when I noticed that you’d started blogging again, as I’ve just gone through much the same process of deciding to return to straightforward blogging after a long pause. Maybe it is a function of age, that’s what I was thinking, especially as I lost the motivation for Instagram, or perhaps it’s because we’re both slow stitchers and that requires a different pace of life? Oh well, whatever, I’m really pleased to see you here and also to know that I’m not the only one making a return. All best wishes. Anny x
Ha! Something in the air perhaps 🙂 also a change in pace I think. Thank you Anny.
I’m absolutely with you about instagram. It’s a good place for a quick “here’s what I’ve done” but the quiet “thinking aloud” and bringing people into your world isn’t really possible – and yet that is the most interesting part about social media. Good to have you back here, and looking forward to what you say!
Thanks so much for that – I’m looking forward to it too.
HA, I made it! So gooooood to find you back here … and as I mentioned on IG, I’m inspired to return wandering in the same blogging direction — something in the air indeed ;>) Sure hope your hand heals real fast & I’m definitely looking forward to any and all of your upcoming thread adventures. Welcome “home”!!
Thanks so much 🤩🥰 Look forward to seeing you back too x