Sew, JennyGo, Sew!

Given a little recent “drama” (if you can call it that) that occurred over a Flickr comment I had made on someone’s quilt block, I’ve been thinking about what it means to do all this sharing on the web. The geek in me knows how “sharing” has surpassed “searching” as the number 1 activity on the web. Sharing is, to me, the act of making pieces of yourself available to the public/greater good/the internet and expecting some sort of response in return. This could be as little as a retweet that you liked or an article that you found interesting to as much as a picture of your family, a status update, or, like the creative community that I’ve decided to place myself in, a photo of something you made. 

So someone decided to share a photo of a block they made for a swap that 25 of us were participating in. The block looked very nice, however, there were a few guidelines that the sewist didn’t follow that all of us swappers had to agreed to from the get-go. I saw that the pic was just of one block, so I thought that maybe the sewist still had another 24 to make and I could help them out by pointing to the thread in the Flickr discussion that had all the guidelines in it. I made a comment, complimenting the pretty fabrics she used and saying that she should check out that thread before making another 24. Apparently, I was wrong in doing this. Another poster said that I should have Flickr Mailed her…which, okay, maybe I should have. But I still didn’t see anything wrong with what I said. But others did. I apologized to those who felt like I was wrong for saying something and I apologized to the sewist herself, assuming that she took my comment out of context or was offended by it, but it was futile and my comments and the discussion around my initial comment, both supporting and dissenting, were removed. In a later discussion thread, the sewist said something about the block being “unwanted.” Where that came from, I don’t know. It wasn’t something I had said, implied, or even thought. 

I make things that aren’t perfect. I know that, for sure! Especially being a self-taught sewist/quilter/knitter, etc and I know I’m still learning. But I need people who have a vested interest in this stuff to tell me how I can do better. Tell me if I did something wrong. It may make the world of difference next time I try to sew a block like that. I learn from myself, my mistakes, others and others’ mistakes, especially those who are willing to admit to them. 

I don’t do a lot of commenting on Flickr and this will probably be the last time I do so. It’s soured my thoughts about the creative community that resides on there. What I don’t understand is how this little corner of the web that can provide so much inspiration can also be so fraught with egos where any little criticism, or even assistance, is looked upon as being negative and “un-sportsmanlike”. Sure, it’s great to be all “unicorns and rainbows” all the time and post “that’s so beautiful!!!” to every photo you see, but how will we ever push our creativity, or learn from our mistakes if no one is willing (or able) to point them out to us?? Which brings me to, why bother sharing if you want to plug your ears and not hear what people think about what you’ve shared?? That point going to anything that we put on the web.

Anyone out there in that creative community care to comment (without repercussions—just discussion!)? Did I miss something here? Did I cross the line?