With the exception of blog reading, although that tends to happen at stupid o'clock.
This morning I read Pink Penguin, a blog that I have followed for ages, I bought Ayumi's book "Patchwork Please" last year, it was released in April, and have happily sewed my way through it.
Today's blog is a very sad read, although she has not stated it one of her creations has been copied almost to the 'nth degree. It is on the front of my magazine, It hardly registered when I looked at it but on reading the post this morning a light switch came on in my mind.
This is from my book, the original wall hanging from Ayumi.
The front cover of the new edition of the magazine.
The first page of the tutorial/article.
What do you think, is it a step too far or a coincidence?
My Granny used to say that there is nothing new under the sun. We all take ideas from other peoples work, I often comment on blogs to say that I admire a recipe or a sewing project and say that I will be copying. I do write about this here and give credit to the source, I also alter and tweak to my hearts content. It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that may well be true.
I do feel that if an author has published something that is for sale then too close a copy is not flattery but theft.
MFin3 gives her recipes freely on her blog, she offers reams of advice to those in debt, but her sewing creation patterns are for sale. These sales keep her family afloat and help towards the future, it would be immoral for anyone to buy a pattern and then alter it slightly to sell on as their own creation.
Frugal Queen gives her recipes and money saving advice freely as well, as do many bloggers.
I have almost lost my way with this post, I am so angry. I intend to contact the magazine and register my displeasure, I also intend to cancel my subscription. Much as I like the publication I will not condone the action.
Reasons to be grateful.
1. The fact that I can "put my money where my mouth is" and cancel this subscription.
2. The fact that I can still feel outrage at a, to my mind, dishonest act.
3. My blog affords me the means to voice my outrage.
4. Another load of recycling has been taken away this morning.
5. I am filling boxes ready to car boot, hopefully next wweekend, weather permitting.
I may have gone a bit overboard but this is an area that I feel strongly about, I love to read tutorials and Jenny Doan does not release a single video on u tube that I miss. But I would never steal an idea and sell it on as my own just by changing a few minor details. That is taking food out of someones mouth, another of Granny's sayings. I had a very moral upbringing and can not and do not wish to shake it off.
If I have annoyed you comment and tell me so and why. If you feel as I do perhaps you would like to join me on the soap box.
BTW it started grey and dismal this morning and then brightened up for an hour and a half, just long enough for me to get a load of jeans line dried. hip hip hooray. I hate drying them indoors it takes forever.
TTFN Pam
I totally agree there should be credit given to Ayumi!
ReplyDeletep.s. do you know your word verification is on?
Thanks for the heads up, I will have to see if I can disable it, I personally detest word verification.
ReplyDelete*Big, Big, Hug*
ReplyDelete20+ years ago I 'created' a special little gift item to sell at craft shows - a friend and I at a booth at every show in the area for a couple of years before I opened the shop. We sold this one item - sort of our trademark - like hotcakes - and then one day we sat up at a craft show and at the table next to us - you guessed it - a lady who had asked a lot of questions at a show two months previous was selling our 'button babies' - a cheaper, less attractive version, but definitely a knock-off of ours! She was sure surprised when she found herself sitting right beside us!! And she sold not one piece - everyone who knew us knew they were our design, and everyone else could see ours were much better made. But it's true that even copyrighted items are only protected if the item is the same thing - even slight changes - height, weight, coloring, makes it 'different'.... But inspiration should always be given credit and full disclosure - As in " I saw this great mail sorting wall pocket by _______ in a magazine called_____ and used it as inspiration to make this ________.
ReplyDeleteMoving is work! Don't wear yourself out:-)
That is so sad. Now I am feeling guilty because how could I have contributed to something like this. I feel like I should definitely give credit to people and sometimes I don't know how to go about doing it, so this has helped me so much. I will give people credit it the most blunt way about giving me inspiration. It is crazy how it is the exact same block which is very unique! Wow. I am at a loss for words. Well thank you for shedding light on this because her post was vague and I did want to know what magazine is responsible.
ReplyDeleteI know some who regularly used to do this and claim the designs as her own or 'one my husband did for me'.
ReplyDeleteI soon gave her short shrift and stopped going to her group.
I have popped over from Ayumi's to see what you had to say.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your granny, and as I said over at Ayumi's nothing is new; there are even more similar envelope pocket quilts online published before Patchwork Please!
I think people are forgetting that the quilter who contributed to the magazine is a real person too - I would not like to stumble on your post if I were her, and I am sure you wouldn't either. I think a bit of perspective is needed here folks; no-one got hurt; and Ayumi's book sales definitely won't suffer. Plus you will miss out on other awesome projects if you cancel your subscription (my contributions included!).
Sides seem to have been taken, I am a bit disappointed in the malice being shown against someone who has just made a pretty, albeit similar quilt to others including Ayumi's.
Excellent point!
DeleteUnfortunately this is happening everywhere, but do imagine what the inventor of the first wheel would have to say!
ReplyDeleteMy bugbear is the lack of courtesy displayed with no acknowledgement of original source, and the copier claiming to be unique.
And verification is now no longer appearing :-)
DeleteNext up to sort out the time of your blog, my reply about verification shows 1131, whereas here in blighty it is 1932!
DeleteEasy to change on the settings area where you switched off verification :-)
Your first point is exactly my own, the lack of courtesy got right up my nose. I can look at a quilt block or bag front and pretty much replicate it without a pattern, as I am sure most people who sew can. I would not do that and claim it as my own.
DeleteIt sucks, but it is happening everywhere. This last week I discovered a similar incident in the crochet world. A magazine had published a pattern without informing the blogger they took it from and didn't .say that the blogger had got the pattern from another blogger (with permission) very rude. A lot of people were upset.
ReplyDeleteAgree completely!
ReplyDeleteJoining you on the soap box!
ReplyDeleteI would like to answer Flying Blind comment. Malice is unpleasant where ever it is directed.Patterns wash through the internet and quilting world so fast that often the original is lost, and people forget who designed it - if indeed it is a 'new' design. However, the photo in the magazine shows a design so similar to the one ion the book it does look like a direct lift - and no credit to Ayumi. Perhaps a gentle drawing of attention to the original to the magazine contributer, giving her opportunity to give credit, would be a good result. Ayumi may not lose book sales, but the principle of giving credit where due is important.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are cancelling your subscription and standing up for what you believe in, most people rarely stand by their convictions these days so good on you. Sorting for booty here as well x
ReplyDeleteAs contributors to magazines, you do not get to have published whatever you like, the editors take your tutorial and edit it down to fit the page, their style etc. Neither you nor I are privy to what Kelly was commissioned to make in the first place nor what she put forward to the magazine.
ReplyDeleteThere are two, indeed 3 sides to this story, we have only heard one.
As I have said to Ayumi, who is an equally good friend as Kelly, if you google image 'envelope quilt' or 'envelope wallhanging', Ayumi's does not show up (it probably will now!). Whenever I have spent hours planning and sketching something 'original' this is the check I make, and sometimes I am frustrated by what I see, other times surprised that obvious-to-me things draw a blank. There is no feasible alternative to checking everything ever!
Everyone is assuming Kelly copied, and I believe that this is not the case. She is a social media-savvy, talented maker, why would she? I think she took a common block and thought she had turned it into something practical, pretty and worthy of a magazine, nothing more than that.
Right, I have things to make, kids to entertain, so that's my tuppence worth, I'm moving on x
Hear hear!
DeleteEvery one is fully entitled to have and air their opinion on any subject. I have been happy to read all your comments but enough is enough. repetition is boring. Let us all move on to pastures new.
ReplyDeleteSorry if I appeared to have annoyed, angered and got right up your nose last weekend. I see in your comments you are now bored of this, have decided enough is enough and have moved on. Easy for you to say, but as the subject of your ire I would like to point out a few issues I have with your blog if that is okay.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I would like to state that I don’t read Ayumi’s blog and I do not own her book so had not seen her wall pocket. Obviously I can now see the similarities between them. I would never copy and claim someone else’s work, and to knowingly copy from a published book to submit to a published magazine where a lot of the readership are likely to have read the book would be a little stupid don’t you think? It is something that is clearly not going to go unnoticed. I have already exchanged emails with Ayumi about this as soon as it was brought to my attention. If you had taken the trouble to read any of my blog posts you would see I am meticulous in giving credit for patterns and fabric that I use. I have no reason to or interest in stealing or claiming anyone else’s work as my own, certainly not for the small payment you get for a magazine tutorial in relation to the time I actually put into it.
I was given a brief by the magazine and that is what I fufilled. If you do a google image search for envelope liners you will see a whole range of envelopes which look like Ayumi’s block, my block and many other envelope blocks on the internet. This is because that is what envelopes look like. It would be difficult to come up with anything too much different. I am not claiming to have reinvented the wheel. The way Ayumi’s and mine are paper pieced is in fact different although clearly the finished blocks look similar.
I see you make a point of bringing up your high moral upbringing. Presumably within this moral compass of yours it is perfectly okay to publish a character assignation on a public blog on someone you don’t know and with only one side of the story, and then post a link on Ayumi’s blog, with its readership in the thousands, to ensure maximum exposure. How very nice of you, I mean who could possibly care if you’re wrong? Contrary to your opinion I do have morals, although on this issue your idea of morals seem somewhat detached from mine.
You could easily of contacted me first to at least get my version of events before going ahead with an accusatory post about me. As unlikely as it may seem to you not everyone owns every quilting book ever published.
I can’t tell you how lovely it was to spend my Sunday reading blogs and comments from strangers calling me a liar, a thief, of lacking courtesy, wondering how I sleep at night and even suggesting taking legal action against me. I would note that no one has had the decency to come directly to me, it has all been behind my back.
Whether you or anyone else chooses to believe me is out of my control and to be honest I’m not sure I really care. It has been a bit of a shock to me how quickly some people jump to conclusions and post malicious and judgmental comments about someone, so clearly these are not people whose opinions I feel I should be to concerned with. I know the truth of the situation and that is all that matters. Quilting is just a hobby to me, not a career , but the short lived pride I had from having one of my makes on a magazine cover has been well and truly shot to pieces, however, I’ll get over it.
Maybe next time you decide to jump up on your soap box to write a nasty personal post about someone you don’t know you might think to first contact them directly in private with your grievances, just to confirm you have your facts straight. Assuming of course that this is in any way important to you, which I actually doubt based on your post. Sorry if I got up your nose, but trust me your viscous ill-informed little rant also got wedged firmly up my nose as well.
At the risk of being unpopular I googled envelope quilt block and in all fairness there are a lot of designs out there using this block. Looking a Asumi's and Kelly's to me it's two quilters using the same block but coming up with two different designs. Asumi's is a wall hanging with pockets which you could use to store post and Kelly's is a quilt using the envelope block.
ReplyDeleteI don't know either of the ladies so I popped onto their blogs before writing this, did either of these ladies design this particular block? When I googled I found a photo from hyacinthquiltdesigns.blogspot.com who posted this design on her blog in 2012.
We all make quilts and we all use blocks that others have designed, some have been around since before most of us on here were born, are we all guilty of 'copying' ? We may use the block in different ways but looking at it this way aren't we all guilty of plagiarism (sp?)
To make a quilt with simple square blocks is easy but to make one with a bit more design and piecing to it I need to use a block that someone else designed I'm not talented enough to make up my own so I could be accused everytime I make a quilt.
Peg x
If you had continued in your google image search you would have seen that Ayumi published her envelope block in 2011 when she designed the foundation pattern for her bee-mates to make for her in the very well followed and exceptional Ringo Pie Bee.
DeletePoppy, when I googled the block there were a lot of images came up on my monitor, a lot of other links also came up. One of these was for a book by Kathy Lamancusa called Quilts are forever, a patchwork collection of inspirational stories, on page 122 is the story of Leslies healing quilt by Sara Felton. The book was published in 2010, when the quilt was made it doesn't say but must have been before the publishing of the book. As I mentioned we are all using blocks another person designed unless we're talented enough to be a designer.
ReplyDeleteI don't know either of the ladies but I do think their work is beautiful and they both show a great talent and I'm sure before long there will be another version of the envelope block/quilt in the quilting public eye. Apparently the quilt mentioned was based on the civil war quilt 'love letters'. You can read parts of the book on Google. The book looks interesting, it's on Amazon and I managed to buy one for under £3 which includes postage, I think it will be about American quilts but I don't mind I love the stories behind the quilts wherever they're from.
Peg x