I started this blog back in 2007, which is actually a lifetime ago. I used this vehicle to help myself recover from PSTD after experiencing a physical attack and I fell into a form of writting that I really enjoy. ( And I did recover but it left a mark on my mind.) It was such an adventure to open a window onto the world. There was so much to explore and discover.
Friends then are still friends now.

All this enabled me to return to school teaching and then retire, when I was ready, from my full time job to then dive into teaching free lance, another great adventure. The one constant through all these years has been the my love of textiles and especially embroidery. This was a gift from my paternal grandmother and more precious than fame and fortune. She also taught me how to run a household, cooking on a budget and how to care for other people no matter how rich or poor you were.

One of the things that I liked best about surfing the web was the generosity of most people. Yes, there were some who were there to run a business at a profit but the majority of people were generous in their sharing of information and skills. There appears to be a withdrawal of people who blogged out of a love of what they are interested in without the need to make money out of it. This seems to me to be a 'tipping of the balance'. Free information is now mainly used to hook you into their sales pitch.
"you can have this free pattern IF you give me access to your email address so that I can add you to my mailing list and bombard you with my sales information."
And of course there has been a huge increase in the number of scammers out there as well, which results in one being hesitant even about those who are not out to scam you.
For me it has the feeling of GREED about it all.
Then I find that this approach has even found it's way into Charity shops who sell on donated goods. This was the place that most of our least well off citizens went to buy second hand goods. If you look you can still buy some cheap things but now they appear to be catering for those "not in need" but rather people with more disposable income. This has been demonstrated in a number of these shops I have visited and some examples I found have been in my search for old tea pots and knitting wools. The prices asked are at a similar price point of new cheap goods in regular stores. Some might call it "good marketing" but to me is smacks of GREED.
So, what am I, as an individual, going to do about it?
I will not buy goods from those outlets that are charging high prices for second hand goods.
I will look carefully at just where I donate my unwanted items, be they clothing, fabric, threads or whatever.
I will keep posting free patterns and designs on my blog under Creative Commons copyright and not charge for them.
AND I know that I am probably fighting a losing battle but feel I have to make stand for what I believe and that is there is a place in this world for generosity and caring for other people, without having to make money out of it.