Sew I have spent the whole last week working toward getting set up for VLOG’s that I plan to periodically publish on YouTube. I thought in the beginning I would be able to do the setup in a couple of days at most, but there were so many things my test videos revealed that needed attention…placement of the cameras, sound quality of the recordings, doing the demonstration of the sewing around the cameras, poor skill of the presenter (me). I have finally managed to get a setup of two of my three cameras at my Bernina 880 plus and an additional setup at my Q20 so that you can see me fairly well, and it doesn’t emphasize my age too very much like my first try did. I got the front camera placed so you can see the stitching going on relatively well and it doesn’t get so much in my way so I can’t really work. For instance, it doesn’t get in the way of threading my machine like one of my tries did. I think that front camera will also be a little adjustable so if you need to see the screen and buttons on the machine that will be possible. The third camera will be placed on an overhead gadget my son Ken put together for me. That has to be installed first though.
Through a little YouTube research on the camera gear, I finally figured out I was missing a small piece of equipment that is designed to improve the sound quality between the camera and the microphone. I ordered that from Amazon and it will presumably arrive early next week.
Besides getting the equipment set up, I realized I need to do considerable practice for my videos to flow nicely and be enjoyable. I am not a natural presenter, so I have to work at that a bit. I am also working on getting my video editing with multiple cameras up to par. So I am guessing it will be another couple of weeks before I start publishing videos on YouTube, but I am thinking I have made a lot of progress so far.
In the meantime, I am working on my book and downloadable handouts to accompany some of these videos. I kind of wish, in a way, that I could just drop all of this and go make a fun piece of fabric art. But I think once I get it all set up I CAN go make a fun piece of fabric art and include my quilty friends that are interested in the process with my videos.
I am still very excited about my wool applique by machine overall project that inspired all of this in the first place. I so far have five skill-building pieces outlined and some are completely written in my book manuscript. I need to make the samples for that. After that, I am planning on additional books encapslating some of my somewhat unique techniques that draw heavily on machine work. So this is just the necessary not-so-fun part right now and I’ll get over that hump shortly.
I really admire those of my friends who so successfully create their teaching videos with seeming speed and grace. My process is much more bumpy and slow. LOL
Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studios this week. I love watching a lot of my quilty friends videos. They help keep me cheerful. Cheers.
You are AMAZING! I wish you well with your video process. I know you will be successful!
Terry, Thank you so much for your encouragement and support across the years. Means a lot. Cheers.