Thank You Thank You Thank You! Musing in Textile:France

Well we are finally at the business end of the Musing in Textile:France project. Yes we are finally sending out the books for which you have all so patiently waited. All the Australian supporters and New Zealand supporters will have received or will very shortly receive their books. Those who supported the hand made books reward- in Australia- your books will be sent tomorrow (we apologise it has taken a bit longer- we never thought we would have 10 people subscribe to the reward so it has involved quite some making and has taken us a bit longer than anticipated). Europe (UK and US) books will be bulk shipped later this coming week to France, and then posted within France to their various destinations (so unfortunately yours will take a bit longer and our apologies for that). 

         

But most of all-we want to thank each and every one of you who supported our project ( some of you pledged for more than one reward so to you a double thank you!) Without you this project would never have happened- we feel both humbled and incredibly chuffed that you saw fit to support our project and we hope that you will not be disappointed. I especially am grateful, as there is no publishing industry as such in Australia for quilt or textile  books and in particular a book that is more about the inspiration and the journey than the how to. So the only way to achieve a book of this kind was through a platform such as Pozible and your very generous support.The list of thank yous is in the order the pledges came in. I have also put a summery at the end about things we learnt and some considerations if you are considering the crowd fund raising path.

Shirley Goodwin
Hendrika Priemis
Marie-Thérèse Persoon-Klingelhefer
Mevr Truus Bakker
Linda Robertus
Jan C
Wil Opio Oguta
Carole Kokinis
Susan de Vanny
Donna Rowan
Herma de Ruiter
Linda Stokes
Judy Murdoch
Jill Sparks
Nic Bridges
Elizabeth Dubbelde
Jill Dearing
Lisa Walton
Denise Fordyce
Felicity Griffin Clark
Sherry Boram
Sue Krekorian
Barbara Currey
merkusje
Fiona Wright
Alexis Ward
Alison Downey
Lee Mills
Emma Coutancier
Alexandra Halsey
Anne Linage
Lyn Duhig
Susanne Biso
Debra Chapman
 Ginette Bellan
Lynette Weeks
Patricia Hutchinson
Sally Ann Westcott
Margaret Gilbert
Nicole Peeters
Debclarke
Esther Elizabeth Matthews
Sarah Louise Ricketts
Chantal Baquin
Patrise Dowling
Susan Dawe
Mathea Daunheimer
Chris Beardsley
Sandy Marcoux
Sue and Angus Martin
Diana Stover
Meg Owen
victoria gordon
Melanie Bartlett
Barbara Hilford
Jeana Blackert
Sophie Lanham
Margaret Denman
Kathryn Robertson
Christine Moulin
Clare Smith
Barbara McIlvain
Rae Poon
Gerda Jackson
Lajla Nystad
Richard nadine
Marilyn Bielski
Kelly Hamlyn-Harris
Kerrie Rodgers
Fiona Dunn
Eileen Orchard
duverge chantal
Sheila Kelly
raffaella lingua
Odile l'Huillier
Linda Forey
Catherine Roy
Buchoud
Cristina Robbiani
Annick
Francoise Courteil
Danielle Coste
Sylvie Chevillard
Monique Martin Charpentier
Michèle Jacquot
Thelma Scudi
neycensas
Christiane Menesson
 Agnes Besle
Susan McRae
Chevreul Martine
Joelle Lerouvillois
Lyn McCormick
Alicia Merrett
Linda Seward
Vauvrecy Véronique
Margo Bimler
Dini Zweegers
 Regine Peroni
Rae Hopkinson
Marilyn Wilson
Nadine Bond
Carole Smollan
Isa dulhoste
Sylviane Caradec
Eli and May Broekhuis-Ronday
Alison Holt
Sandra van Velzen
Katie Alford
Severine Allais
Anna Buesink
Lisa Guthrie
Anne Ferguson
Dale Rollerson
Rebecca Clarke
Penelope Crompton
Annie Labruyere
Emmy Schoonbeek
isabelle debat
Katell Renon
Brigitte Galdemar
Toufflet Christine
Marie Christine Chasseraud
 marie Jose Oustau
Michele Picard
Frances Murphy
 Anne-Valerie Berthe
Poncinet Michelle
Els gauchotte
Marie France Gougnard
 Evelyne Riff
 Brigitte Dider
Susannah Heath
June O. Underwood
Jane Howie
Debra Lukeis
Catherine  Andrieu
 Henriette Quintard
Huber Monique
Cheryl billing smith
Jessica Wheelahan
Tracey Browning
Cherry Jackson
Jennifer Manefield
Marian Magee
Cäcilia Arnold
Bismuth Florence
Frédérique Jøjäl Crétal
Pam Kelly
Marlene McPherson
Elisabeth Nacenta de la Croix
Kathryn Thompson
Claire Lynch
Petra Kooij
Henny Herting
Susan Hunt
Lizzi Drake
kathy williams
Carol Veillon QUILTMANIA
Christelle Kupferle
Jane Monk
V Spiegel
Mandie Chandler
Elizabeth Smith
Paulene Cattle
Eileen Vlatko
Claude allard
Catherine Grangeat
Frieda Oxenham
Jeanne Gerthoffer
Milena Crea
Susan Duffield
Helen Baker
Louise Taylor
Denise Griffiths
Jo-Anne Britt
Kate Hansen
Sandy Askill
Margery Goodall
Bergen Rose
Jane Coad
Marie Claude Haurat
Margaret Ramsay
Jodie-Ann Marree Arklay
Ali George
Chrissy Sheed
Lea
Shirley Jacobs
Fraser Clayton
Cathy Hensman
Lynette Julie Morgan-Tait
Leonie Gittins
Joy Harvey
Dianne Firth
Danielle Bouvet
Jan mullen
Susan Mathews
Peter Sylvie
Julie Oates
Maya Jansen-Beijn
Arlette Cousin
Eva Abbinga
Jenny Brooks
Robina Summers
Bronwyn Cooling
Delaney Nguyen Xuan
Yvonne Wright
Lyn Dennis
 Chantal Guillermet
Josée Plantier
Dominique Houles
 Nelly Cavagnaro
Rahima Macdonald
Gloria Bowen
Christina Free
Trisha James
Vivien Lynette Balchin
Penny Sheaffe
Cathie Griffiths

Many people I know personally and some go a long way back to even high  school days ( Lyn and Lyn if Mrs Donaldson could see us now lol)- the whole project has over all been and incredibly positive experience and one for which I am incredibly grateful.

 I want to thank my daughter Celeste for travelling this journey with me- through all the ups and downs, through all the parcelling, but most of all for your beautiful design of my  book, all your hard work in talking specifications with the printer, and in helping my dream come true.And she has just landed an internship with a firm she had been wanting to work for!

 I also want to thank my friend Christine Moulin for her super job in translating my words into french and for trying  to  give them the sense I had intended.

It has  also been a huge learning curve for my daughter Celeste Galtry and myself and I do want to mention some things for any future aspirants for crowd funding.

• Give your self more time than you think necessary- best laid plans and all that, but mostly allow at least one month in your plans for life itself- our life intervention took a month or even more- the neighbour where my daughter used to live  became so obnoxious that she feared for her life ( he had threatened her with  a small axe, wire snapping in his hands threatening to cut her,  playing loud music all night long, and a torrent of swear words that made us suspect he had tourette syndrome and with the police stating that he was "harmless enough" and if we were so worried then we should take out a restraining order, which we tried to do but it was going to be two weeks to get an interview for said order- we knew not what kind of drugs he was on or whether he would turn violent as there were definitely little men running around in his fried brain, we knew there was drug and alcohol abuse happening - so the only solution was to move house. I had just returned form overseas and many of my things were stored at my daughters house and she had also just started a full time barrista job from which she could not take days off to  pack house etc. Then youngest daughter also moved- when it's all said and done it took a month to move - fortunately where my daughter now lives is much much quieter. It also interrupted our video plans as days we had set aside to film had to be abandoned because he was having one of his tourette fits which went for 3 days running.
• have a contingency plan- expect the unexpected to happen and allow time for it- ours involved where we were going to send things in Europe( delivery) and a printing mishap ( which caused delay, but was nobody's fault as such, just a machinery malfunction- we were glad to pick it up before the shipment had been sent- so make sure you check everything very carefully)
• make sure you cost everything very carefully- we thought we had done all our research very carefully only to discover that the postage costs for each reward were part of the pledge and not a separate additional cost to the pledge- some other people discovered similar things in their crowd funding campaigns- so make sure you double check everything!
• when dealing with postage allow at least a 15% inflation factor ( sounds in credible doesn't it) but in this age of internet purchasing,  postal services and other delivery services can charge a premium and regularly increase their costs and I believe Australia must have the most expensive postage service in the world- it would cost more to send the book  to Europe or the US than to actually purchase the book- that is sure great for micro-business! The cost  of posting to New Zealand was equally outrageous.

• the Pozible platform have their charge, which we knew about and was well worth the service we received ( and the platform was easy to use and worked efficiently, we were also assigned a mentor who was helpful and made regular contact so I would use this platform again for sure) , but we forgot about the fact that if people paid with Paypal- which many people did, Paypal of course take their percentage
• customs charges and taxes are confusing- nobody was able to give us an accurate estimate of what our customs clearance charges would be- we checked several different sources including customs itself but did not get an intelligible answer to the question how much will it cost?
• if you print offshore remember to factor in Gst or Vat to the place of shipment- we had taken account of it- but still have no clear answer whether vat will be payable on top of the gst that has already been paid?
• factor in unspecified courier costs- you will need them at some stage and likewise factor in  bank transfer costs
• time- it is a most precious commodity for a micro business and be prepared for things to take longer than planned
• when we did our research it was noticeable that the projects which got funded offered valuable rewards and  effectivediscounts- we tried to keep that in mind when creating our rewards
• Social media is incredibly important- and Instagram is a must use- I did not use it enough overall ( I am still learning it)
• who knew parcelling up packages took so long?
• it's a rollercoaster- no two ways about it

I am happy to talk anyone through the process. We researched Pozible for about a year and looked and tracked how some projects not dissimilar to our own fared and what had worked. We thought we had prepared well for the journey, but whilst we had in many ways, the fact that it was such a rollercoaster was something no amount of preparation would have prepared us for- every morning and night our hearts were in our mouths- sometimes thinking it would not happen and other times with just sheer excitement.

The night we passed our target was like winning a medal- I felt empowered -not quite the reaction i was expecting but we had just achieved a long held dream- and the overwhelming emotion was one of "Yes!! We (meaning my daughter and I) did it!" . But in all reality the catch cry should be "Yes We  did it !" All of you who supported the  campaign- you did it! And if you have an idea that you feel worth pursuing- follow your dream!

Would we do it again- you bet- we are already planning our next book Musing in Textile:Italy!