i need an update

liberty, liberty, liberty! from sewing room birmingham

those of you who come here to read but don't comment, that's totally fine by me! you're welcome in this space. i'm past the point of needing feedback here, although i still really enjoy it when it happens. those that do comment, i'm having some difficulties with replies these days. read on. i'll throw in some gratuitous photos of what i stashed in 2024 as eye candy, but mostly i have some questions for you today.

blog friends, i am sorely out of date when it comes to blogging tech. gone are the days when i knew what was what and kept up on the latest happenings in the blogger world. it's not my platform anymore and my know-how has disappeared. i just pop in here to make my posts like i always have, but i am completely out of touch with other bloggers. i do all my (limited) quilt socializing on instagram and know a bit about the ebbs and flows there. true confessions - jolene at blue elephant stitches and rachel at stitched in color are the only blogs i occasionally read anymore. but i am having a renewed interest in blogs lately and it seems hard to find them or connect.

heather ross and low-volumes from nova quilts

there are still about 100 people subscribed to this blog (whatever that means or how it works anymore, i don't know). my posts' stats tell me posts get anywhere from 60-100 visits, on average. i have one regular commenter (hi, julierose!) and a few other random ones. this is a big change from my early blogging days, pre-instagram. i'm saying all this because although my purposes for blogging have changed, i do recognize there is a very small audience here and that is meaningful to me. if you do me the honor of a comment, i sincerely appreciate it and want to reply. 

i'm having problems with the reply these days and since i'm so out of touch, i no longer know how to fix it. here's the deal - all the comments i've received lately (which still get delivered to me via email) have come listed as no-reply blogger comments, meaning i can't send them an email reply. once apon a time, i knew how to fix this for them, but i'm starting to think it's now a problem on my end and i have no clue what to do! the fixes i know are outdated by more than a decade.

find me cosmo japanese fabrics from cottage couture fabrics

then earlier today i went to the profile of a commenter (kathy s) and connected to her blog, but when i left a comment, it published me as anonymous even though i logged in to my google account. i'm so confused! and i don't know how to fix any of this so that i can reconnect to readers or other bloggers.

heather bailey's new collection "wild abandon"

i'm also really curious how people are getting here. i know bloglovin' isn't a thing anymore, so how are people subscribed here? i put the widget up myself, but i no longer remember what that's all about! so how are the rest of you that are still active in the blog world still finding and staying updated with blogs? 

you other bloggers, what's your experience like - are your readers your same old circles or are new people getting involved? do you interact much with readers? i'm so curious. once apon a time, when blogging was the main format for connecting, things were so interactive and different for me. now that i have a renewed interest in blogging as my instagram experience is loosing favor, i wonder what's going on here anymore. please share!