Remember this clothes pin bag that I made back in June?
And this post discussed it all.
Sunday before Thanksgiving as I was frantically cleaning house, cooking, baking, washing clothes .. all the things a really sloppy housekeeper does before her parents arrive . . my phone rings. This is the conversation almost verbatim but not quite.
Me: Hello
Other Lady: Hi. You don’t know me but I’m looking for a little doll’s dress.
Me: A little doll’s dress?
Other Lady: Yes.
Me: I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking me.
Other Lady: A little doll’s dress!
Me: I sell some of my patterns for quilts but I don’t have any patterns for doll clothes.
Other Lady: Yes, you do! I saw it on your website.
Me: Are you sure it was my website, Patchwork Times or Sunshine Quilts?
Other Lady: I don’t know! You put clothes pins in it!
Me: OHHH! The clothes pin bag! No, that isn’t my pattern. That’s a pattern I bought.
Other Lady: Whose pattern did you use?
Me: Darlene Zimmerman’s pattern.
Other Lady: Can I talk to her?
Me: Huh?
Other Lady: I want to talk to whoever owns the pattern.
Me: (I’m getting a bit frustrated!) M’am. Darlene Zimmerman created the pattern and she sells them. I bought one and I made the clothes pin bag from her pattern.
Other Lady: Will you copy it and send it to me?
Me: (Really getting frustrated!) It’s a copyrighted pattern and I wouldn’t copy it.
Other Lady: Copyrighted?
Me: Yes, it isn’t to be copied and handed out.
Other Lady: What about all those people selling stuff at flea markets?
Me: I don’t know anything about that.
Other Lady: Well . . will you just let me borrow it?
Me: NO!
Other Lady: Well . . will you read it to me and I’ll just write it all down?
Me: NO!
Other Lady: Well . . I really like it.
Me: I do too!
Other Lady: Where can I buy one?
Me: Where do you live?
Other Lady: Alabama
Me: Check at your local quilt shop and if they don’t have it, maybe they will order it for you.
Other Lady: I’m not sure if there’s a quilt shop around here. Do you know?
Me: M’am! I do not know! My local quilt shop had some at one time. I can give you their phone number and you can call them on Monday.
Other Lady: Can’t you just send me one?
Me: NO!!! Here’s the phone number and I really must get off the phone! I hope you’re able to find the pattern.
Other Lady: Oh, wait . . did you make yours right by the pattern or did you make any changes to the pattern?
Me: M’am! Get the pattern, read the pattern and decide if you need to make changes. I don’t think I made any changes. It was five months ago when I made this pattern. I’ve made a dozen quilts since then. I just can’t remember.
Other Lady: You’ve made a dozen quilts in five months?
Me: Goodbye!
Now . . this lady found the picture on my blog from June, did enough work on her own to find my phone number . . which isn’t hard to do but dang it, why couldn’t she find her own pattern? I swear . . I think it had to be a joke!
Vicky says
So if I call you and ask you to send me the quilt you just finished, you’ll hang up on me? ROFLOL. I’m going to try it, just in case ……….
pdudgeon says
here’s your clue…
“Other Lady: What about all those people selling stuff at flea markets?”
apparently that’s where she got the idea that anyone could just copy any pattern and then sell it.
bad flea markets, bad flea markets!!!
Toni says
Forty years ago I altered a baby dress of my daughters to make a clothes pin bag. Just turned to the inside the back where the buttons were and sewed up the bottom of the skirt. The idea has been around for decades.
Jean says
That is really too cute for a clothespin bag, but I get the point about the copyrights. People do think it is just fine to copy for anyone and everyone.
Barbara says
I don’t think anyone can really be that dense. She must have been putting you on.
Vicki H says
I think one word sums it all up… “WOW”
CJ says
And you wondered why I quit blogging? LOL
Ida says
So, do you think she wanted it for a dress, or a pin bag? Perhaps she was thinking that if it was a pin bag, and she didn’t sew it closed, that meant there were no copyright issues?
IDK! The stupidity of some people still amazes me. You’d think I’d have learned it by now, after all, I have had 40+ years of dealing w/ earthlings. 😉
I’m amazed that you remembered who MADE the pattern. I can barely remember what I ate this morning (and I’m in the middle of eating! 😉 ), let alone a pattern done once 5 month’s ago. EGADS! 😉 You impress me Judy. =-)
FWIW … JB was honored at our holiday party last Friday for having 30 years of service to the company.
Ida says
Oh! And JB says “to be or not to be” to all of you fans out there. He said he gets a kick out of it when he hears from a friend or family of friends or families who are fans of his.
So, he gives a shout out to all of you …..
Happy Wednesday!
Maria Stahl says
Wow. Just… wow.
HOWEVER, I do have a question about that pattern: Zimmerman claims you cannot sell a clothespin bag made from her pattern. How can that be? What about rights of first purchase or whatever it is? It’s been battled out in court enough times with fabric mills that claim you cannot sell something you made from their fabric, which is just stupid and I cannot believe they ever got away with it. I would think this is the same principle. I find it annoying that people think they own an idea that has been around forEVer.
Nancy says
Thanks for the great “laugh out loud moment” this morning…Some people are just dense….
Jill says
OMG! That would only happen to you! hee hee hee Although, a friend of mine did have someone email her and ask for her to copy a pattern that she just made. People can be very odd!
Sandra :) says
The gene pool could use a lil chlorine – sometimes I wonder where people get such nerve!
Rosaline says
Boy oh boy, some people really need to get a life. I’m leaning towards the phone call being a joke, or a lonely person desperately needing to hear another person’s voice.
Denise Felton says
OMG! You made me laugh out loud. Really. You and I must be soul sisters because we attract the same kinds of … admirers.
Mary Lea says
She is to much… wonder what she’s really up too? That is a cute clothes pin bag…it would make a cute dress.
Deputy's Wife says
I can’t believe she called you! And spoke to you that way!!!
Good cripes, they’ll let anybody on the internet…
Judy says
OMG!!! I’m sorry but what a funny story. This could only happen to you. I’m surprised she didn’t ask for one of your printers! 🙂
Brenda says
What a way to start the day!! thanks for creating the ‘ deer in the headlight’s’ face for me today as I read your blog!! Uh – What??? Way to funny!! And, you handled it very well, I don’t think I would have been that collected…. I probably would have laughed out loud and asked if she was making a joke?? Good for you. Now, you should go to your sanity room and see if you can make the ‘wattage use tracker’ really show some wattaged used today!!
Thanks Judy for the wisdom, the laughs, the peek into your world, and mostly thanks for being out there for me to find!! I am reading the artisan bread book, and find it interesting. And I will be making some bread here really soon!! I have a stone for pizza that I was going to give away – from lack of use… I do not want things that I am not using anymore, but it got pulled from the discard pile. I have found a use for it!! And these breads sound so gooooood!!! So, off to get things done. Did you know Christmas is almost here???? I didn’t realize how close it was till yesterday!!! So, now I have to get busy!! lol!! 😉
dawn says
OMG I am laughing with you, not at you!! Crazy people out there!
dawn
Michele says
I love the phone calls when they ask for so and so and when I say there’s no one here by that name, they ask if I’m sure. 🙂
Or the ones that call looking for the travel agency that must have had my number a few years ago. They ask why I’m answering their phone if I’m not them. *sigh*
Susan Fields says
Well, I for one believe everyword………. Anyone that deals with the public would believe it……….. I am fortunate. I work for a minister. I get some really strange calls but at least they are all polite. You sure don’t want to be the one on the other end when I am dealing with the incompetent phone company or the cable folks.
tracey brown says
Judy you really should have warned me that I was going to choke on my Diet Coke! LOL.
Judy H. says
*shakes head* That reminds me of several conversations I’ve had while working at LYSs. Many people have no clue that copyright applies to patterns, don’t think they have to pay for someone else’s design work, and get absolutely outraged that stores dare to charge money for them.
Judy B says
Judy, I laughed, but I cried too! There is so much ignorance about what copyright is, and what it is itntended to do and what you are allowed to do with coyrighted books, patterns and magazines (won’t got on to music, films etc). I am looking for ways to spread the word after being dubbed the ‘copyright police’ in my local quilt group, and hearing other examples of stupidity and cheating.
About the fabric, if you use it with other fabrics and it is not the main focus of an item, eg scrap quilt, sell it . If the design of the fabric is the main selling point don’t sell it. If you do you could be taken to court. Whether you think it is right or wrong it is the law.
Just because other people do doesn’t mean it is right!
Judy B
Amy says
I can’t believe she didn’t ask you to just make one and mail it to her!
Tina C. says
I think she’s kind of creepy….
Part Wys says
OMG I am loosing oxygen to my brain I laughed so hard. On behalf of pattern designers….Thank you….I wish everyone respected copyright laws. This is so funny.
Marlene says
Joke or not it’s hilarious! I can just see your face. 🙂 blessings, marlene
sandi a. says
Might not be a joke, Judy. It’s amazing what some folks will do not to have to buy a pattern. I’ve been in quilt groups where the belief was that if the group bought one pattern, then it was okay to copy it and distribute it to all members. In another group they published a small newsletter and copied a pattern. They were a new group and really weren’t aware of the issues so I quietly took the group leader aside and gave her a “heads up” on what the consequences might be if the pattern designer found out so they don’t do that anymore. I had a funny incident with a mother and child a few years ago in a Community Ed class that I taught. This mother signed up with her child for a parent/kids “Color Your Own Valentines” class that I taught. Each parent/child “team” received a package of 24 black and white valentine designs (cute as can be, if I do say myself, and sketched from memories of valentines I received as a kid), six pages with four designs to each sheet and each design clearlly marked with my copyright on the reverse side. We also made paper lace valentines in the class and the woman and her child made those and she said they were going to color the others at home. Sure they were…….A few days later, I run into her at the grocery store or somewhere and she’s all upset because Kinko’s would not copy the valentines for her because they were copyrighted. And I said “well, yes, of course, and that’s as it should be” and she is not happy because she wanted more valentines to color than what she bought (mind, I had extra sets for sale the night of the class). I have told this story before and if I told it to you, I apologize for repeating it. However, it’s a perfect example of how people will take advantage of someone else’s product.