Friday, June 19, 2009

The Wonderful World of Online Quilters





For me this all started in January when I joined Facebook. I knew about FB because of my 20 year old daughter and my 18 year old son. I soon discovered that it was a great way to reconnect with old friends and keep up with current ones. Then one day I did a search for something like "quilting" and found that there are quilt groups on FB. That's when I discovered the Kaffe Fassett Collective on FB and posted a couple of pictures of my quilts. Suddenly, people that I'd never met before were asking to be my friend. It seemed a little strange to me, but then I got to see their quilts and their quilt groups, and suddenly I was asking to be friends with other quilters and fabric designers from around the world. One day I realized that some of them had blogs. I had never even looked at a blog before, but this was even more quilty and fabulous. And from one such lovely blog I found a Flickr group, the Half Hexagon Quilt-a-long, started by comfortstitching (see blogs I'm following). Another lovely, lovely quilter and friend from FB is also in the quilt-a-long, Cathy Underhill (cabbage quilts -- also see blogs I'm following). Their work is so inspiring to me!

So -- you can see my progress on the quilt-a-long. The pictures will probably be stacked up above these paragraphs because I still can't figure out a better way to do it, and I seem to have little to no time to figure it out right now. One day soon I will get it straightened out and will probably be extremely embarrassed at how simple it is. I decided to put together a "make do" type of quilt for the quilt-a-long. That is, no fun trips to the fabric store for more fabrics. I wanted to use up fabric from my stash. I started with 2-1/2 inch strips left over from a quilt I put together for my daughter a few years ago. After the layout, my daughter and I decided it would be a great quilt for her dorm room, but she has had a more mellow color scheme, so we had to pull a few out and replace (with more Amy Butler :). So, many changes later, we have a whole different quilt on our hands, and I actually ended up with more trapezoids than when I started. So, yes, I'm going to be making at least two quilts and probably some pillows that my new Flickr group friend (sleighd -- who also makes amazing quilts) showed me how to do with a pictorial tutorial (I like how that sounds :). So, apparently I am an overachiever! I always did like extra credit!

9 comments:

  1. facebook has a kaffe collective...wow!

    the online quilty life is amazing...i run about five groups now on flickr and have met literally thousands of quilters from all over the world! My group is almost up to two thousand members and i just celebrated 200 blog posts...and i could not use the computer two years ago...it is truly eye opening the connections we can make online.

    It is great now that you are blogging and i am avidly "following" you

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  2. Welcome to the Blogger World! Nice to find another quilter.

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  3. Hi Joan! So glad to see you here in blogland as well as on Facebook! Cathy sent me over to say hello and I didn't realize that it was to see someone I "know." ;-) Happy belated birthday, by the way! I look forward to more of your blog!

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  4. Hi Joan - Welcome to blogland. I'm in Oregon City! I had no idea there was a shop on Hawthorne. I feel a visit coming on. Thanks for the heads up! I'm a repro gal and new to brights so don't have many. And it's always fun to find a new shop.

    Learning how the pictures work is hard, isn't it?

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  5. Happy Birthday Joan! I am so glad you have started a blog. I love your Half Hexagon Quilt - saw it on Flickr. Love that you thought outside of the square for the layout of this quilt. Isn't it great when you make a quilt from stash? Inspiring work! Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Welcome to blogging. You'll find it as additive as quilting. Love your choice of prints and colors. Keep those posts coming. You'll slowly figure out how to put words along side & between photos. Just experiment or ask how its done. We will all help. One hint, make the type larger, its easier to follow.

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  7. Just popped over by way of Cabbage Patch Quilts to say hi and welcome to blogland.

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  8. Blogging can be addictive as you make contact with great people. I would have replied your comment but you don't have your email up so it comes up as no reply blogger. The hexagons look like a lot of fun.

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  9. Hi Joan, I love these half hexies in rows the way you have done them. They look great. I will email you a hint on moving pics around...looks as though you are sorting things out really well though. xo

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