Monday, October 16, 2017

Blogging and Miscellaneous

One of the reasons I'm posting today is to say how grateful I am for Blogger (blogspot.com)...  the online program that started on August 23, 1999. It turned everyone in the quilting world into my next door neighbor! I can't begin to count the people I've come to know through blogging since I began my own blog in January 2009. At one time, I was following and commenting on more than 80 blogs. Sadly for me, many of those bloggers are no longer posting, likely because of the prevalence and expediency of Facebook and Instagram.

To date, I've written 876 Blogger blog posts. According to Bloglovin', I have 476 followers.

Though I have no doubt I've written 876 blog posts (Each year I have a years worth of blog posts printed into a hard cover book.), I am skeptical that I have that many followers. For one thing, I never receive the quantity of comments that come close to making me believe that's an accurate number!

But for me, the good news is that people who follow my blog and do comment, have become friends. I reply to their comments, and that often prompts a conversation.

Those I have come to know through the emails we exchange (and in some cases, with whom I Skype) are people that I would feel comfortable asking to meet-up with me sometime... when I visit their area of the country, their community, or a quilt show. Likewise, I think they'd feel as comfortable letting me know when they're in my area.

My point in mentioning all this is that I've come to depend on virtual friends when I need an opinion, or a second opinion on a project.

Over the weekend, Paige (www.QuiltedBlooms.com) and I swapped several emails about our respective MQG guilds' quilt challenges. Neither of us can publicly share because there's a big reveal at an upcoming guild meeting. At least for me it's been helpful to have another quilter's eyes on my work, especially because I was struggling. In my case, I pieced a top and then was stumped for quilting ideas! Ha! Paige came through with a drawing of her suggestions, and they were most helpful! Thank you so much, my friend!

After now admitting that I sometimes struggle to come up with quilting designs, in the next breath I'll say that it is true that I am a domestic machine quilting instructor! My fortΓ© is in implementation.

On Saturday, at the Eisenhower Rec Center here in The Villages, I taught domestic machine quilting to 20 quilters from Quilting Guild of The Villages.

This is the third full class (20 students) I've taught in the past three months! From my perspective the classes keep getting better and better. The students impress me with how savvy they are about quilting and what they want to know, and I've gotten better at sharing essential information.
My friend, Patt
My friend Becky who is also a neighbor and pattern-tester for my "Florida" quilt.
I learned something in this workshop too! Kim (formerly from Des Moines, Iowa) shared that she bought her Bernina Aurora 440 (exactly like mine), from the Quilt Block in West Des Moines. Small world. And, she showed how she improved her Bernina knee lift. She put an 8"-long pool noodle over the gray handle of the knee lift and zip-tied it in place. The extra "puff" adds stability, and makes the knee lift a little closer to her right knee. Such a genius idea!

For the Wayward Transparency Quilt-along being led by Yvonne (QuiltingJetGirl), I think I've settled on these three solids - dark, medium, and light values of orange. The test to determine if the contrast is strong enough, is changing the color photo to black and white. 

Mine barely passes the test. We're supposed to be cutting into fabrics now, but if I can work out a better combo with greater contract, I'll go for it.

Not quite two weeks ago, a Walmart Neighborhood Market - means it's a grocery store and pharmacy/personal care store only - opened about a mile from our house. It's so handy, and golf cart assessable! Our area has sure changed in the past 5-1/2 years. I took this photo because I like the Walmart bicycle rack.

I have been worshipping all summer at Lutheran Church of Hope online in West Des Moines. I miss my home church, and for the time being, had given up on finding a church in this area. Well, at Bible study last Friday morning - we're doing Priscilla Shrier's seven-week study called Armor of God - the woman who sat next to me told me about her Lutheran church. It's Missouri Synod, so it's one that never appeared on my radar. However, on Sunday morning we attended Amazing Grace and were pleased. Not only was the service nice, with an appropriate focus on "grace" as part of a sermon series on the Reformation (Martin Luther), but we were (surprisingly) welcomed at the communion table! I'm being prayerful.

Today I've also prayed for two special quilting friends who asked me to do so! Debbie (aQuiltersTable) and Paige (QuiltedBlooms) have both been invited to speak on Pat Sloan's AllPeopleQuilt podcast at 4 pm Eastern time today. They're each a little anxious about how they'll do, and want to sound coherent for the 12 minutes they speak! I hope you'll listen-in live, or catch them on the podcast. These are two very talented quilters who have good information to share. Linda

15 comments:

  1. A nice, newsy post! I'm glad you are still a member of the blogging community, Linda. I never really caught on to FB or IG, and visit them both only occasionally. But I read blogs every day! Like you, I've established many virtual relationships that I've come to cherish.

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  2. Linda, I do appreciate your valuable input on my project and certainly your prayers! I hope I made sense and am anxious to listen to the podcast later!
    I never realized how through blogging I would meet such wonderful friends!

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  3. Thanks be to God for pool noodles.

    I shop at Walmart. I like their produce, at least here it is a winner. I am glad you found a local place to meet friends and worship God. I am so glad you went to the service. I love the online service at LCH, but having a lovely group right there at home, might must be prayers acknowledged indeed.

    I loved reading every single word of this post.
    I love the internets. There are so many wonderful people out there, and I love expanding my horizons.
    I can never keep up with all of the blogs. So many times I read blogs and do not comment. I bet if you had a "give away" every one would come out πŸ˜†πŸ˜†πŸ˜†πŸ˜†πŸ˜† and you would see many of your enthusiastic admirers.

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  4. I DO follow you, even if you rarely get a comment from me!!! I always enjoy hearing about your life and quilting!

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  5. How very much I wish I was your neighbor! I would love to have you teach me how to do DMQ! I do my own stippling on baby quilts, however I would love someone to teach me the extras.

    I have completed the Priscilla Shirer, "Armor Of God" study twice. There was so much to learn, my small group Bible study completed it twice. In two weeks we will begin her new study, "Discerning The Word of God."

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  6. Ah Linda... what a lovely post. Thanks for remembering me today! I felt it!!

    I agree with you on the blogging...so many wonderful connections.

    AND good luck with your Wayward Transparency fabrics...I'm still needing to pick mine out!! ;-/ I think I know the general colorway...just need to go find it!

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  7. I don't always comment! But I'm always reading! I'm in Sydney, Australia. Could you add a dark yellow to your transparency quilt fabrics?

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    1. Hi ES! I appreciate your comment, and wanted to email my reply to you, but your email address is hidden. You appear as a "no-reply commenter." But thank you for letting me know you're reading my posts! Lovely to know another Australian is out there. I do have a special spot in my heart for all people and places Australian. I also appreciate your suggestion of adding dark yellow to my transparency fabrics! You know, I did play with that arrangement, but I thought to keep it all orange so it could be hung in my living room. But yellow would go okay too. I'll give it a try again, based on your input. Thank you! (I sure hope you read this!)

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  8. I think with so many of us time is so precious that we read or skim many blog posts but don't comment very often. I know for me if I comment several times on a blog and never receive a reply I'll still read but don't bother commenting again. Then again, some of my closest quilting friends are bloggers across the country, most of whom I've never met in person. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all get together someday for a giant group hug!

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    1. Hi! You're a no-reply commenter, so I can't email you to say thank you for saying, "Nice." I'm not sure which part of this post you think is nice, but I appreciate you saying so. It's nice to know you're "out there," even if we haven't gotten to know each other.

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  10. Love your blog and following you on IG and the best was meeting you and Di in person in Florida!!! What a treat that was. Someday I hope to be traveling close by you so I can attend your quilt guild meeting and maybe even take a class from you!! :^)

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  11. I felt like we've just sat down and had some cookies and soda and enjoyed a visit. Thanks for the newsy post giving us an update on all your goings on. Congrats on your successful class, and for all the machine tips, too. I admire your energy and creativity!

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  12. I wish I lived closer to you Linda, so I could take your machine quilting workshop. Your blog posts are always so newsy. :-)

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  13. Another great post! I love the blogging community! I feel like a bad friend when I don’t post for a while! I’ve been blogging for about 5 years and that community taught me how to quilt. Maybe just my good luck, but I’ve never had anything but great support from the quilting blog community.

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