Monday, May 30, 2011

Debut

Finally, after a couple of weeks and lots of research, I'm ready to debut my webpage. Please take a moment to look around and offer any critiques that will help to make me successful in my quest. Thanks for looking!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Working on Making This Work.

A+ Handmade Quilts For Sale!

I've been diligently working on building this site for almost a week now.  It has been a real learning experience and a lot more fun than I expected.  In fact, I've been dreading this for weeks and maybe even months.  However, it's not so bad when you get figure out how to navigate in cyberspace. 

Anyway, now I'm working on how to make the page show up in a random "search". Anybody got any hints?

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Initial Post

This is my initial effort to introduce my goals as a 'professional quilter'. 

I was exposed to quilting as a child watching my Grandma Bird work on her projects but I never seemed to find the time to learn from her.  However, I always appreciated the quilts she made and enjoyed sleeping under the quilts and playing on them in the yard. 

I finally took a lap-quilting class with my best friend, Teresa, in the early 90's and from there I was hooked.  The class was to make 4 blocks for a wall hanging, but I continued with blocks enough for a twin size cover. I didn't necessarily like the lap-quilting method, so I read some books and started doing my own hand-piecing and hand-quilting.  My first projects were wall hangings for each of our 6 kids.  Then I took the plunge and started a Wedding Ring Quilt for my husband, Jim.

Over the years, I've created several quilt tops and managed to hand-quilt some of them.  This accumulation has given me justification to purchase a Handi-Quilter Avante 18 so I can finish them and continue creating more and more quilts. I share some of my creations here.

I hope to build a business with these goals:
1) to help other people enjoy their Grandma's quilt tops that need to be completed,
2) to make custom hand-made quilts to individual specifications,
3) to sell my own creations and give them a good home.

My philosophy is:  Today's Quilts are Tomorrow's Heirlooms.  Quilts are a part of American History and although their original purpose is still effective today, they have evolved into an artform as well as a functional part of the home.  They should be appreciated,.  So, if you have a stored quilt in your attic that your Mother, Grandma, or Aunt made some years ago, give me the opportunity to make it a useful and appreciated part of your home decor.

So, that's it for today; we'll see what tomorrow holds.