Signature Style in Art Quilts – Part 1

Now here I go out on a limb…
For commercial reasons, I am changing to a new signature look in the art quilts I make for sale. There are 3 reasons, and the first is that the art quilts in my “new” series are SELLING!! [...]

Building a richer public domain
quoted excerpts from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, topic  reference – The Creative Commons Network, The Creative Commons.org and Flickr Creative Commons

Please Note, the copyright information posted here is subject to unforseen changes being made by the major sharing sites on the WWW. This post has been modified twice already. * see [...]

The person who “has everything” probably doesn’t have a hand made quilt.
Since it’s a one of a kind type of gift, a hand made quilt suggests that your loved one or friend also is special. When you give a hand made quilt, they receive a beautiful treasure.
It’s the beauty of the unexpected unique gift item, [...]

Increasing quilt artists’ visibility on the WWW
It is difficult to be noticed in cyberspace. Most artists do not possess the knowledge or time needed to create and maintain an effective web presence. Very few understand the complexities of search engines. Internet communities are a great way to raise visibility on the Internet and attract search [...]

engaging blog features help bring repeat visitors
Creating a compelling reason for readers to return to your blog to check out what’s new naturally blends with your goals for becoming a respected blogger and commenter.  Page views will increase, mutual links will form and ideally you will make some sales of your fiber art. (subscription with [...]

Identify Yourself

The primary goal of a blog is building community. Writing excellent posts is part of the task. Making comments at other blogs, responding to those comments and commenting on the response of your own blog are the ways to build community.
If your comments and responses are consistently helpful, informative, interesting and well written, you [...]

a call to action for the Fourth of July
First thing I do when I log onto my Word Press admin is check out comments left by readers. Bloggers love reading and responding to comments. But receiving those comments is often another story.
Paul Cunnngham, of Crane Factory recently wrote, I got  “thinking about all those blog [...]

Darren Rouse’s ProBlogger self-guided Blog Tutorial

Do you know what a Sneeze Post is?
Would you know how to develop an editorial calendar for your blog?
Do you have a plan to boost your blog’s profile and readership?
Luckily, when I first started to develop this blog, I had the foresight to think that I [...]

To Quilt or Not To Quilt
Sometimes a piece of hand dyed fabric is just too beautiful to cut up for an art quilt. Likewise, there are times when I know that visible quilting lines will not enhance, and in fact will detract from the effect I want for my finished art quilt.
To gain some insight [...]

mature artist style – what’s important to artists in 2009
As baby boomers age, one aspect of getting older becomes a more relevant and interesting subject – is artistic creativity affected by age.
Compared with younger artists, older artists
- have less energy yet they concentrate better
– have greater self esteem
– are less critical
– are [...]

Pruning Sheers or Weed Wacker?
In February 2009, Google and other major search engines adopted new techniques to make web searching a better, cleaner and more consistent experience. Their goal is to clear out some of the clutter dawdling in the outer rings of cyberspace.
Their digital efficiency efforts got me thinking that maybe I should take [...]

Moving Beyond Interested Quilters Browsing Interesting Quilt Websites
Now more than ever, artists are faced with the challenges and opportunities of the Internet with its fast changing capabilities to feature artwork. For many artists, traditional art galleries continue to fulfill a necessary market sector. The global reach of the Internet is an attractive addition to the [...]

Quilts are social objects
“Americans have always known quilt makers, openly embraced their creations, and applauded their achievements. Quilt makers have always been seen as our peers, not our betters. These biases and attitudes have been a double edged sword for quilts, until recently keeping them from being taken seriously by historians and scholars and from [...]

windmill, a contemporary quilt

Isn’t contemporary a relative term?
Having described the standard explanation of the evolution of traditional quilt making into art quilts and the concept of quilts as art, I personally feel it is very important also to keep in mind

Art Quilts – a giant step forward
“While quilts that can be considered works of art have been made throughout the course of quilt history, the involvement of academically trained artists with the medium is a relatively new phenomenon.” Quilts a Living Tradition, 1995, Robert Shaw, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Beaus Arts Editions.
Starting in the late [...]