"Little Boy Blue" a quilt for my youngest son's 17th birthday - which is not until next March, but I came across these fabrics earlier this year, and knew they were meant for him.
When I re-designed my blog the last time, it was in pursuit of Serious. Business. My plan was to open a store (last year I bought and registered the business name, "Diva Quilts", bought and registered the site name DivaQuilts.com, and got the business end all set up to go) and then stuff happened that put those plans on hold. But the then-new site look was to be reflective of my new goals for myself as a quilter; and the dark background and sleek set-up were part of how I wanted the brand "Diva Quilts" to be viewed, so I left them up as a sort of precursor of what was yet to come.
Close up - these are all upholstery fabrics: otton rayon blends for the prints and jacquard and rayon "silk" for the solid blue.
But I came to a realization a month or so ago - I wasn't enjoying blogging anymore. It wasn't fun, and felt like a chore. Although I've read a lot of the posts out there in blogland about "quilting without oblgation" recently, that wasn't what my issue was. Acouple of weeks ago, I realized that the reason I haven't been happy is because the blog's set-up was putting constraints on my personality! *s*
What I mean is, the template necessitated a need for a big picture, then a cut-link to the text. For whatever reason, this need made me become less "talky" in my posts. I stopped telling stories about the quilts and stopped expressing the joy I feel when I make them.
And I've decided to heck with that! I want to have fun again!
Back of Little Boy Blue. At 16 going on 20 (in his own mind, at least) he fanices himself a sophisticated young man. I want to encourage him in his sophisticated tastes but, also wanted to use durable fabrics that would survive the ravages of his late teens and early 20's - which is why I used synthetic (fully washable!) upholstery-weight fabrics.
When I open my online store and build my site for my business, it will be the elegant and professional site and business I always imagined it would be. But this blog will henceforth be for doing what I love - talking about quilting and the things I think about while I do it. That's what I want to share with you!
Close up, back. The "silk" is lovely and cool, but the weight of those heavy upholstery fabrics makes it wonderful and warm. In other changes, I plan to do a lot more exploring in the textile art area. I'm going to be taking classes, reading books, experimenting on my own; with friends and in the Contemporary QuiltArt Guild I and two other women are launching this fall (exciting!); and I'm going to be delving into dyeing, complex cloth, embellishing, embroidery, felting, anything that catches my fancy!
And because that's different than making the kinds of quilts that I continue to love ("useful" quilts); and because maybe not all of you will be interested in that; I've started a textile blog called Coneflowers In Leslieville as the place where I'll be talking about all of the artsy-fartsy stuff.
Coneflowers is going to be a process blog - I'll post about what I'm up to, what I'm trying, and lots of pictures that show successes and failures as I go along. Of course, I'll also post finished art quilts and textile art, and talk about whatever's going on in my head/mind/world with respect to textile art and fabrications.
I'll begin though, by showing new readers my development thus far - and showing old friends how I did what I did when I made those art quilts that you've already seen. I want us to learn together.
Close up, binding. The "striped" fabric, by the way, is actually the "wrong side" of the polka dot fabric. What better co-ordinate could there be? ;)
So, I'm looking forward to going back to my roots/routes here on Diva Quilts - posting sneak peeks of my WIPs, finishes and inspiration; all the while talking to (and with, I hope) all of you -that's why the new comment format!. Diva Quilts is not going to be a process blog, but if you want to know something, feel free to ask me any questions, and I'll be glad to do a post about it.
So, that's my news! I hope you'll continue with me here at DivaQuilts.com, and that you'll follow along as I explore new areas over at Coneflowers In Leslieville!
I'm so looking forward to sharing it all with you. :)
Kit
Posts
I love the new look of your blog! And your son's quilt is just stunning. I've never ventured out of quilting cottons for quilt-making, it's kind of unknown territory. The quilting is just marvelous too! Is your quilting done on a regular home machine?
ReplyDeleteThanks Britt!
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered why more people don't use fabric other than cotton for quilting - in the old days, quilts were made out of old clothes - which were every kind of fabic - and 200 years later they're still around, so it's not like they don't wear well. lol
And thanks re the quilting - yes I use a home machine, but I recently bought a Juki TL98Q - the "q" stands for quilting, and it has a larger throat which makes quilting queen sized quilts like this one a lot easier - but up until a month ago, I did all my queen sized quilts on a regular singer - in fact, a couple of years ago I was doing them on a $140 Kenmore! :)
http://www.divaquilts.com/2010/05/shes-here.html
i like your creative article, it is so unique.
ReplyDeletetn chaussure
I'm a recent follower of your blog and want to say "thank you for following mine" at aukjesatelier.blogspot.com...
ReplyDeleteHow much fun it is to blog about the things you love... I can only encourage that! :)
I love the quilt your showing in this blog, it's beautiful!
Thank you Aukje. I'm really enjoying your blog, too! :)
ReplyDeletei like your creative article, it is so unique.
ReplyDeletetn chaussure
testing this one too...
ReplyDeletetesting....
ReplyDeleteThanks Alexis!
ReplyDelete(So far) I like the new comment format. I want to see if all of you like it too - and if so, I'll keep it. Testing the waters right now. :) Keep quilting my friend! :D
Very cool Kit! I like hearing your stories.. both about your blogging decisions and your quilt! And I loooove the new comment format- I bet you do too!
ReplyDeleteaeytyr
ReplyDeletetesting again!
ReplyDeletetesting again
ReplyDeletetesting
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm sure he will appreciate it when he gets it - or maybe not. lol But he will when he's a bit older. :)
ReplyDeleteWow! What a lot of beautiful quilting in this quilt. Hope your son appreciates all the love that went into it.
ReplyDeleteyes -when I finally do get my entire site running properly (with store, vision statement/about me, etc., I also intend to include links to my blog - or perhaps both blogs embedded in it - not sure yet - but they will be there). Thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteYou may want to link this blog, where you do talky talk to your store web. People like to read stories and it may inspire them to spend more.
ReplyDeleteI am, I am! I'm really excited about what's coming, actully. :)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are newly energized and that's always good!
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm going to explore both sides of that coin as far as posting goes. I'll let you know which one I like better! ;)
ReplyDeleteI think that's my problem - i'm more of a process person so I don't tend to blog until I have something to show but I do feel this 'obligation' to post, lol!
ReplyDeletelol Elaine! I think because they're going to be so different, I shouldn't have too much trouble - and also, because the other is going to be a process blog, there's no "obligation" (there's that dang word again! lol) to post if I'm not actually, y'know, processing anything!
ReplyDeleteI did think about two blogs recently but thought I have trouble posting regularly to just the one:) Look forward to reading both!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful! Thank you! :)
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be following both!
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