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Our Ricky Tims Super Quilt Sermiar got underway last night to a record crowd at the new Holland Center of the Performing Arts in Omaha, NE. The seminar covers about 20 topics in 15 hours of lecture. In addition, I do a concert. This time I get to perform on a new Steinway D concert grand piano -yipee. Mostly I'm just letting you all know that Alex and I are here along with Libby Lehman and Bob Purcell, the thread guy having a great time sharing our favorite topics with quilters from far and wide -even several Canadians have made it here!

One really great thing is that the host guild, the Omaha Quilt Guild, will be donating their proceeds to the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, NE. The center is near completion and as I understand it, will have a grand opening in March 2009.

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456_503481.gifNew Blog Filter:

This pulll down window allows YOU to view how many days of blogs you see at a time. Every time you change the selection, it is also saved as a preference for each time you login. You don't have to reset it every time you login because it saves a cookie (yumm) on your computer.

This will be especially helpful for those with dial-up who find it frustrating to wait for many images to load. You can set it to view 2 Days Blogs and the page will load much faster. Then, change it at any time.

Of course, all blogs not shown are available in the Archives at the bottom of the blog page.

 

456_412551.gif New Blog Category:

We have put all the Blogs relating to "Website Features" into it's own category. At a glance, you can view blogs about our website features for the past few days or even over the past 12 months.

This works well with the feature above, but is not saved as a preference nor does it set a cookie, lest you miss all the other good stuff by accident (smile).

Enjoy these Small but Powerful new features.

Blog Trivia: 406 blogs to date (wow)

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The following was sent to us from Gregory Case, Photo Man. It is meant for you.... read on! 

 

"Thank you…
 
It’s my birthday month. When I was younger, mom used to hound me to write thank you cards for those who sent me a present. Being a child, I hated doing that. However, as time went on, I realized that she had a significant point—these were people who went out of their way to acknowledge an important event in your life. The least you can do is to thank them.
 
As I grew older, I started to think that the birthday gift celebration needs to be turned upside down. I should be thanking those who made a difference in my life for that year--not receiving presents.
 
In the past, I’ve taken this month to reflect and thank those who have been significant participants in my life. I don’t want the time to pass further and not make a point to stop and say “thank you.” I’ve sent letters to high school coaches and teachers for helping me along the path and setting examples of not giving up. I’ve sent thank you cards to my favorite local fast food restaurant. I’ve thanked past male friends and girlfriends who helped expand and mold my experiences beyond what would not have had experienced otherwise. I’ve written to a “sales rep” who helped me compile an expensive stereo system together and the president of that stereo company. I’ve written thanks to a hiring manager for offering me a job of a lifetime that lasted eight wonderful years. In addition, another manager who hired me for my first professional photography job that I was so inadequately ready for but she saw something in me at the time I did not see until several years later.
 
Unfortunately, some letters have not been written. I’ve lost contact with some who I regret I will not be able to tell them how much their presence meant to me. I miss thanking them greatly.
 
This August, I celebrate my sixth year of photography. During those six years, I’ve worked with wonderful clients and photographed people, events, and quilts that in my wildest dreams would not have thought possible. Currently, I have over 16 books that feature my photography (12 are quilt and textile related) and on my birthday month had such a cool gig photographing the Quilt Show. So now, it is my time to send you all a thank you card.
 
This month then, I celebrate and thank you, the Quilt Show audience, and crew. I’m so impressed with those audience members who have driven over 10 hours or more to sit in a studio to attend a day long Quilt Show taping. I’m so pleased to be a part of their audience who celebrate their birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and other significant life events arranged around the Quilt Show taping schedule. I celebrate those who have invested your hard-earned money in a web site (especially in the beginning) that started out as a mere dream. I congratulate those who have written comments on the forums, posted your quilt photos, and told your stories. I thank those who take the time to write long letters/e-mails commenting on what you like—and want to see different—you’ve embraced the concept that it’s your web site and your community. I am impressed with those who send in comments, suggestions, and questions in the chat rooms faster than any guest could ever respond. In addition, I thank those who take the time to write comments to my blog ramblings, postings, and slideshows. I read every one of them.
 
Not forgotten in this thank you note are the almost 20 members of the Quilt Show crew for being so wonderful to work with. I sit with awe listening to the crew members who took the time between the tapings to reflect on how to make the show even better—who came in with ideas on improving their camera work, their lighting, their direction, their editing, and for keeping all the parts of the show working smoothly. They want this web community to mature and succeed.
 
I celebrate the two unsung groups: the staff members of Ricky's studio who hang the quilts, vacuum the floors, clean the bathrooms, set up the lodging, and take care of the often forgotten but significantly important infrastructure and those who maintain and improve the web site and the second unsung group are the staff at the La Veta Inn for feeding a large crew on time and with prompt service each lunch and dinner.
 
Finally, I want to thank Alex and Ricky, who responded to a very simple request of mine: do you need a photographer? Who, as has been the case, saw far greater potential in my simple request. They not only created a position for me, a la “Photo Man” (thank you Angel for the moniker!) but also have embraced the photography and the slideshows more than I could ever have dreamed. Elena and I are so pleased to call you friends. Thank you.
 
And since it is my birthday month, I'm pleased to announce, cake is now being served."

 

P.S. from Ricky and Alex -Happy Birthday Gregory. Speaking of August birthdays', Today is WebGuru Paul's birthday! Happy Birthday Paul!

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Once again, It's a New Day! While we love providing a place for you to post your quilts. We also know that there are times when you might want to have someone who is a non-TQS member see your quilts. So, we have made a way for you to share your quilts with others who are non-members of The Quilt Show!

To make your Quilts Visible to non-members:

  1. Log into The Quilt Show. Click on "My Profile".
  2. Then "Edit Quilt" for the quilt you wish to share.
  3. Click the check box that says, "Check to make this quilt visible to non-members".
  4. Click "Submit".

(The default setting is unchecked, NOT visible to non-members. If you wish for non-TQS members to see your quilt on our site, you must check this box.)

By making your Quilt visible to non-members, it will automatically be picked up by all the major search engines and will be added to our upcoming "Quilt Gallery RSS Feed" (Woops, did I spill the beans?), which is right around the corner. So, it's a great way to show your quilts to the world.

We have provided an easy way for you to email your friends a link to your Quilts. While editing a quilt, simply click the "Copy to Clipboard" button in the "Email Link" section. You can then paste it into an email and send to a friend. The recipient can view your quilt profile but for security reasons, they will not be able to browse elsewhere in the TQS site or see your personal profile unless they login or become a member.

It gets better.

Website Banners:
We know many of you have websites, so we have created a variety of website banners for you. A picture is worth a thousand words. Please visit "My Account" where you will find this link:
Banners & Quilt Banners for your website and email

Instructions are right on this page and it will contain all the website banners, quilt banners and email links available to you on one single page for your convenience.

Go Web Guru Bob! It's a New Day!

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(Jean Wells with attendees to TQS taping in June) 

Is it possible for two unrelated events to make the same connection in the human mind?  Read Photo Man-Gregory Case’s article (in Stories) of his observations while working on the recent taping of The Quilt Show and Book Expo.  Gregory shares with us that creating, telling, and connecting life stories through the use of words and fabric is a primal need of all humans.

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Story Submitted by: TQSWizard

For eighteen years, I worked as a mental health therapist: Master’s degree in Social Work and a California state clinical social worker license. I was often struck by how many clients would state that they felt better “simply” by someone intently listening to them. The great value that group therapy had for its members was taking private thoughts (their “life story”) and making them public. That innate need that all people have to be known and to connect—to be seen, to be heard and, yes, even to learn from others. I was reminded of my therapy days recently by photographing two events in June 2007, Book Group Expo (www.bookgroupexpo.com) and The Quilt Show (www.thequiltshow.com). Both events occurred in different states, at different times, and involved different people and demonstrated that by listening and embracing their member’s comments they improved upon their success. They also shared a common theme: members publicly pursuing their (mostly) private passions. The first event was held in San Jose, California. Ann Kent, one of the co-founders, belonged to a local book group. Like other book groups, they often discover unknown (mostly fiction) authors and regularly meet at someone’s house for a discussion of the latest “group-read” book. These groups are a curious notion—you read privately and discuss publicly. Ann wanted to create a physical event and a virtual (web) place where other book groups could connect. She dreamt of a place where the authors and readers could exchange ideas about the books they have read and discuss how book groups could profit from lessons learned. This June, Book Group Expo celebrated its second year anniversary. Khaled Hosseini, the best selling author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” was the featured author, as he was last year. He admitted in a recent PBS interview, that when he wrote “The Kite Runner” that this book could have been a template of how not how to write a best seller. Upon its publication, it was not seen as a success. However, book groups and independent book stores saw the book’s value and by sheer word of mouth, slowly built the infrastructure for the book’s success. Khaled said it was important to return to this year’s Book Group Expo event as a way to pay homage to these book groups. Many expo participants stated how excited they were to meet like-minded book group members, in a salon setting, and to listen to, and interact with their favorite authors. Building on the lessons learned from the first show and this year’s success, Book Group Expo already has plans to create similar events in Seattle and Minneapolis. The second event that occurred in June 2007 was the second set of tapings of The Quilt Show in La Veta, Colorado. Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims wanted to create an event (The Quilt Show) and a web place where the “World Quilt Community” of quilters can, like book group members, connect, discuss, and view their quilt designs. One of the major sections of this web site is the posting of quilts that the world community members have made—featuring some very creative work. These quilters pursue their quilting passions alone and then via the web site in concert with others. At The Quilt Show tapings, the audience arrived early for the tapings and sat enraptured listening to the guests, often taking notes, and making those “ah!” exclamations when they learned something new from one of the guests or from Alex and Ricky. They interacted with the guests and co-hosts. As co-hosts, Alex and Ricky pledged to acknowledge the compliments and suggestions from their web-site and studio audience members to keep doing this, less of that, and more of this. With the addition of several new crew members (new director, editor, and fourth video camera operator) this set of shows improved upon the success and “lessons learned” from the first set of show tapings which resulted in a faster-paced, more technique-driven set of shows. Like Khaled Hosseini, Ricky and Alex continue to paid homage to those quilters who have embraced this first of a kind event and web site created by and for quilters. In the tapings, Alex and Ricky continued to present passionate, well-known artists and authors whose design work and books continue to amaze those in the audience--even the non-quilting video crew expressed their wonderment. One show pursued a serious but life-enriching topic that kept the audience (and crew) near tears. Another show featured a quilter whose pursuit and subsequent quilt left the audience spellbound—how many hours did she say she spent on that quilt? She’s joking, right? No one has that much patience! She also kept a journal of her quilt work, which resulted in the book, “The 1776 Quilt.” Later in the show she revealed, an even larger and significantly more complex quilt design in progress. Both of these events in June 2007 celebrated the private and the public pursuit of a primal need—the creating, telling, and connecting of life stories though the use of words and fabric. Each event acknowledged the underpinning of that old Beach Boy’s song lyric: “I need a mess of help to stand alone”: every event needs an audience, every author needs a reader, and every quilter needs a viewer. As a photographer at these two events, I photographed people listening, intently. As a former therapist at these two events, I found them to be good therapy for all concerned.

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Three more Sues made their way to my design wall. The two on the left made their way to Portugal and the Sue on the right is from England. And to think I once believed she never got off the farm, away from scrubbing cloths and making Sam happy. MAN OH MAN - I have been SSOOOOO wrong and misguided for decades. Embarassed THANK YOU!!!!

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Happy Birthday to you and many more..........................

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keep shining bright! 

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It's a New Day and time to celebrate once again. The Quilt Show has reached 20,000 members! You are part of an ever-growing and evolving community. We promise to continue doing our best to make The Quilt Show your daily, must-visit internet stop. Congratulation to our member, RuthMcI from Brooklyn, New York . She will be getting a Super Bernina Bag, filled to the brim with goodies from the taping of The Quilt Show

And now, -drum roll please - during the tapings last week we announced that when we reach 50,000 we will be giving away a top of the line Bernina sewing machine with the embroidery attachment. Bob Purcell, from Superior Threads offered to include a $500 gift certificate from Superior Threads. When we reach 50,000 members, it will go to one of you! Hang on for the ride - we're just beginning. It's a New Day! Now, watch the video below.

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Have you heard of the Patchwork Party? It's a bit like an online shop hop where you can purchase twelve incredible sampler blocks from 12 different online quilt shops. The event is so popular that the Spring 2007 edition of the Patchwork Party sold over 24,000 blocks! The blocks for the Fall 2007 Patchwork Party are designed by Marti Michell and the fabrics featured are "Home for the Holidays" fabric collection from Marcus Brothers.

One of the stops on the tour is our very own Stitchin' Heaven. They are offering our TQS members a sneak peek one day early. If you want to check out all the excitement surrounding the Fall 2007 Patchwork Party, go to www.patchworkparty2007.com . Be sure to check out the quilt gallery when you get there to see the beautiful quilts that have been made from these blocks.