I’m so excited to announce the new Quilter’s Forum here at the Quilting Gallery. This was, by far, the most requested addition to the site in last year’s suggestions blog post.

Of course, there’s quilter’s help, quilter’s chat, and a place to post your finished quilts too. I’ve also created forums specifically for promoting quilter’s give-aways, free quilting projects and tutorials and quilting shows and events.

I hope you’ll join in the conversation, make new friends, help each other and be inspired. Register as a member to join in the discussions.

Registration is now available for the Winter Time Mini Quilt Swap. Some of the rules have changed, so please read the guidelines page carefully before you register.

Registration closes January 31st. Partner information will be sent by February 2nd. The deadline to mail your mini quilt is March 1st for overseas shipments and March 8th for domestic shipments (and Canada/USA).

Looking for some inspiration? Check out these fabulous mini quilts made for the fall swap. Such fabulous work and amazing creativity.

Don’t forget to enter this week’s contest. The theme is Winter Fun.

It is with excitement I sit here in my sunny design studio writing my first post for Quilting gallery. Let me introduce myself. I’m Lenna Green designer of Little Green Cottage patterns and founder of Stitching Cow.com

Sewing and quilt making have been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember.
As a child I was always making things and was often found at the side of my talented Grandmother learning craft related skills. We lived just around the corner so I regularly found my way to her house where she was always busy with a new project.

After school I graduated with a degree in education majoring in design and technology and taught in high schools for a few years before marrying and beginning a family. It was during this time that my interest inquilt making took hold and I was approached to teach quilting and hand embroidery classes at the local Patchwork and Quilting shop. My youngest daughter was only 3 months old at the time and I can remember teaching in between breast feeds which was a bit of a juggle.

Before long I was prompted to start designing my own projects and since we lived in a one hundred year old cottage with a green roof, I settled on the name Little Green Cottage as a brand name.

Six years lapsed in a blink of an eye and it was at this time that hubby and I decided to have a sea change and move from inland NSW Australia to Tasmania, an island off the South coast of Australia that captured our hearts many years ago. This lifestyle change prompted me to start my own online business and Stitching Cow was conceived. Since working on my designing and business full time I have enjoyed being published in many leading craft magazines including, Homespun, Creating Country Crafts, Patchwork and Stitching, Australian Patchwork and Quilting and just recently Sew It All, a new sewing magazine just released in the United States. You can see samples of these publications here.

I am thrilled that my business has opened up many doors and has allowed me to teach and help other sewing enthusiasts on a much bigger scale. And it is with this aim that I look forward to being a regular contributor here along side Michele at Quilting Gallery. I hope to share with you some of my best quilt making, quilting and hand embroidery tips.

With this in mind I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to write in and ask questions that you would like me to answer. Maybe you have a project that you need some advice about, or perhaps you would like to try your hand at a new sewing related craft but are not sure where to start.

Whatever your sewing related question or concern feel free to leave a comment here and I will endeavor to post about each of your questions in my forth coming posts.

Let the fun begin!
Warmly Lenna

I am so thrilled to have Lenna join me here at the Quilting Gallery. In last month’s anniversary blog post, one of the most requested additions for the site is new tutorials, tips and tricks, learning new techniques, etc.

There were comments about stitchery, embroidery and redwork, all of which I love, but have no experience with. Lenna is an expert in these techniques and I’m super excited she’s willing to share her vast knowledge here.

Welcome Lenna!! I look forward to learning from you.

In last month’s anniversary blog post one of the most requested features is guest bloggers. I totally agree. Last February, I did guest blogger month with 58 guests. It was fabulous to learn about such talented quilters from around the world, but way too much work on such a grand scale.

For 2010 I’d like to feature one guest blogger a week. If you’d like to be a guest, first, read other guest blogger posts to get an idea of what others have written about.

I don’t have any specific guidelines and I am pretty much open to whatever you would like to write about. I do ask that it not be too commercial or hard-sell in nature. That’s not to say you can’t mention your business adventures, you certainly can, as part of the overall write-up. (I accept advertising, so if you’d like to write specifically about your product or business, drop me an email to discuss.)

Here are some ideas on what you could write about:

• your own quilting history, how did you get started quilting
• what do you love and/or hate about the process
• tips, techniques, tutorials
• product reviews (not your own product please)
• where you are from, where you’ve been, where you’re going
• what you’ve done, awards won, contests entered, personal achievements (smile on a grandchild’s face!)
• what technique(s) do you want to learn this year, or further perfect
• if you blog, why?
• met anyone famous from the quilting world?
• do you have a mentor or idol, if so, who and why?
• charity efforts, teaching events, retreats, cruises, etc.

Everyone loves to see photos, so I encourage you to include a few with your submission (no more than six please). Please submit photos with a minimum size of 350px wide and a maximum of 500px wide.

Content should be written directly in the email you send to me as plain text, or as an attached text document. Please no MS Word or other publishing program. Do not embed your write up in the email. Have questions, please ask first! Links to your site(s) should be included in the write up, just put them in brackets, and I’ll link them correctly.

Ideally, I’d just like to copy and paste the text and not have to edit it in anyway. I do reserve the right to edit and/or refuse to post anything submitted. If you are in doubt if what you wish to talk about is acceptable or not, just email me first.

If you’d like to participate as a guest blogger, please send me an email about what you’d like to write about and I’ll schedule you a publication date.

Look for this week’s guest blogger post tomorrow morning.

P.S. There’s still time to enter this week’s weekly quilt contest: New Year’s Party Time. Submit your quilt photo for a chance to win the fabulous prize from Pat Sloan

P.P.S Calling all Ontario quilters living in the Greenbelt .. there’s a new challenge from the Ontario Crafts Council. Check out the info posted on the Quilter’s Connection Blog.

What better way to start off the new year than with a new weekly virtual quilt contest. And who better to help me kick off this exciting contest than Pat Sloan.

Join the fun, show off your wonderful creations and be inspired by what your quilting friends have made.

Each Monday a new theme will be announced and you can upload a photo along with a short story of a quilt you’ve created that represents the theme in some way. Hopefully, there will even be weekly prizes donated by generous sponsors in the quilting industry. Each weekend, visitors to the Quilting Gallery site can vote for their favourite quilt.

This week’s theme is New Year’s Party Time. Pat has donated a copy of her new book, Pat Sloan’s Camera, Color, Quilts, a 4-spool thread sampler pack of fabulous Aurifil threads, and some of Pat’s new Georgia fabric.

I had the pleasure of first meeting Pat at the Nashville AQS show in 2008. She is a bundle of enthusiasm and energy, that I’m sure if she could bottle it would be a best-seller. So, who is Pat Sloan anyway? You can read her story here.

Her blog is always entertaining with contests, challenges and give-aways. Be sure to check out her Quilt Mashup Forum and her Death by Quilting games… fun!!! You’ll find her on Facebook, Twitter and in Second Life too.

This weekend, Pat’s also giving away another copy of the prize donated for this contest. To enter that give-away, just head over to her blog and follow the instructions there. Hurry, you have until Monday to enter her blog give-away.

To enter this week’s New Year’s Party Time contest, follow the links below. Come back next Friday (Jan. 8th) to see all the fabulous quilts and to cast your vote for your favourite.

• Guidelines
• Themes, winners & sponsors
• Submit your photo
• How to sponsor a contest

I’m still working on the themes page. I’d love to hear your weekly theme suggestions. Leave a comment or send me an email.

Let’s see your fabulous New Year’s Party Time quilts!!

Break out the wine glasses, grab a slice of chocolate cake, and help the Quilting Gallery celebrate it’s second birthday/blogiversary!!! Two fabulous sponsors are helping me celebrate with 11 prizes up for grabs.

It has been an amazing and exciting year for the Quilting Gallery. Starting with the Charms for Charity contest last winter which raised 1,500 charms and ending with the release of the Quilter’s Cookbook yesterday with 119 fabulous recipes submitted by quilters from around the world.

February saw Guest Blogger Month featuring 58 quilters. In April, the Spring Blooms Mini Quilt Swap was the first of five swaps organized this year with almost 1,000 swap packages being exchanged worldwide. Also in April was the release of the then newly designed web site.

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