I’ve made changes to the advertising rates for the Quilt Shop Locator to better reflect the current economic times. I understand how difficult it is for a quilt shop or online quilting retailer to attract new customers. It’s a tough market out there!

Advertising in the Locator is very inexpensive. There’s no long-term commitment. You pay by the month and can cancel your membership at any time. Creating your ad is super-easy and you can update it as often as you like too.

Two advertising options are now available: a Basic Listing for $2/month and a Premium Listing for $8/month (less than the cost of a yard of fabric). Premium listings contain more information about your shop, including unlimited photos, and get priority exposure throughout the Quilting Gallery site.

Click here for more information and to add your shop!

P.S. Quilters: if you can tell your favourite local quilt shop about the Locator, I’d really appreciate the recommendation. :)

I made some changes last week to the Quilting Bloggers directory. For each blog, you’ll now see the latest 3 blog posts. I’ve also added integration with Facebook, so you can “Like” blogs here and share them with your friends on Facebook.

If you’re blog is not showing the latest posts, there are generally two reasons: (1) your blog’s RSS feed is broken or does not exist; or (2) you are not using the Title box in your blogging software. See this post for blogger/blogpost help.

Interesting fact: Of the 4,338 blogs in the Quilting Bloggers directory, 3,393 are blogspot web addresses (does not include domains hosted at blogspot). More than 78%. ‎236 are WordPress.com blogs or 5%.

More than 200 blogs were removed from the directory as they no longer exist.

You can help keep the directory up to date. If you see a blog that is no longer relevant or is broken, you can click the little cloud/comment-like icon that appears on the right side of the blog title. Enter the info on the next page, then I’ll get a notice to check it out.

Hope you like the new changes!!

Congratulations to #120 Avery Claire for winning Patsy Thompson’s Free Motion Fun…with Feathers! DVD. I’ll be sending you an email to get your mailing address.

Here’s Avery’s tip:

I absolutely adore feathers….they look so elegant on a quilt. My favorite quilting tip is to do a LOT of practice quilting by making baby quilts. They don’t take much time and you always have a gift on hand and what better way to get really good at your quilting!

Thanks to everyone that entered such fabulous tips.

Thanks to Patsy for the great donation!

Yesterday’s live interview with Pat Sloan is now available. Go to Pat’s Creative Talk Radio web site and click the play button as indicated in the picture below or listen via Itunes. My interview is the second one listed as July 16, 2010. Here’s the mp3 version if you prefer to download it and listen later (right click the link and save to your hard drive).

Show notes:

• Visit the Quilting Bloggers Directory main page. Submit your blog for inclusion in the directory. Browse the latest additions to the directory or you can search for quilting bloggers geographically by country and/or province/state.
• Enter for your chance to win Patsy Thompson’s DVD: Free Motion Fun…with Feathers!. You have until July 19th to enter.
• This week’s themed virtual quilt contest is Picnics. Submit your quilt by Thursday evening to enter for your chance to win one of two $25 gift certificates from Sheree’s Alchemy. Site visitors will vote for their favourite quilt starting on Friday until Sunday. View the previous contests, sponsors and winners.
• Subscribe to the Quilting Gallery monthly newsletter where you’ll get the latest information about contests, swaps, and other fun things happening here at the Quilting Gallery.
• The article I mentioned about quilters using blogs, Facebook and Twitter can be found here: The Virtual Quilting Bee: How quilters connect online.

Thanks Pat, for having me as a guest. It was wonderful to chat with you. I can’t believe how FAST 30 minutes flew by.

Visit Pat Sloan’s web site and her blog or Facebook page for daily FUN!

Grab a cup of coffee, and listen in as I’m a guest on Pat Sloan’s Creative Talk Radio show broadcast live this afternoon at 4:00 pm (Eastern). We’ll be chatting about my quilting history, the inspiration behind the Quilting Gallery and what I’m currently working on. You’ll also get the inside scoop on what’s coming this Fall to the Quilting Gallery!

If you can’t make it to the live broadcast, you’ll be able to listen to the show via Itunes after.

I hope you’ll tune in and listen!

Registration closes on Monday, July 5th for the Applique Posy Needle Case Swap.

Come join the fun, and make a super-cute needle case for a quilting friend around the world. It’s a quick and easy project that you can finish in a rainy afternoon.

Partner information will be sent by July 8th. The deadline to mail your needle case is August 17th for overseas shipments and August 24th for domestic shipments (and between Canada and the USA).

Swap links:

• swap guidelines
• registration
• participants
• Flickr group
• download applique pattern [PDF file]
• tutorial: part 1 | part 2
• Join the Quilting Bloggers fan club on Facebook

Two very talented quilters have already finished their needle cases. Aren’t they just gorgeous!