At Spring Market, I collected business cards for a contest drawing.

Congratulations to Janine from Tonic Living in Toronto, Ontario for winning two months of free advertise on the Quilting Gallery web site.

Check out the gorgeous fabrics available on her site:

I’m very excited to announce that tomorrow will be the start of Friday Give-Aways here on the Quilting Gallery. I’ve received many fabulous donations from sponsors that I’m sure you’ll love. This will be a regular feature here, until I run out of sponsors, which hopefully won’t happen any time soon. If you wish to sponsor a give-away, please review Option 7 on the Advertising page.

Friday is the last day to save 50% off the regular rates for the Quilt Shop Locator. I’m thrilled that there are now 85 shops listed representing 29 states and four countries. Join today!

Is your favourite LQS listed? If not, please send them an email or give them a call to tell them about the Quilt Shop Locator. Thanks!

The first-ever press release from the Quilting Gallery is going out today. I’ve never done a press release before, even though I’ve had a business for 11 years. My sister did a great job taking my ideas and coming up with the release for me. Thanks sis, and also to C (you know who you are!).

I finally wrote my own guest blogger post, which you can find under the About page. I’ve been meaning to write that page for ages, and am glad it’s now done.

Look for a new photo contest starting early next week. It’s going to be a tonne of fun.

See you tomorrow for the first Friday Give-Away. I’ve included the code below if you wish to add the graphic on your site too.

As you can see, lots of changes around here. There are still a few areas to clean up, and more changes to come next week for the Quilt Shop Locator.

A brief run down on some of the changes…

• cleaner look, lots of white space
• lots of colour, reminds me of Spring
• the Quilting Gallery Blog no longer appears on the front page, however, three teasers for the latest posts do
• prominent placement, on every single page, of members from the Quilt Shop Locator
• randomly featured free projects and videos on the home page
• each section of the site clearly identified with right navigation no longer over-lapping between sections
• new advertising spots
• and best of all, room to GROW!

I’d love to hear your comments.

… Quilting Bloggers that is to reach 2,500!!!

Go invite your friends, please.

Have a wonderful Sunday (or Monday if that’s what it is where you are)

Michele

UPDATE – March 2, 2009: The Quilting Bloggers directory surpassed the 2,500 mark last night. When I first started this, I really had no idea it would grow so much. I’m aiming for 5,000 by the end of the year. How’s that for ambitious!

I’m switching the Quilting Gallery over to a new server tonight. Everything is ready and working.

Please don’t leave any comments or sign up for the Quilting Bloggers or Quilt Shop Locator at this time.

The new server is very fast, and you should notice improvements right away.

See you on the flip side.

Michele

UPDATE: If you’re seeing this update, then you’re on the new server. Please let me know if you see anything that isn’t working properly. Thanks!

Hi folks,

Sorry, this site is so slow the past few days. I’m working on a solution, but it might be a few more days before it’s fully solved. So not what I needed to do this week. Oh well, it’s all for the best, and we’ll be super fast by the weekend.

More soon,
Michele