Online Quilting Communities

I became part of the online quilting community about 3 years ago. My best friends\’ grandmother showed me a couple of quilting blogs, a concept I never knew existed, and I\’ve been stuck ever since. The only problem I found was that I wanted to follow lots of blogs but I kept having to visit each site each day to see if there was a new post and it was taking a lot of time. I found out about an RSS reader called Google Reader, and it made it unbelieveably easy to condense all the blogs I followed into one spot, it was fabulous.

Unfortunately Google Reader no longer exists, but if you are interesting in learning more about quilting, fabrics, techniques, and meeting new people, there are several websites that do a very similar job of compiling all your blogs and also helping you find new ones. My favorite two are:

1. Bloglovin

This is the website that I use to compile all the blogs I follow. You can search by subject, by blog, import friends, and easily follow/unfollow blogs. It makes it super simple to start compiling a whole list of great resources. Bloglovin also has iPhone/iPad/Android apps so that you can read your blogs on the go too. 😉 Here is a link to my page and it shows the blogs I follow, mostly quilt-related, to get you started if you don\’t already have a good list.

Blogs Colby Follows

2. Feedly

Another good site to use is Feedly. This site work very similar to Bloglovin, has iPhone/iPad/Android apps as well, but has a different layout and a couple of different features. It\’s all personal preference so try both out and see which one works best for you.

I also use the site Flickr to join online groups. There are groups that do quilt-a-longs, swaps, bees, hand piecing, etc. Here is a list of a couple of my favorites:

1.Pillow Talk Swap
2.BeeJeebers Bee
3.Hand Pieced Quilt Along
4.do. Good Stitches Bee

I am personally a fan of quilting bees, they are a great way to get to know a smaller group of people, and with a small block a month commitment you get a personal quilting community and a quilt out of the deal! If you are interested in learning more about or joining an online quilting bee, this flickr group is a great place to start.

Quilting Bee Group

Hopefully that gives you a quick rundown of how to become more involved in the online quilting community! Best of luck, it\’s addicting!