Last night I attended the Central Jersey chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild for the second time. I decided to join because I really enjoyed the company of this group of creative women, and I believe that getting out once a month to interact with others would be good for me. I have my doubts about whether I fit in with the modern quilt movement due to my emphasis on handwork. My work is more traditional than modern, but these people appear to be very inclusive, and I don’t think that my orientation will be much of a problem. Besides, seeing what others are doing will help to ease me out of my comfort zone.
While filling out the form for membership I came upon a entry asking if I had a web page or a blog. I thought, “Well, this really is the moment of truth, isn’t it?” You see, I hadn’t been 100% dedicated to this domain name, nor to being hosted on WordPress.com. I have a self hosted domain, which is my own name, plus I have a blog over on Blogger, called Enriching My Love of the Game, which I had maintained for a number of years related to a board game that I play. I’d been thinking of changing the subject matter of that blog to include my quilting, or using my own name domain, terrischurter.com, which I have been saving for heaven knows what. I even tried posting recently to that blog with an entry related to my quilting. I’ll probably repost that entry here soon.
Looking at the names of blogs that pop up in the Quilting category in my Zite application installed on my iPad, I have noticed that the domain names run the gamut. Some are clearly quilt related like Red Pepper Quilts and Fresh Lemons Quilts, though these names may not really mean anything. Some blogs use the author’s name as the domain name, like Pat Sloan. I imagine that those people are famous enough to justify that. Pat Sloan certainly is, but was this always so, or did these people grow into their fame as they blogged? Some of the domains are clearly self hosted, which is a superior choice in terms of flexibility, but many are tied to services like WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, and the like.
All of these observations have left me feeling conflicted over how to proceed. I paid for this domain, which I can carry with me if I ever leave WordPress, so I probably ought to stop procrastinating and start blogging with it in ernest.
So, last night when I filled out my membership form I entered “hexylady.com” as my blog name. I guess that commits me, at least for the short term.
During the meeting we were asked if anyone was interested in blogging. One of the members said that they would be happy to meet with other members and help them get started with blogging. I indicated my interest saying that I already have a blog, but that I haven’t done much with it. When I mentioned the name “hexylady.com” someone in the group said that they had seen it, which surprised me. Perhaps there is some other blog out there with a similar name. I have so few entries so far that it is hard to believe that anyone would have seen this blog or linked to it, especially since I haven’t categorized my entries, or promoted my blog in any way, but I suppose it is possible that the entries may be showing up on WordPress.
I know that The Central Jersey chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild has links to member blogs on their web page, so at some point in the near future this blog will probably be included there. That alone may be worth the price of membership.
Jess @ Quilty Habit said:
Hi Terri! I found you! I’ve listed you on our blog sidebar. 🙂
Looking forward to speaking with you more about blogging! Within the next month I should have a clearer direction of what I’d like to emphasize with blogging.
Welcome to our guild! We are excited to have you and see your beautiful handwork! 🙂
terrischurter said:
Jess, thank you for stopping by and making a comment on my blog. Sorry it took so long for me to approve it. I’ve been slow in getting started with the blogging. I know what you mean about trying to get a clearer direction for blogging. I think sometimes we just need to do it and find the direction as we go. I’ve spent too much time worrying about presenting my work and quilting history in just the right fashion. Joining the guild kick started my blogging and I have posted a few times since I got on board with your group. I hope to keep it up.
Krishma said:
Hi Terri, As a fellow CJMQG member….I am so proud to see you have already setup your blog and are regularly blogging. Lol…I have been thinking forever….on a strategy to have a blog…and this and that..and everything else in between and I have made it too big for myself in my mind!! So..yes, you are right..jump in and learn along the way.
terrischurter said:
Krishma, Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. I hope we can talk a bit about blogging at our next guild meeting during the break. I’ll be the one stitching hexagons while I listen. I should be really easy to spot. I hope you decide to jump into the bogging world soon. You can do it. Look at WordPress.com and also take a look at Blogger. It seems as if a lot of quilters use Blogger and don’t bother with securing their own domain names. Don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed by all of the possibilities.
Krishma Patel said:
Thanks for the encouragement. Will seek you out at the meeting. Till then..happy sewing. Krishma
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