I have been asked to write an articel in the Norwegian Quilt Association magazine about blogging. I am a member of the board and now they are teasing me about my blogging since I am hocked on it LOLI have just started my blog and find much joy in doing it. Although I gett less time to sew :) My DD commented yesterday that I sat more in front of my computer than the sewingmachine now. I have met a lot of new quiltingfriends, I see photos of their quilts, I get a lot of inspiration (maybe too much, since my head now is overfloaded with stuff I want to do), I get to see photos of a lot of beatiful places all over the world.
Why do you blog?
What is your experience of blogging?
Negative and positive sides of it?
Other comments?
I will appriciate if I get some comments on this. And I have planned that I will send a little surprise to one of you who answer me on this. I will pick one "winner" on sunday afternoon.
Jeg har blitt spurt om jeg kan skrive en liten artikkel om blogging i NQF sitt medlemsblad. jeg sitter i styret der og de erter meg litt fordi jeg er blitt hekta på blogging. Jeg har akkurat startet med det og jeg synes det er morsomt. Selv om jeg får mindre tid til å sy :) Min kjære datter kommenterte i går at jeg satt mer foran pc'n enn foran symaskina nå. Jeg har møtt mange nye quiltevenner, jeg får se bilder av deres tepper, jeg får masse inspirasjon (kanskje for mye, for nå flyter det over med ting jeg har lyst til å gjøre), jeg får se masse bilder av vakre steder rundt om iverden.
Hvorfor blogger du?
Hva er din erfaring med å blogge?
Negative og positive sider med deg?
Andre kommentarer?
Jeg vil sette pris på å få høre din mening. Og jeg har planlagt at jeg skal sende en liten overraskelse til en som svarer meg på dette. Jeg vil trekke en "vinner" på søndag kveld.
22 comments:
I don't 'know' anybody near my home that shares my passion, so blogging has given me the ability to make connections with like minded people, share my work with them, enjoy their work, learn new techniques etc. It has helped to keep me motivated with projects, though the downside , for me, would be when motivation is lacking, I feel there is still a need to keep up my blogging. Since discovering 'Blogrolls', this has not been such an issue.
I mainly blog because I enjoy it. It is a good feeling to have comments left about my work. My kids don't care, and my Dh doesn't 'get it'! LOL
Blogging has opened up a whole new community of 'friends, that I would probably never of met otherwise. My skill has increased immeasurably in a short space of time, this wouldn't of happened without the generosity of other bloggers. Although you can read blogs, without owning one, I don't feel its the same as being able to participate. Groups are good, but photo space is limited, and not everyone is interested in the blow by blow of how you did something. With a blog, if that post doesn't interest me, I can move on.
Gosh. I think thats enough from me!! Its a bit rambling, but you did ask.... LOL
XX
I blog because I want to share/record what I am doing quilt wise to the detail that I want - not just a photo of a completed top. And the people wjo read &/or leave encouraging messages, "get" what I am doing. I also want to be able to talk (journal) about other things going on in my life like vacations. On "my" blog I can talk about what ever I want, I don't have to keep it strictly quilt related like I would if I were shareing in a different arena in cyber space.
negative - it takes a lot of time.
positive - you get to meet new people with similar interests. Beyond those interests, you get to see what they like, where they live, & what they do on vacation to start.
I really love blogging, for lots of different reasons. I belong to several quilting lists on yahoo groups, and almost all of them have "rules". The list owners get huffy if you go off subject, etc. On my blog I can write whatever I want - the rules are my own and no one can tell me what to write and not write. I've always wanted to keep a quilting journal, but never could develop the habit. Blogging works perfectly for that. I'm motivated to write because of the sharing aspect. I love the sharing - communicating with quilters all over the world. Sharing ideas. Sharing photos. Sharing stories. Encouragement. I've made so many online friends. It's an incredible way to expand one's horizons.
Whoops - I forgot to answer some of the questions. The negative is that computer time taks away from stitching time. I'm also tempted to read blogs when I should be doing other things. But the advantages greatly outweight the disadvantages.
I've just started blogging, but I started so that I could keep a journal of my own quilting - something I've never been able to do on paper and more importantly to meet other quilters. I haven't ever really lived near too many other quilters. I love knowing that there are other people out there I can share with and learn from.
Why do you blog?
My mother lives 6 hours away and she has access to a computer where she lives. This way she can see the items I tell her about in our phone calls. It also allows her to see the current pictures of family members, especially her grand and great grand children.
I not only keep in touch with family members but my quilting friends from around the world.
What is your experience of blogging?
I started blogging this this past winter. I find it hard to write something. The words just are not there for me.
Negative and positive sides of it?
There has not been a negative thing regarding blogging. Keeping in touch with family and friends has been a wonderful thing.
Renea
WA~USA
My SIL who is also a quilter asked me if I thought anyone would read what I had to say in my blog--my reply was that it was my journal and I really didn't care if anyone else but a few friends read it. BUT I have made so many other new friends online since I started.
Yahoo groups were (and are) leaving me cold because my favorite one has changed so dramatically it is no longer the fun group it once was. Larger groups offer none of the closeness and support that I feel I have found with blogging. I can post what I want, when I want, comment or not comment---it is my choice. Several people and I email each other off the post comments and I enjoy that as well.
Negatives are only of my own making---too much time online but that has eased with bloglines subscriptions. I have all day to sew though, unlike many of my counterparts so I don't feel the time crunch as much and can probably control the time spent reading.
Positives definitely having someone or a lot of someones encourage and cheer you on even if it is small steps. Loading pictures directly with the text helps to make the narrative come alive. And the project seems so much more real. Don't have to click somewhere else to see what they might be talking about--it is right there.
My quilt group and I do a lot of sewing on donation quilts for children and feel like I have a different slant to add to the discussion than say, the person who does primitives style quilts or art quilts.
I love it when others talk about things in their part of the world we seem to be from all over the globe and see pictures of what things look like there. Some lists don't allow much off topic chatter but that is how you get to know each other.
We all have so much to share with each other and blogging allows another outlet and means to do so. The beginners can ask questions and some will write a tutorial in response to that, for example. Any how do I or what should I do for borders question will elicit many opinions to consider. It will be interesting to see what the others have to say on this topic. Good luck with the committee, May Brit
I blog because I started out with wanting to have a means of easily sharing the quilts I created.
Then I shared my blog with my parents (a thousand miles away) and they actually like my blog more than my emails! My mom said it's because my emails would talk about big happenings, while my blog covers my regular day to day life.
The positive about blogging is that it's a whole lot easier to direct people to my blog, rather than trying to write it all over again explaining whatever I'm trying to explain.
The negative for me is when Blogger doesn't cooperate. I've been having trouble getting pictures up my usual way, but found a solution for the time being.
I blog because I have always wanted to write a Journal, but I have a problem with writing on paper. I Have tried scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking, and neither were for me. Blogging seems to fit the ticket.
I love the feedback that others give. I blog about quilting and my family. I blog about future ideas to help keep my planned projects strait.
The positives - I get to see other things and it fuels my creativity. The negative -I sometimes spend time on the computer that I could be sewing.
Hi, I have started my blog about a month ago and have found out it is an easy way to show other members of my groups what I am doing.
Of course I have to learn a lot, but thanks my blog I have contact with very kind people who give me support.
The negative site is that it takes time. So, sewing hours are shorter than before. LOL
I enjoy my blog because of the possibilities for expression that it gives me. I have never kept a journal. I thought it would be a lot of bother to put my thoughts into words and have no one ever read them. If my thoughts were to be for me only, I would just keep them in my head.
The positive support I have found with this group of women makes me so happy. Quilting seems to tie us together, but with such varying backgrounds, lifestyles, personal histories, and quilting styles there is much to gather inspiration from.
Receiving such a warm welcome and feedback is very rewarding. I gave up my guild because of the catty, clique-ish taste it left in me. I tried some other on-line groups. While they are friendly, the scope is very, very narrow. Sometimes I felt like I had bad breath.
The one drawback I have found is the amount of time I spend on-line. That is certainly something of my own doing.
On the positive side, I have been in contact with people around the world. I see where they live, enjoy the triumphs and setbacks in their daily lives, enjoy hearing about children, grandchildren, pets and see all the beautiful quilting projects they have to share.
I sat on my hands for many months, reading so many blogs before I decided to join in with my own. I am so glad that I did.
I have often pondered this myself - and relevant posts are filed under blogging in my blog but I asked the same question a few weeks ago which you may be interested in reading and reading the responses as part of you research for the article.
The URL is
http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php/archives/2006/08/02/why-blog-2/
Whip up also asked the same question and had a heck of a lot of replies.
I answer many of the positives in my blog pices but thinking about what Patti has said the computer does take up time but I balance that as I get lots of inspiration and have made some good friends online. In my teen years I was always on the phon talking to friends - now I am in my 50s I am always on the computer talking to friends not too much has changed!
Why do i blog? Well i have only been blogging for a short time and i am enjoying it so much. I found with the Yahoo groups i am a member of, i tend to lurk in the background. Blogging has helped me to share my quilting journey with others that also have the same interest. It has kept me motivated with my projects and i appreciate so much the comments that are left for me. It shows that there are others who take an interest in what you do and you feel as they are your friends even though you may never met them in person. It's also taught me how to use a digital camera so that i can post photos. (i have always disliked digital cameras. Even my husband is surprised to see me use it every day for blogging.) I'm so glad i have a camera now.
The only negative thing to blogging is that it can be very time consuming if you have a number of Blogs that you read when you be doing other things away from the computer.
I found blogland as a place where I can talk freely - where everything is on topic if I like it to be :-) I like the possibility of mixing photos and text, and I like that those visiting do so because they like what I do and write, not because they feel they have to - as on the lists.
I write first of all to enjoy myself, to keep myself motivated,and I have found many freequilters like myself and a lot of inspiration - to finish Ufos, to try new things, to get feedback when I ask something, to enjoy other's blogs in text and photos.
My experiences are nothing other than good. You get out of it what you put into it - the more you share the more you get - and no moderators on your neck ;-)
One might say it takes time away from quilting, but on the other hand I sew more than ever after starting blogging - due to the inspiration input. Bloglines.com made blogsurfing more pleasant - you can get updates on updated blogs of your choice and let the rest pass. Negative experiences - nope - other than the frustration when blogger.com will not play.
Friendship are made, across continents and time zones. Blogging is great :-)
Why do I blog? I've always wanted to keep a quilt journal but I just never seemed to get around to it. Then Bonnie Hunter started her blog and I thought to myself, you can do that too! So I did. :-)
Blogging lets me chronical not just my quilting activities but little bits about my life at the time. I've belonged to different internet groups over the years but I just don't get the same satisfaction from them that I do from blogging. Here I can say whatever I want without having to worry about following someone else's rules. There ARE no rules on my blog!
I love the people I've met thru my blog. From all over the world. And I love reading their blogs and seeing not just what they're working on but the little glimpses they show about their daily lives. I've been on vacation with them and on quilt retreats but I've also shared their hard times too. You feel like you really get to know someone as a whole person not just a quilter.
I'm a VERY shy, introverted person in real life. But for some reason that doesn't come thru in my blog. I do find it amazing that anyone wants to read what I have to say and was just blown away a few days ago when I checked my own blog on bloglines and realized that over 50 people have added me to their bloglines. How cool is that!
I love that I've re-connected with my sister after many years. Not that we've been estanged but just when we each married and she had children and we had different interests and we've lived many miles apart for many years we just lost that closeness we had as children. And now thru my blog she's started quilting and has her own blog now and it just seems that we're maybe not so far away from each other after all.
The negative - same as everyone else. Too much time on the computer, not enough spent stitching. BUT to be honest I really didn't stitch any more before. In fact blogging has me stitching more. Because I want to have something to show. Because I get so inspired by everyone else. And to be honest I spent just as much time on the computer before. Just before it was spent playing mindless computer games. Now it's spent connecting to friends all around the world. So I guess there really ISN'T a negative to blogging for me. :-)
I first found blogs following a link from one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to. I am also a very intorverted person and would generally lurk because I was afraid of the responses I might get to a posting to a group. Everyone else seemed to have so much more time to be on the groups than I did with a full time job and seemed to already know each other. I felt like an outsider. As I followed that first blog link from one blog to another, found the Stash and Maverick quilt rings and saw everyone else's quilts and quilting studios I was hooked. I had recently gotten my husband to finally build me a workable space that I didn't have to go from room to room to quilt and I had a burning desire for others to see it and be as excited about it as I was. I started with what was foremost in my life at the time and moved on from there. I checked for comments every day and was so excited with my first and that other people I didn't even know wanted to comment on my life.
Although DH does understand my love of quilting and NEVER complains about the yards and yards of fabric I purchase (except how heavy it was when he had to carry it into this new house) he doesn't have a real appreciation for it. I can never expect him to be excited about the stack of fabric I just got or ask his advice when deciding between borders or colors because he will just say "they all look nice". I can post the question or photos of my finds and get 10 to 15 experienced quilters to give me their opinions. I love the feedback and learning about other's lives. I also have a real desire to travel and don't really have the time or money so. It is so exciting to me to see other countries and how people who live there live. I have never wanted to be the type of traveler who goes to a country and sees the "touristy sites". I have always been much more interested in what it is like to BE from there. How the culture differs from mine and how their day to day lives are. Blogging gives me a window into the lives of quilters in so many other countries and I pick up so many things about their lives from their posts.
My blog has also worked to keep my family and friends up on my life when I don't have time to tell them everything. I didn't start out with it this way, but as we would be talking I would send them to my blog to see pictures. My mother, my daughter, some friends whose lives have moved in a direction that I don't see them very often and both of my aunts read it regularly. When we get a chance to talk we can have more meaningful conversations with all of the "what have you been up to?" already handled. None of them comment, but will call or email me when there is something they feel they want to talk about. I think it has really made us all closer as when you are on the phone you can never think of "what's new?".
I guess this more than covers the positives I feel blogging is in my life. I think the only real negatives are that it is time consuming and I worry about safety. I have been know to spend hours reading posts and making comments and like others this is time I could have spent quilting. I do think the inspiration I gain far outweighs the time spent though and I make better use of my time when I do quilt. Otherwise, this is a forum that is available to EVERYONE. People with good intenions and bad. My mother is a huge worrrier and she has passed some caution on to me. I have had the "be careful on MySpace" conversation with both of my children and feel I need to use the same cautions, especially when mentioning them. I sometimes wish I could be more specific as I feel most who read my blog have nothing but the best intentions, but it only takes one crazy person to get one of my children's names and where they go to school or something personal that they could use and I would never forgive myself.
Sorry to end on such a downer and to run on so long, but after I got started I just didn't seem to be able to stop. Thank you for the question I think it is a very good one and may recreate this response as a post on my site soon. :o)
Hi May Britt! This is Lesa from CQForNewbies. My reason for blogging is probably the strangest yet -- I used to feel like I got nothing accomplished and wondered each day where my time went. So I started keeping a notebook of everything I did every day. I also put notes in there about ideas, pattern drawings, etc. This went on for over a year. Then my house was robbed and the creeps took my notebook. (I have no idea why -- it was just paper). When I first saw blogs, I thought, all right, something now only to write about what I accomplish, but I can also show pictures. And the freaks who robbed me can't steal it. I realize it can get "lost" someday in cyperspace, but it will still be out there, a record of what I have done.
I started blogging because I was so passionate about quilting and could not find enough quilting conversation elsewhere on the internet to satisfy me. I knew blogs existed, found Quilt Mavericks and Stash Quilts, read them with enormous satisfaction and interest for a few days and then began my own. I adore blogging.
I haven't been blogging very long but I began as a way to reconnect with quilters. I used to be active in quilting groups on Prodigy and AOL but haven't found the same kind of quilting communities online. Blogging keeps me inspired and active - even though it feels a bit strange to be writing such public posts and not know who is reading them.
Hi May Britt. I have only been blogging for a few weeks but I love it. I live alone, I work night shift, and I have lived here only 1 year. It is also a bit isolated at times, and I have found myself becoming isolated. I spend a lot of time on my computer anyway, and have been reading all sorts of blogs for some time.
Since I have started reading quilt blogs, my motivation to quilt has really increased, and since I started blogging myself, I have been sewing like a maniac!
I have started to sort out my stash, I have nearly finished a UFO, and have already made some friends - from all over the world. It has even prompted me to join a local quilting group, which will help me get to know people.
I love fabric and the history of quilts, and get so much enjoyment reading about quilts, but now I am sewing too. No negatives so far, as I was hardly sewing at all before, and I really appreciate the interest other people, often very experienced quilters, have in my work.
I also enjoy the day to day contact with people, and the inspiration I get from other people's quilts.
Thank you everyone for sharing your reasons for blogging.
A big hug to you all
May, I've been sewing and didn't get opportunity to leave a comment here but I will happily answer your question on my blog. I want to answer your question because blogging has become important to me! :-) I hope that you'll read it later!
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