Crazy Quilt Gatherings

The world of crazy quilting is fun and a fantastic outlet, for allowing freedom of expression and creativity. As we know, creativity refers to the ability to 'make something that has not existed before' through intelligence and skill. Quite a few of our world's wonders, small or large, can be credited to collective works, of a team behind the scenes. Why not round up a circle of friends, to create a crazy quilt?

A few quilt block swap activities can be found and seen online. We can also start up our own quilt block swap or donation, by sending an invitation to our friends and family. An invitation to create and contribute one or two crazy quilt blocks, for the assembly of a full quilt. After all, contributions from a collective can prove to 'speed' up the completion of a crazy quilt project.

Immense pleasure can be found working alone on a crazy quilt project, indeed, but, maybe there's a special occasion coming up. Gifting with a crazy quilt, by a group of friends, could prove an interesting surprise. Use of teamwork in personal or professional settings, has proven to provide benefits on quick completion of a project. In following this example, a group could have a full size crazy quilt as a gift in a short time.

The idea of creating your own quilting circle, can be quite useful towards providing a handcrafted one-of-a-kind gift, for any special occasion, civic or alternative holiday. Who says we can't start our own tradition for a holiday? Suggestions for new traditions is always an option for friends and family. A visit to your local library and research into non-traditional holiday alamanac's, may prove to be a fun group activity.

Setting up your own crazy quilt circle could also be useful for fundraising activities. A beautiful crazy quilt, can be quite an attractive and popular item for auction. Donating the quilt to a charity or non-profit, to raffle or auction off, can be a rewarding experience. Raising awareness of your skill may draw attention and too many requests, so thoughtful and shrewd consideration may be required, so not to be taken advantage or over worked.

The design of your crazy quilt can be a group decision. Share and exchange ideas for, choice of colors, design ideas, size, length, number of blocks per person, purpose of creating the quilt. Let the event, holiday or tradition be your guide to follow, but let everybody's personal creativity flow, for each quilt block. Once the blocks are brought together, layout of the blocks can also be a group decision or left to one, to produce the finished quilt. Once complete, it will be a surprise for the whole group.

Gathering a small circle of friends, into an informal quilting circle, can be a great activity for producing a crazy quilt. A step further may include setting up a Crazy quilt guild which is a somewhat more formalized group. This could be set up as a non-profit organization with memberships. Cash donations may be gathered for hosting classes, advertising, galleries, raffles, educational resources, and their own shows.

A quilting circle can be a formal or informal group but the goal of enjoying the creation of quilts remains true. Discussing a long term vision of your existing group would be best to explore the possibility and next step of action to consider. For now, enjoy your immediate quilting circle and have fun with your project.

Learning in Motion 

Extra Reading

Establishing a Quilting Guild

Quilting Daily Forum

Quilt Guilds 

International Quilt Festival -Facebook

I hope you found this article informative. Please feel free to leave your comments, share your own observations, share with others who may be interested. Send a Email if you would like to place a Order today or to say, Hello! I hope you visit again.

Article (C) 2014, all rights reserved. Gin G. creates and posts articles online about Crazy Quilts, business development, second income idea's. Gin G. Is a graduate in business development, Nursing, and passionate about arts and crafts.

Holiday Gifts Crazy Quilt Wall hanging

The Christmas holidays are upon us and ideas galore swim through our minds. Some gifts are easy to choose for friends and/or family whereas ideas for others may leave us stumped and we wander through store after store trying to get inspired.

One gift idea can be giving a handmade home decoration such as a Crazy quilt wall hanging. Now why choose this? Home decorating can be fun for everybody but will depend on personal taste and styles. One has to like color, details and whimsy since a crazy quilt encompasses these qualities.

The days of yore with castles and monarchies, wall hangings and tapestries, of all sizes, were used for decorative purposes. Royalty, monasteries, nobility, wealthy merchants and farmers were the main patrons of fiber artists to provide these decorative pieces for their homes therefore were quite splendid and beautiful. These wall hangings and tapestries also sharpened the acoustics of a room. This particular piece of home decoration slowly diminished over time changing fiber crafts into industries.

A crazy quilt wall hanging can be made in various sizes, colors and embellished with embroidery, ribbons, beads, buttons, lace, charms, and assorted embroidered designs. Fabrics can range from simple cottons to expensive silk, satin, velvet and brocade. It’s the finished product that will provide the visual delight, interesting topic of conversation, become a art collection, and one-of-a-kind showcase gift.

Crazy quilt wall hangings are gaining popularity amongst art collectors due to the skill and labor involved in the creation not to mention, no two quilts are the same. We can give three colors of fabric to three individuals and each will piece it together with their own distinct style and therein lies the beauty of a crazy quilt.

A crazy quilt wall hanging can be found online with a search query. Numerous quilting guilds can also be found online and in our telephone books. It’s considered a textile and/or fiber art and can be a collector’s item. As I mentioned before regarding choice, it’s best to choose one for somebody who can appreciate something beautiful and unusual. I wish you a Merry Christmas, safe and Happy New Year!

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Strategies to Sell Handmade Crafts

Blogs

Artists of all ages and diverse skills in creating handcrafted gifts can be found online in great numbers. Do you stop to look at the number of results, located under the search bar, after you typed in your query? Monitoring this number helps writers online with tailoring their articles with keywords for a better and competitive search engine results page (SERP). After all, who doesn't want to land on the first page of a search?

The next time you blog, use the search bar to find the result numbers for that search term (your title). Other methods include using a keyword search tool. The point is to keep an eye on the numbers for the keywords. We don't want to compete for a search query that has 3.5 million other sites using the same ones.

Shipping and Handling plus Insurance

I am sure we are all familiar with shipping and handling fee's that arise. Selling handmade crafts online requires paying attention to the cost of shipping our products which is usually done by weight. Ensuring against theft or damage requires adding insurance which will change the over all price of our products. Enquire at your local Post office, UPS and FedEx offices or online and get a copy of their prices. Work on calculating your numbers to ensure you can integrate a reasonable and fair price to earn a profit yet also cover this expenditure.

Direct Selling Methods

Art Shows, Fairs, Exhibitions, Flea markets, Craft Bazaars - offers you the opportunity for direct contact with customers. Costs will vary and have rental fee's for booth, table, commission, registration fees as well as indirect costs of travel, hotel, and gas. Bring lower priced craft gifts for extra sales. Hold a Draw at such 'n such time for attention to your booth (yes, worked for me!) Success can and is, found in using this method of selling handcrafted products. Ensure you have a budget in place to start this route.

Street Vendor - a few cities offer Vendor permits and locations for Vendors to sell to the public. You will need your own display supplies and props, patience and friendly presence. These permits can be found usually at your Town hall.

Home Party - advertise to the public, send invitations with a +1,2, and host a Gift party at your home (or others) to display and sell your products. Dress and act professional as this is a business affair for you. Include a contest or draw and use extra gifts for surprise prizes. Bring along smaller gifts with lower price to entice further sales. Always include your business card for prospective future contact.

Consignment - offer to let a store display and sell your product. This will require a contract with terms to protect you and the store and recommend visiting a lawyer for assistance. The store will display your product and upon purchase by a customer, monies owing to you are given and the store, get their own commission. General practice is the store will add an additional percentage on top of your asking price but practices may vary.

Payment Options - offering payment options is good for any business. Offer to rent, rent-to-own or layaway. Use a contract to ensure terms for all parties are included and recommend legal advice from a qualified lawyer. Provide this contract online for free download and snail mailed (regular postal service) to you.

Indirect Selling Methods

Blog - a Web log maintained by a writer usually to share and bring attention to their handcrafted products. It's important to learn about search engine result page (SERP), search engine optimization (SEO), generating traffic, social networking, linking and available web tools, like Google Analytics (FREE) to monitor your traffic. Learning these skills will help get your blog and YOU, noticed.

E-commerce store - there are quite a few good ecommerce sites online that are free but may include advertising until you upgrade your account. Prices will vary so ensure you find one within your budget. These sites will allow for displays, have a shopping cart, a blog, be part of a shopping mall, allow to include forums. Explore the available sites and their options. I would recommend one that requires annual fee's rather than monthly.

Social Networking - building contacts with people in related industries but not competing with you. Quilt wallhangings may be considered by Interior designers, bath products by spa providers, jewellery with costume designers and the list goes on. Make a list and brainstorm with friends, family, co-workers and even your Yellow Pages telephone book. Once you have a list then go online and look in directories, bookmark sites, and all available social network sites to again, get noticed.

I am sure there are many other ideas and I've only scratched the surface. Promoting aka marketing strategies is part of the process in running a business even if only part time. Selling handmade crafts is a $14B industry and helps many people offset and maintain their costs of living. I hope I've provided some inspiration in developing your own craft business.

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