Where do the quilters hang out?

January 12, 2008 2:42 PM

What are the preeminent online resources for quilters?

I have little knowledge of or interest in quilting. (So there.) I'm setting up a PC for my mother, who has little knowledge of or interest in computers. But, as we live a continent apart, I'm hoping to get her to use it as a way to connect our very different lives a little more deeply - trading emails and family photos, keeping up with my online journal, etc.

So to encourage her to use the thing and thus be able to take advantage of all that stuff, I'm trying to tie it into what she is interested in - quilting. So I thought I'd preload her browser with bookmarks for some good quilting related sites and maybe set up accounts for her at a forum or two (though I don't want to overwhelm her) and provide her with an easy entree into the online quilting community I'm sure must be out there.

So can any quilters suggest their two or three favorite places for patterns and whatever, and a couple of well trafficked forums with a lot of interesting discussions she'll hopefully be drawn into?

posted by Naberius to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

I'm not a quilter, but a site like this might serve as a good place to start your search: tagurls.com on "quilt".
posted by lubujackson at 3:27 PM on January 12, 2008

e-Quilter has a good forum, and they give 2% of their revenue to charity.
posted by kimdog at 3:40 PM on January 12, 2008

I highly recommend rec.crafts.textiles.quilting. I haven't been there in a while, but back when I had time to sew the people there were very encouraging and knowledgeable.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:42 PM on January 12, 2008

Quiltshops.com and in particular the quiltshops.com search engine - I use it to find fabric and patterns. You can have the searches show up as thumbnails which is handy when you're trying to find a fabric by a certain manufacturer but don't know the name of the fabric.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 5:19 PM on January 12, 2008

A friend of mine runs quiltindex.com. I don't know if it's preeminent, but it became wildly popular. It's closing as of August 1, 2008, but there is still plenty of information and other resources there.
posted by ewagoner at 6:23 PM on January 12, 2008

For strikingly different quilts that may inspire you to new aesthetic heights of quilting, there's the The Quilters of Gee's Bend.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:22 PM on January 12, 2008

(this is from the wife...I myself have no idea wtf 'embellishments' means)

in a minute ago is a blog by a crazy quilting and embellishments teacher. She always has great tutorials, interesting links, and runs creative challenges. You can find lots of other quilting and needlecraft blogs via her blogroll too.
posted by derMax at 11:23 PM on January 12, 2008

She can buy fabric online, she can enjoy crafty blogs, she can look at photos of quilts on flickr, she can participate in quilt mystery...

Fabric stores:
www.gloriouscolor.com
http://www.sewmamasew.com/
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/

Blogs:
http://quiltingisstillmypassion.blogspot.com/
http://www.quiltersbuzz.com/
http://quiltsatcs.blogspot.com/
http://quiltville.com/carolinacrossroadsmystery.shtml
http://www.purlbee.com/the-purl-bee/
http://materialobsession.typepad.com/material_obsession/
http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/
http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/heather_bailey/

Flickr groups:
quilts and quilting
posted by chickaboo at 1:24 PM on January 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Also forgot to mention huge cache of block patterns and instructions here:

http://www.quilterscache.com/

She could also take online classes at
http://www.quiltuniversity.com
posted by chickaboo at 1:26 PM on January 14, 2008