New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop ~ Day 2!

Welcome to day 2 of the New Quilt Blogger Blog Hop Hosted by Plum & June! Thank you so much for following our hop!

My name is Marcia, and I appreciate you taking the time to stop by my blog, Cozy Capatiller. The blog name came about b/c a few years ago I started clowning and my clown name is Flutterby… So I kind of like the whole branding thing and it just fit my style anyway. When I was a little girl, on my report card every quarter, the teachers would all comment on how I am a “social butterfly”. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized that my teachers were actually trying to politely tell my parents that I talked too much! HA! You can learn more about my clowning and other ventures on my About Me tab...


My wife and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary this Thanksgiving! Abbi is by far the most supportive person on the planet! She makes me a better person just by having her in my life. We love sports and we love to travel! And we deeply love our fur babies, Nyagwai’ and Ranger… Sadly, we lost Nyagwai’ to a heart attack just a few weeks ago while we were on our most recent vacation. I am sure he is playing with many new friends while he waits for us at the Rainbow Bridge…

Nyagwai’

Ranger

I am new to blogging, but I am also a new quilter! I started my blog in April this year ~ but I only began quilting in October of 2013! As most quilters know, once you start, you either love it or you don’t. If you love it, you develop this deep addiction that others who don’t quilt just don’t understand! Honestly though, don’t you just love taking some fabulous fabric, chopping it up, and creating amazing pieces of “usable art”!? That was my best compliment to date! A friend who received the first quilt I made on commission told me that they think it is “a wonderful piece of usable art”! I call this quilt “Running Through My Mind”.



I took many months making a quilt for my mom, Linda. It’s the first queen/king sized quilt I made! Let me tell you, it was quite a challenge! It may be a while before I try to make one this big again! Just the size of it – but I did the whole thing myself, I even quilted it on my domestic machine – a Viking Opal 670. I call this one “Lilies For Linda”.



Last month I entered my first ever quilt challenge – the Modern-Traditional Mini Quilt Challenge. So this quilt is my first ever challenge quilt AND my first ever mini quilt – measuring just 20” x 20”. I call it “Down the Dresden Trail”.



For more information on all of these projects – and several other completed works, please visit my Show & Share page.

I may be a new blogger myself – but I have been reading blogs on and off for many years! I suggest to all bloggers, especially b/c our world is becoming so highly digital and mobile, that you all check the mobile settings for your own blog! I write most of my blogs at a desktop computer, however, I read blogs while on the go! Which means I am either reading your blog posts via a tablet or a cell phone. You would be surprised how many blogs I come across that do not have a mobile view set up and if they do, the pages just don’t load properly. Many don’t have a header at all! So this is my blogging tip to you today – go and check the layout of your blog’s mobile view… Mobile readers, like me, would GREATLY appreciate it! The best mobile layout shows your posts in a very short preview format instead of making your mobile readers do lots of scrolling to find your posts. Think of your blog like a book and give your mobile readers a "table of contents" view to select from! The less scrolling the better, and it makes your mobile view load faster too (and this will make mobile readers adore you)!

I want to share a quilting tip also, but it sort of feels funny for me to share one b/c I have only been quilting for about 8 months myself… I have learned SO MANY things that it is really hard to pick one to share. But I am actually surprised at the number of quilters who do not label their finished work. So if I have to pick one tip, it is a reminder to label your quilts! There are tons of labels, from hand written, to embroidered, and then there are ones like mine that are printed on fabric using a printer! They can be very basic to very extravagant… But pick one that suits your style, and start labeling your work! I wrote a blog just the other day (QR Codes = Everlasting Life) about my label ~ well, more specifically, the QR Code I use on my printed labels… Check it out! Maybe it’s something you’d like to do as well!

I would love to hear either a blogging tip or a quilting tip from all of you! Please share! I am one of those who believes that the day we stop learning is the day we stop living… So what tip do you think every new quilter / blogger should know? What was the best tip you got when you first started?

I want you all to continue on your way to visit my other fellow blog-hop spots. These sites are all great and they will have more tips to share with all of you – but before you go… I wanted to share one more fun fact about myself! I know I mentioned above that we LOVE to travel! Well, in the past 5 years, we have been to more than 20 countries across 3 continents! Some of our favorites have been: The Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, and Spain. When I proposed to my wife, I said “I can’t give you the world, but I can show you the world.” All of this travel is me making good on my promise! Our next trip will take us back to South America and we will get to travel through the Panama Canal! We can’t wait!

Now, go! Go forth and visit these other fabulous blogs:

Jill ~ Pie Lady Quilts	Jennifer ~ Never Just Jennifer
Chelsea ~ Patch The Giraffe	Alice ~ Blossom Quilts
Daisy ~ Ants To Sugar	Megan ~ Sew Stitching Cute
Rachael ~ The Floral Suitcase	Stephanie ~ Late Night Quilter
Elizabeth ~ And Pins	Kelsey ~ Lovely And Enough

Until next time my quilty friend ~ PIECE!

Marcia }|{