Introduction to Social Media: Pinterest

Pinterest is perhaps one of the most versatile social media sites on the web.  Basically an online bulletin board, Pinterest allows users to catalog and file objects from other web sites so they can be found later.  Created in 2010, by May, 2015 Pinterest boasted 72.8 million users from all over the world, 85% of whom are women.  It is estimated that 42% of American women use Pinterest.  Over 1 billion Pinterest boards have been created containing more than 50 billion Pinterest pins.  Pinterest is available from your desktop/laptop computer, and has had an app for your mobile device since early 2011.  Pinterest is truly a social media phenomenon.

Pinterest login screen

You can create your Pinterest account using your email address, or your Facebook account.  Choose a password, and you can get started "pinning" the things that interest you on the web.

Pinterest boards

Once you open your Pinterest account, you can catalog your interests by creating "Boards."  Each board holds photos related to various topics that interest you.  You give the boards their names, and you control the content you pin.  Notice that my first board is "abby-girl and baby britton."  This is my board relating to my grandchildren - things I want to make for them and things I want to do for them - even photos of them I found on the net. 

The individual pins in a Pinterest board

This is my board called "Bags and Totes."  This is the board where I pin bags and totes I might want to make one day, or bags that I might use for inspiration for my own creations. 

Individual pin with link to specific website

When you click the individual pin, it takes you to that particular photo.  The best part about the pin is that it also saves the information from the particular website so that you can find your way back to the specific post.  So, if I wanted to make this wallet, by clicking on the pin I could find my way back to the tutorial post.

Pinterest home page

 Once you have created your Pinterest account, your home page will show you random pictures posted by others....

Pinterest followers page

But as you begin creating social links with others on Pinterest - following other pinners and having others follow you - you will begin seeing things posted by the people you follow, which is bound to show you others' pins that reflect your interests....

Pinterest search - "modern quilts"

and if it doesn't, use the search feature in the upper left corner to search for things that interest you.  Here, I have searched for "modern quilts."  The search result will be objects that others have tagged as modern quilts or posted to modern quilts boards.
 

Individual pin with "Follow Board" link in the upper right corner

 When you click on an individual pin, in addition to the website information located at the bottom of the photo, along the side you may see one or more boards the pin has been pinned to.  Like what you see?  Click the "Follow Board" link.  Now, everything that person pins to their board will come up in your feed, and you will be able to see everything they pin on that board.

Sometimes you may want to share a board with someone else.  In this case, a few of us share a board called "Modern QOV Ideas."  This is a place to pin ideas and inspiration for Quilts of Valor.  Owners of a board may invite others to pin to the board so they can share the inspiration they find relating to a specific topic. 

Pinterest even has a handy PinIt button you can add to your task bar to make it easy to pin as you are surfing the web.  So, why not get started? 

One word of caution:  Pinterest can be habit-forming!

Introduction to Social Media: Flickr and Big Huge Labs

According to the Modern Quilt Guild website, "The growth of the [modern quilting] movement was facilitated by four factors: the cultural shift of quality design being recognized by the general public, affordable digital cameras, the changing fabric industry and the rise of social media."  These four factors are the foundation of the Modern Quilt Movement.  The Modern Quilt Guild article continues, "The Flickr group Fresh Modern Quilts, established in 2008, provided the first online centralized social media venue for quilters in the movement. With that Flickr group and many active blogs, the online world of modern quilting took off like wildfire."

Started in 2004, Flickr was the original online digital photo hosting and sharing program.  Flickr provides up to 1,000GB of storage per user.  In addition, people could post their photos in an online format where others could see them. 

Flickr also had the capability of fostering an online community, allowing people to comment on others' photos and file their favorites away for later viewing and inspiration.  Accordingly, the online community format fostered the building of online relationships and people began to form groups based on their interests.  For the crafts and quilting communities, Flickr was the perfect venue for facilitating online bees and swaps.  According to Wikipedia, in March, 2013, Flickr boasted more than 87 million members who upload more than 3.5 million photos each day.

Unfortunately, in the summer of 2013, Flickr's focus seemed to move away from the idea of community to a more photo-centric ideal.  Rather than present photos in a web-friendly format, as it had done from its inception, Flickr presented digital photos in their full resolution.  This caused several issues for users - slow uploads, an increase in data usage, and an increase in cost for those who paid for their internet service by the amount of data they used.  In addition, to focus on photographs, Flickr minimized the comments features and made them harder to use, which impacted users negatively.  At the same time, Instagram was becoming more popular and many Flickr users shifted to Instagram to avoid some of the new difficulties with Flickr.

Flickr Fresh Modern Quilts Group Home Page

In its heyday, as Flickr users formed online relationships and gravitated to the kinds of photos they enjoyed, they formed groups based on their interests.  As mentioned in the MQG quote above, the Fresh Modern Quilts group shown in the above screen shot was instrumental in fostering the Modern Quilting movement.

ECMQG Flickr Photo Pool

Creating a Flickr account is easy.  If you already have a Yahoo account, all you need to do is sign in to Flickr - your Yahoo sign on and password work with Flickr as well.  If you don't have a Yahoo account, simply go to www.Flickr.com and click the Sign Up button at the top of the page.  Complete the information requested on the form and voila! - you're a Flickr member.  Click the upload button and begin uploading your own photos to Flickr.  You will certainly want to join the ECMQG Flickr Group!

Flickr Fresh Modern Quilts - Group Photo Pool

In the various groups, members could upload their own photos and see the photos posted by others in the group.  Group moderators could also monitor the photos uploaded to make sure they were appropriate to the group's aesthetic.  In addition, group moderators could invite the owners of photos to post them in the group if they felt photos met the criteria.  Moreover, other Flickr members could "like" and "favorite" photos, as well as make comments.  These features created a sense of community as members from all over the world got to know one another through both their photos and comments.

My most recent Flickr favorites

Because you could "favorite" (or "fave") photos you liked on Flickr, you could take those same photos and create mosaics and galleries of pictures you found inspirational.  This feature was often used for swaps to tell others what kinds of things you might like to have made for you.  In fact, some swaps required a mosaic in order to enter the swap.

My most recent inspiration mosaic

One helpful online tool for creating photo mosaics is www.bighugelabs.com.  While they have many photo tools available, their mosaic maker tool was a vital part of Flickr photo sharing.  It is versatile and easy to use.  By selecting various options, you can create a mosaic using up to 36 different images either from the photos on your computer, from Facebook, or from your Flickr photos or your Flickr favorites.  Big Huge Labs offers several different formats for presenting your mosaics as well.

BHL Choice Screen

Again, creating a BHL account is easy!  You can sign up with your email address, Google or Facebook.  Once you have an account, link to Flickr or Facebook and creating mosaics is a matter of choosing your photos and clicking "Create".

While the social media platform may have changed, social media is still essential to the Modern Quilting movement.  Online sharing and inspiration from people all over the world is a vital part of modern quilting.

Introducing Modern Designers - Tula Pink - A Fabric Swap

One of our goals as a guild is to introduce our members to the fabrics and inspiration of modern designers.  No discussion of modern designers would be complete without including Tula Pink!  Tula has almost a cult following of #tulatroops with over 12,000 posts on Instagram who love, use, swap, and collect her fabrics, recreate her designs, and adore all things Tula.  The #tulapink hashtag has more than 20,000 photos on IG. Tula's designs are unique, bold, and whimsical.  Her early fabric lines are much in demand and should you find such out-of-print fabrics, they might sell for as much as $150 per yard.

The signature print in Tula's new Elizabeth line.

Tula Pink describes herself as "an illustrator, a fabric designer, a quilter, an author, a maker, and a generally good person" who took the fabric industry by storm in 2007 with her first line, Full Moon Forest.  Her 12th fabric line, Elizabeth, has just recently come on the market, as has her rendition of True Colors, a designer series done by various Free Spirit designers (including Anna Maria Horner, Joel Dewberry and others).

A needlebook made with Tula Pink's Prince Charming fabric.

We will swap modern fat eighths of fabrics by Tula Pink at our June meeting.  You still have time to purchase your fabrics and participate in the swap.  A limited selection of Tula Pink fabrics are available locally at A&E or you may wish to purchase your fabrics online.

Instructions for cutting modern fat eighths are below:

What is a Fat Eighth?
A fat eighth (FE or F8) is one eighth of a yard of fabric, or a yard of fabric cut into eight equal pieces. Traditionally, this long narrow cut from the fold line to the selvage, resulted in 8 strips measuring 4-1/2" x 44".  


Like the Fat Quarter, quilters changed the cutting dimensions of of that same yard of fabric to be both longer and wider by doubling the width and halving the length and ended up with a piece 9" x 22", and called it a Fat Eighth.  A fat eighth has so many more possibilities for quilting than a long, skinny 1/8 yard piece. 


Modern quilters still found this cut too confining, and realized by changing the cutting dimensions yet again, shorter fatter pieces were even more user friendly.   This newer cut, still a FE or F8, and hugely popular with modern quilters is sized at 11" x 18" or 10.5" x 18" (after selvages are removed).
  
The Rules

If you wish to participate, here is what you need to do:

1.  Purchase one yard of any Tula Pink printed quilting cotton fabric.   Some possible sources for your fabric might be:

A&E Pharmacy in Pensacola, or online from Hawthorne Threads, Fat Quarter Shop,  Fabric dot com, Intrepid Thread and Fabricworm.

Be sure to buy 100% cotton quilting fabric.  This is not a swap for velveteen, flannel, corduroy, voile, laminate, home decorator, or other fabric types.

2 - You may swap up to three yards of fabric (minimum of 1 yard each of 3 different designs).

3.  Cut your fabric using the tutorial below.

4.  Place your cut fabric in a zip top bag labeled with your name.  To make it easy for our swap team, each fat eighth of fabric should be folded individually.  If you are swapping more than 1 yard, place each SEPARATE yard in a labeled zip top bag.

5.  Leave your labeled bag(s) on the designated swap table at the meeting.

6.  Your fabric(s) will be sorted and separated by groups.  At the conclusion of our meeting, drop by the swap table and pick up your beautiful bundle(s) of modern designer fabric.

7.  We won't have a variety of prints if everyone purchases and brings the same fabric.  Please utilize our Facebook page to let us know what fabric(s) you've selected.  With the number of participants we are anticipating, it should be okay to have no more than two or three people bring the same print.




Cutting Modern Fat Eighths

1.  Press your fabric to remove the center crease.  Do not remove the selvages.

2.  Using your rotary cutter, cut your fabric lengthwise through the center.  You now have two pieces, measuring approximately 22" x 36".

3.  Cut each 22" x 36" piece in half again lengthwise.  This gives you four pieces, each measuring 11" x 36"

4.  Cut each 11" x 36" piece in half crosswise.  This gives you eight pieces, each measuring 11" x 18".  A modern fat eighth.

(Note that the width of the fabric may vary, which may make your F8 somewhat less than 11"; if you cut your fabric width into equal quarters, it will be close enough.)

As always, if you have questions regarding the swap or this tutorial, you can email me at wendimihalik at yahoo dot com.

June 2015 - Block Lottery Wonky ROYGBIV 12.5" Log Cabin

Welcome!

Susan and I are back on track for providing all of the details needed to participate in our June block lottery.  May was crazy to say the least!

This month's design and colors were chosen for all of you who've been asking for wonky (you know who you are) and all of you who love color order (you know who you are).  We aim to please!  Also, we wanted to make sure you could utilize really cool scraps or cut into some of your favorite stashed fabrics.

June's block is a wonky, ROYGBIV 12.5" log cabin (ROYGBIV = Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet).  Made with fun, modern prints, and a couple of solids thrown in for good measure, these will be beautiful blocks!

As usual, the rules remain the same (you can find them here) - quality fabrics, modern prints, solid block construction, and sewing skills (starch is your friend). 

The tutorials I liked, and referenced frequently as I sorted scraps, sliced fabric, and sewed, are from Made by ChrissieD and Quilt Dad.  You can find them here and here.  Both are excellent.

I began my block with a red center and built a ROYGBIV house.  

You can start with a yellow center, where YGBIVRO would be the color progression.  If you center is aqua, your color progression would be BIVROYG. 

It doesn't matter which color you choose for your center, as long as you stay in rainbow order, working from the middle to the outside edge.  Once again, lots and lots of options for playing and creating!

As someone who doesn't do wonky or improv easily, I found I had to totally resist the lure to square-up after each addition.  You may laugh at that statement, but try it, and tell me what you think.

Happy piecing!  The only limit here is your imagination.

Elaine 

May 2015 Meeting Overview and June 2015 Meeting Location Information

Hello Everyone,

We had a very fun and busy meeting on May 9th.  We celebrated Mother's Day in the style of High Tea and over-the-top hats, and we sang Happy Birthday to the May birthday ladies - Karol, Natalie, and Gina.  Modern Minutes included a discussion, fabric samples, and a flier about Modern Low Volume Fabrics.

Elaine and Susan, your Block Lottery Committee, held the drawings for both April's and May's blocks.  Natalie won April's Modern Log Cabins.  

Cricket won the pile of Dutchman Puzzle blocks we made for May.

June's block is a wonky ROYGBIV log cabin.  (Instructions will be available soon.)

Because Nona was the lone participant for the needlebook swap, we decided to postpone it for another to-be-determined date.

We are swapping very cool fabric in June.  Tula Pink is the designer of choice.   Please bring your swap fabrics all cut, folded, and in labeled zip-top bags to our next meeting.  Instructions for cutting and folding can be found here.  Please add a photo to our facebook group's Tula Pink album here.  Make sure to click the button in the top left 'Add Photos'.

The guild is working hard on making blocks for the Fisher House charity quilt, the block design is the Dutchman's Puzzle using fabrics representing the emerald coast and has been named 'Birds on the Beach.  For more information or to help our charity committee please email emeraldcoastmqg @ gmail.com with 'Fisher House' in the subject line.

Our next meeting will be held at the Pensacola Library 239 N Spring Street, on June 13th and during that meeting we will have a hands on Social Media Class. So bring you cell phones, tablets and lap tops so you can get in the know :)
The meeting will start at 10:30 and we will have a lunch and then free sew until 3:30.

For directions see here   Thanks Donna!  If anyone needs to catch a ride or would like to help with car pool details, please email the guild or do a shout out on facebook.

Meeting minutes can be found here.

Happy quilting,
Kira Bell
President ECMQG 2015

QuiltCon 2016 - Michael Miller Fabric Challenge

For all of our members, this is the newest fabric challenge from the MQG.  Please note the dates.  Notifications and sign-ups begin tomorrow, Saturday, May 9th.  Good luck and make beautiful things!  

Michael Miller Fabric Challenge — QuiltCon 2016

Posted on April 29, 2015 by themodernquiltguild

Michael Miller Glitz Fabric Challenge at QuiltCon 2016

Hold on to your sewing machines, because the fabric for the next QuiltCon Michael Miller Fabric Challenge is here!  And we’re excited to unveil these fantastic metallic prints from Michael Miller’s Glitz collection.

This year’s fabrics include 12 glamorous prints from Michael Miller, and each participant will receive six fat eighths at random.  Like previous fabric challenges, we have many more members than available fabric bundles…  We wish everyone could get one, but the bundles are first come, first serve.  That said, we ask that everyone who signs up to please plan to submit the final quilt to the Fabric Challenge category at QuiltCon — like other categories, this category is eligible for judging and awards up to $1,000!

To be eligible, quilts must primarily use the fabrics above, but additional coordinating Michael Miller solids are permitted.  Once completed, these quilts will be entered it into the Michael Miller Fabric Challenge category at QuiltCon.  The top prize for this category is $1,000!

The registration link will be sent to members via email on May 9th at 10 a.m. Eastern time, 7 a.m. Pacific.  To make things easy, here’s a handy time converter so you’ll know exactly when the link will be available to you.  Registration is open until all fabric bundles are gone or until May 23.  Bundles go quickly, so if you’re sure you want to enter, don’t wait! (However, if you’re not ready to commit, remember that you don’t have to get the free fabric to be involved – all you have to do is use the fabrics above in your quilt.)

All fabric will be shipped by mid-July, and the deadline for entries is November 30, 2015 (the same as other QuiltCon quilt show entries).

For more info, visit the Michael Miller Fabric Challenge page at quiltconwest.com.  

See You Saturday!

Greetings all ECMQG Members & Friends!

We have another great day planned for you!  Our monthly meeting will be held on Saturday, May 9, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the First Baptist Church in Crestview.

Our luncheon theme will be High Tea in honor of Mother's Day.  Typically finger foods, small dainty foods, or small bites are served at High Tea.  Several people have already signed up via Facebook with such items as smoked salmon sandwiches, lemon tea cake, lemon curd, cucumber sandwiches, etc.  Please bring something to share for lunch.  I've also heard a rumor that very large hats might be worn in honor of the occasion!

The ECMQG Board and Committee Chairs have been hard at work and we have a very dynamic meeting planned.  Agenda items include:

• The Needlebook Swap - there's still time to make one to swap!
• Demonstration on the quick accurate sewing of Flying Geese
• What is a "low volume" fabric and the difference between a low volume traditional fabric and a low volume modern fabric
• Block Lottery for April Drawing - Modern Log Cabin
• Block Lottery for May Drawing - Dutchman's Puzzle
• Block Lottery for June reveal and directions
• Tula Pink MF8 Swap information and directions for JUNE 
• The Fisher House Charity quilt - information, directions for sewing blocks
• The Chautauqua Quilt Show in February 2016 - information
• St. Simons on the Sound Craft Fair 2015 - information
• News from the Modern Quilt Guild

After the meeting, we will enjoy good food and sewing time together at Sew Day.  If you plan to stay and sew please remember to bring a long extension cord.

We look forward to seeing everyone!

Natalie VanRandwyk

ECMQG Vice President

With a Little Help From My Friends

To borrow the lyrics from that famous song by the Beatles, this month's block lottery post would not be possible without   "... a little help from my friends."

Why?  Because like all good plans, this great life we live with it's opportunities, events, and circumstances, converge, seemingly at once, to shake things up and keep us on our toes.

Faye's practice block.    

The Plan v Opportunity 
The plan, hatched during our November meeting and election, was to have a Block Lottery Committee (Volunteers!  Thank you very much ladies!!) work together to have ideas, samples, tutorials, etc. for each meeting as well as the blog.  

They chose months.  They had a schedule.  We were off to a great start until opportunity knocked and Yvonne had to withdraw.  Exciting times for Pensacola and the modern quilting community!

A block from Laraine.

The Plan v Events
Our remaining committee members, Susan and Elaine, had a plan.  There's that word again.  Ha!  

As Susan told us during our impromptu meeting/lunch break at A&E, she had the block idea, only she needed sleep (That's what staying up sewing the EOD Silent Auction quilt the night before with Mandy will do to you - make you sleep deprived.) and requested a little grace period to make a sample and post the tutorial information.  Not a problem.  

However, when your dream house suddenly reappears on the market, after you've been looking awhile and after being outbid several times, you act quickly, hoping all of the stars align favorably.  They did.  Susan (and husband Chris) became homeowners - yay! - with a big beautiful new sewing space. 

So...

Bobbi's block.

The Plan v Circumstances
The next part of the plan, meant Elaine would run with Susan's idea, make the sample block, write the blog post, etc.  All good and well with the exception of discovering your attic is infested with endangered honeybees, you have a good-sized tree that's ready to topple onto your fence (or worse), and horribly strong thunderstorms tear through the area leaving you without power. 

Honeybee removal at Elaine's.

The day you'd planned to work on guild stuff.  So...

With A Little Help From My Friends
Elaine made phone calls.  Cindy agreed to help sew, write, and post.  That was the new and final plan.  Once again, ha!  

Friends, fabric, & caffeine.

Before Cindy could begin, Bobbi, having a small window of time available for sewing, asked the question in our fb group, "Can anyone remember what the May block is supposed to be?"  

Cricket's April (top) and May (bottom) lottery blocks.

Many, many thanks to each of you who contributed to the conversation that made for an enjoyable, cooperative, online quilting community this past Sunday  - Cricket (research, quilty math, block testing, pictures, blog writing); Elaine, Faye, Becky, and Natalie (links for tutorials and/or pictures); and Laraine, Cricket, Bobbi, and Cindy (block testing, pictures, and/or blog writing).  Without further delay, here is the plan.  

The.Final.Plan
We chose the classic Dutchman's Puzzle for the lottery block, made from flying geese, which tie in perfectly with our planned (there's that word again!) May program and Fisher House 2015 Charity Quilt. 

To participate in the block lottery, please review these guidelines. 

There are many, many ways to make flying geese.  Becky's round-up of methods can be found here; you can see Elaine's inspiration from Caroline of SewCanShe here; and the link Cricket used to figure the quilty math is here.  Choose a method that works for you.  Natalie decided to draft a paper pieced flying goose!

The color palette is scrappy and low volume.  Please use low volume fabrics for sky - all one print or mixed prints, again based on the method chosen - and two colors for the geese.  

One set of geese (4) should be darker; one set of geese (4) should be lighter.  Mix the color families - as in dark blue and pink - or keep them the same - as in teal and aqua.  A pinwheel pattern should emerge from the center set of geese.  

Second block from Bobbi.

Each goose unit measures 3.5" x 6.5".  Sewn with a scant quarter inch seam, your block, once all units are together, should measure 12.5".

The pictures in this post were made from the  Connecting Threads tutorial Cricket found.  Her quilty math requires two 9" x 9" sky fabrics, and two 7.5" x 7.5" geese fabrics for each Dutchman's Puzzle block.  

Thank you for your patience.   We plan (ha!) to be on track with a new block for the month of June, including samples for your viewing pleasure, at the meeting.  See you Saturday, May 9th!

Your Block Lottery Committee (and friends) -  
Elaine and Susan, Becky, Bobbi, Cindy, Cricket, Faye, Laraine, and Natalie

***All persons/guild members have approved the information in this blog post - ECMQG President Kira Bell***

MQG 2015 Fabric Challenge

Early this year, January 20, 2015 to be exact, the MQG announced the year's first fabric challenge, once again, generously sponsored by Riley Blake Designs.

THE MODERN QUILT GUILDMembers Only Newsletter 2015 Fabric Challenge!

If you were one of the lucky MQG members to sign up (in the eight hour window before all of the spots filled), you received a fat eighth bundle of six fabrics from designer Amanda Herring's The Cottage Garden collection.


The genesis behind The Quilted Fish, Amanda is, in her own words "a mom, wife, pattern designer, fabric designer, entrepreneur and all-around fun person.  I started The Quilted Fish in 2008 and it has been an amazing creative journey for me."

So what is the challenge?

• Make something fantastic that is quilted.
• Make something you've never done before.
• Challenge yourself to try something new.
• Use only Riley Blake The Cottage Garden fabrics in the aqua and gray colorway and any coordinating Riley Blake basics for solids.
• The challenge period is from March through July.
• Take pictures and upload them to the community page on the MQG website.
• Tag all of your photos on Instagram or Facebook with #mqgfabricchallenge.

If you did not receive fabric, you can still participate by purchasing these same six fabrics from your favorite local brick and mortar quilt shop or online retailer. 

We expect to see some fabulous quilted items during the guild reveal which is our August meeting.

Scrappy Needlebook Swap

Our next guild swap will be a Needlebook Swap.  

The internet is bursting with fun ideas for needlebooks.  Find one you like (or think up your own!), make it, and bring it to the May meeting in a brown paper bag.  This is a bring-one-take-one swap.  No names.  No partners.  Your book in a bag.  

Here is a link and a Pinterest page full of inspiration.  Please remember our aesthetic is ALWAYS MODERN.

And just a "HINT" - our June swap will be fabric from the incomparable modern quilter and fabric designer Tula Pink.  (Tula Pink's long out-of-print and hard-to-find Prince Charming fabric is shown above.)