TAST Newcomers, ask questions here!

[Tahlia]

So I'm thinking that we could benefit from a smaller discussion thread where newcomers to the TAST or StitchinFingers experience can ask for help and veterans can give guidance and advice. This is designed to keep random chatter to a minimum so that questions and answers are easy to find!

[Jules Woolford]

Tahlia, this is a great idea -

I have already had some contact from worried TAST newbies so I will point them in this direction - and will encourage more experienced members I know to visit and pick up threads/help /answer queries.

[Tahlia]

Good point... One thing you could do, then, would be to slip a support structure into the page: a sheet of matteboard, perhaps, or better still a sheet of plastic, like maybe from the side of a milk jug? You'd probably then find it easier to applique the embroidered fabric to the page with a curved needle...

[Sharon Brodeuse]

Hi Tahlia -

First, a big thank you for starting this thread! Well, here are a couple of technical questions:  I am a member of the TAST Newcomer Study Group, led by Debra Spinic, and am unfamiliar with Blogger. I would like to know: 1) How do you "size" your photos to be accepted by Blogger. 2) How do you post a photo, and 3) How do you add tags to your blog post (in Blogger)? 

Tahlia said:

I'm a newcomer to TAST too, but I'm reasonably confident in my computer skills, so can help answer computer-related questions (like "how do I post a photo online?"). And I've been embroidering for awhile, so I can probably help answer stitching related questions too! :) I'm looking forward to the experience and to making a bunch of new stitch friends!

[Julia Welch]

Gina,
I'm really inspired by Sharon's "rolling journal" and by your idea. However, I can't accumulate because I live on a boat and space is such a premium. I think I'm going follow Sharon's suggestion of fabric postcards that I can display for a bit, keep or send.

Happy stichin'!

-julia

[Tahlia]

ADJUSTING A PHOTO SIZE BEFORE UPLOADING

Hi Sharon Brodeuse! in an attempt to answer your questions, I find that the easiest way to resize photos is with the simple image manipulation program that comes resident in my computer software. I am on a Windows system,  so the program I have most readily available is "Paint". In my computer folder, I find the photo that I want and I right-click on the name, then choose "Open with" and choose "Paint". I choose the "Select" tool to select what part of the image I want to preserve (starting in one corner and expanding a rectangle by dragging my mouse to the opposite corner until the rectangle contains what I want it to contain and doesn't contain the background clutter which is my work studio). I then "Crop" to eliminate what lies outside the chosen rectangle, and then I choose "Resize" by "Pixels" and set a total size of 400 pixels or less in the long direction so that my image will be small enough to load fairly quickly over the internet.

 Then *IMPORTANT* I "Save AS" with a new name (like "small crazy quilt progress october 21 2011.jpg") so that I don't clobber my original picture!! In fact, when I am thinking clearly, I **OPEN the image that I want and IMMEDIATELY "save as" a new name** so that I don't forget later! Then I do my adjustments and changes and "save as" again with a new name JUST to be careful! .. I can always go in and compare the images in terms of size and appearance and get rid of duplicates. It's really difficult to get an original image back once you've clobbered it by saving your changes to the original file. (you don't want to ask how many times I made that mistake before I wised up!)

If you are using a different system (e.g. Windows or Linux) or if you have access to different software (e.g. Photoshop (I'm jealous!), or Gimp), the process will be similar, but the tools might have slightly different names, or might be used in a slightly different way. There are some really wonderful online tutorials for just about anything you could think of, though, if you get the request line wording right. ;)

[Nancy Davenport]

I sure could use some help and I think this is a great idea to have a smaller discussion thread, if I can figure out how to do that.

My first question is "What the heck is my Stitchin Fingers address"?  Sharon says I need to have that to sign up for TAST because I don't have a blog of flicr account.

I signed up as a Stitchin Fingers member but there was never a mention of "my stitchen fingers address".

I'm just about at my whits end trying to figure what and how to "link" and "tag" and Stitchen fingers address!!

Please can someone explain all this to me.

Nancy Davenport; [e-mail]

[Tahlia]

UPLOADING A PHOTO TO STITCHIN FINGERS

Choice 1: uploading a photo to a response as you're composing it:

 In the "Reply to discussion" box in which you type your comments, there is a little set of menu buttons, the first is "link" and the second is "image", and the others are useful but off topic. ;) When you want to insert a photo, click the "image" button and a little popup menu will show up, offering you a choice between "from my computer" or "from URL". The photo I want is almost always on my own computer, so I choose "from my computer" and then "Choose file". That pops up a second menu box that allows me to point to the proper folder, just like I would any other time. I select the pre-cropped, pre-sized image that I've already prepared, and "upload" it like this:

(This is a detail of one of my recent CQ blocks)

Option 2: uploading to a photo album in SF

At the top of my page there is a menu bar of choices, including "Photos". I'm guessing here just a little, but I'm pretty sure it'll be at the top of your page too. ;)

Choose "photos", choose "add photo", and a little pop-up window will allow you to locate the photo that you want, similar to the pop-up window in the previous option. Once you've chosen the photos you want and have uploaded them (up to your daily limit, naturally), then there will be some other fields to fill in, like the photo's title and description and "tags". Tags are the index words that allow a person to search for photos to view. So for the little photo I embedded in this message, my tags might be "cq, crazy quilt, detail, coins"

I think that's the basic walk-through... let me know if I've missed something or can help clarify it further!

[Gina]

Nancy, when you log in look for My Page at the top of the page next to Main. Click on that, and it will take you to your "stitchin fingers address". Highlight all of the text in your browser's address bar (it will look like the following):

http://stitchinfingers.ning.com/profile/Gina

except it will have YOUR user name instead of Gina at the end. To highlight the text, click, hold down, and drag your mouse in your browser's address bar from the beginning of the http to the last letter. Then let go of the mouse button. Then if you are on Windows, you can press and hold the Ctrl key and then press the C key, then let up on both of the keys. To paste that text, hold down the Ctrl key again and then press the V key, then let up on both of the keys.

Anytime anyone asks you for your "stitchin fingers address", give them that address by copying and pasting it, or just typing it in.

HTH,

Gina

[Tahlia]

The process for adding photos to Blogger is going to be similar to the process for adding photos within a reply here on SF. If you need me to get more specific, let me know and I'll try to do so. Today my access to the web is limited, but once I'm back home again in a day or two it should be easier. :)

[Nancy Davenport]

Gina and Tahlia,

Thank you for your answers.

I hope I gave Sharon enough by just providing my Stitchin Fingers name and not the link.

Probably when I post comments in the TAST web site I can paste in my Stitchin Fingers page so people can link and see my posts right? 

 

Thanks again sooooo much.  I'm new to all this techy stuff.

Nancy D.

[Sharon Brodeuse]

Thank you so much for the thorough instructions Tahlia! Very much appreciated and very helpful.

Sharon Brodeuse
Tahlia said:

ADJUSTING A PHOTO SIZE BEFORE UPLOADING

Hi Sharon Brodeuse! in an attempt to answer your questions, I find that the easiest way to resize photos is with the simple image manipulation program that comes resident in my computer software. I am on a Windows system,  so the program I have most readily available is "Paint". In my computer folder, I find the photo that I want and I right-click on the name, then choose "Open with" and choose "Paint". I choose the "Select" tool to select what part of the image I want to preserve (starting in one corner and expanding a rectangle by dragging my mouse to the opposite corner until the rectangle contains what I want it to contain and doesn't contain the background clutter which is my work studio). I then "Crop" to eliminate what lies outside the chosen rectangle, and then I choose "Resize" by "Pixels" and set a total size of 400 pixels or less in the long direction so that my image will be small enough to load fairly quickly over the internet.

 Then *IMPORTANT* I "Save AS" with a new name (like "small crazy quilt progress october 21 2011.jpg") so that I don't clobber my original picture!! In fact, when I am thinking clearly, I **OPEN the image that I want and IMMEDIATELY "save as" a new name** so that I don't forget later! Then I do my adjustments and changes and "save as" again with a new name JUST to be careful! .. I can always go in and compare the images in terms of size and appearance and get rid of duplicates. It's really difficult to get an original image back once you've clobbered it by saving your changes to the original file. (you don't want to ask how many times I made that mistake before I wised up!)

If you are using a different system (e.g. Windows or Linux) or if you have access to different software (e.g. Photoshop (I'm jealous!), or Gimp), the process will be similar, but the tools might have slightly different names, or might be used in a slightly different way. There are some really wonderful online tutorials for just about anything you could think of, though, if you get the request line wording right. ;)

[J Patrick]

I'm new to TAST and I'm looking forward in stretching my mind and thinking out of the box. I'm wondering on the cloth book if the fabric would to thick to sew on or do you do your stitches on the cloth then make the book when your done?