Tossing around some ideas for improving stitchin fingers

[sharonb]

Hi all I want to toss around a few ideas for improving the site  and see what people think.

I hope to be able to turn Stitchin fingers into a resource rich site for fiber and textile people and I am interested in members ideas.  

These are a few ideas I have 

A copy of the the stitch dictionary combined with all the TAST and TAST 2010 stitches could be hosted in one spot. It makes sense  to have the resource on site so that people can use it here. 

Start a book review section 

A directory for fiber folks, of annotated links to various resources online such as ebooks, tutorials, blogs, book reviews and information that people find useful. I would annotate each link so unlike many directories it would be created to contain real useful information to members. Links that are purely commerce driven I will not allow. Quality not money is what would get a link listed.  I think if each link is described honestly it will be useful.

On the site I might start playing favourites and highlighting members and their work. I have mixed feelings about this (simply because I don't like playing favourites)  but I think it could be interesting as we have a huge range of really talented, high quality, interesting stuff going on and it is easy to miss if you don't pay attention to the photo feed. 

I would love to reward active members any ideas on ways of making people feel special for their valuable input? This one really has me stumped but apparently NING themselves are working on ideas too. 

On my to do list is to write a few tutorials on how to use the site, so that people who are new to the site don't get quite so lost.

I am not going mad with all options and new stuff and changing everything at once because I think all the bells and whistles in the world, and hyping the site won't make a real community. 

With that in mind I would love feed back on these ideas and love to hear any others ideas, thoughts comments, feel free to add your two cents worth its a community space after all etc  

[sharonb]

Me again excited -
I was thinking about Niki's idea of posting a stitch or concept of the month and thought about when we shared photos of our needlecases here on stitchin fingers. It was so much fun seeing what people used.

While doing the dishes thought we could have all sorts of "post a photo of" type challenges

For instance we could do it for various stitches eg what is the most interesting or attractive way you have used chain stitch? We can ask this question about not just basic stitches but lesser known stitches as well.

Or we can ask a similar question about techniques eg have you done any ... (chicken scratch, pulled thread work, surface embroidery etc) if so share a photo

Or we could colour theme it eg have you worked with yellow as dominant colour? Post a photo. Have you ever used orange and blue? Post a work based on a complimentary colour scheme? (This one could be heaps of fun a real doozie)

Or we could choose a design element such as Have you worked a piece a piece with line as the dominant design element - post a photo. This too could be heaps of fun.

Then there is crazy quilting we could have "post a photo of" seam embellishments that include... (herringbone, cretan, buttonhole etc )

Or "post a photo of" an unusal way of using ... (lace beads etc)

Then there is things like "post a photo of" favourite fabric postcard

or "post a photo of" .... (eg mixed media, layering, machine embroidery ) technique used on a fabric postcard

What others can people think of? I hope others can see the fun in this as will make a list

I think we will have to tell people to post either a single photo or limit it to 3 to avoid the swamping factor and encourage people to tag

We could make it quite frequent as we are talking about photos of past work not current work.

Ok back to doing the dishes ( I really did stop, dry off my hands, and excitedly type this out)

[Jennifer]

I don't know if anyone else is also a member of Ravelry, but they have a regular newsletter that has columns such as "ask a knitter," "forum funnies," etc. People send questions to the appropriate person and one or two questions are answered in each newsletter. Or people submit funny posts that everyone might enjoy, or whatever. So here it might be nice to have a similar newsletter with someone answering questions about their speciality or the like.

Another feature that I love about ravelry is that you have a project page where you can keep track of your projects with start time, the supplies you used, patterns if applicable, photos, etc. I don't know if something like that is possible, but I have wished for something similar for embroidery. It also allows people to see all similar projects (i.e. by pattern, by brand of yarn, by whatever), which really helps to get the community looking at each other's projects for inspiration.

[sharonb]

Jennifer you suggest a project progress bar/chart that is a really good idea. I would love it too! It's on the to do list

As to the newsletter idea - From the very start I have been keen to keep the activity on the site public. Lots of people turn off the email from the site and it defeats the original purpose of the site which is to have it public so that people can find it. Since I am not charging I see no reason to go behind closed doors.

For instance with Ravelry I have just signed up to check out what you said about the progress tools but until now because they are behind closed doors even though I do freefrom crochet I have not bothered with the site. I know its big and people rave about it but the closed nature was a real turn off for me. Lots of closed sites effect me this way - I am not knocking Ravelry I am just using them as an example. It's the closed doors aspect that I don't like.

I like sites that google can find because then new people discover the site and more importantly the embroidery or the hand work. If hand work of all sorts hides behind closed doors people do not discover how wonderful and satisfying it is and wonderful and satisfying the people are too. As a community we are not doing anything we should hide. I feel this public aspect is important and its one of the reasons I started to blog and one of the reasons I started this community. Newsletters because they are directed to peoples mail boxes are similar in the sense they are closed. I will use them to say come and have a look at this or that but what I point to I would like to keep public.
I want o avoid any hint of things being a clique or closed or create a habit that somehow excludes people that are new. Its the habit of thought I guess that I intuitively draw back from. I possibly have not explained very clearly but hopefully you sense what I mean.

People are always free to ask questions in the "how do I ?" section of the forum but perhaps they need encouragement and people need to be willing to answer. We need to think about that much more. The feeling that is OK to ask should be encouraged. What do others think?

[Jennifer]

Newsletter was probably the wrong word, it is more happenings on ravelry. It isn't e-mailed, it is on the home page once you log in. But I can see how a closed site would cause those problems.

sharonb said:

Jennifer you suggest a project progress bar/chart that is a really good idea. I would love it too! It's on the to do list As to the newsletter idea - From the very start I have been keen to keep the activity on the site public. Lots of people turn off the email from the site and it defeats the original purpose of the site which is to have it public so that people can find it. Since I am not charging I see no reason to go behind closed doors.

For instance with Ravelry I have just signed up to check out what you said about the progress tools but until now because they are behind closed doors even though I do freefrom crochet I have not bothered with the site. I know its big and people rave about it but the closed nature was a real turn off for me. Lots of closed sites effect me this way - I am not knocking Ravelry I am just using them as an example. It's the closed doors aspect that I don't like.

I like sites that google can find because then new people discover the site and more importantly the embroidery or the hand work. If hand work of all sorts hides behind closed doors people do not discover how wonderful and satisfying it is and wonderful and satisfying the people are too. As a community we are not doing anything we should hide. I feel this public aspect is important and its one of the reasons I started to blog and one of the reasons I started this community. Newsletters because they are directed to peoples mail boxes are similar in the sense they are closed. I will use them to say come and have a look at this or that but what I point to I would like to keep public.
I want o avoid any hint of things being a clique or closed or create a habit that somehow excludes people that are new. Its the habit of thought I guess that I intuitively draw back from. I possibly have not explained very clearly but hopefully you sense what I mean.

People are always free to ask questions in the "how do I ?" section of the forum but perhaps they need encouragement and people need to be willing to answer. We need to think about that much more. The feeling that is OK to ask should be encouraged. What do others think?

[chitra gangadharan]

What a fantastic idea! Iam sure this will create a sense of involvement of the members of this community.This is one place where we can share our passion to our heart's content.

sharonb said:

Me again excited -
I was thinking about Niki's idea of posting a stitch or concept of the month and thought about when we shared photos of our needlecases here on stitchin fingers. It was so much fun seeing what people used.

While doing the dishes thought we could have all sorts of "post a photo of" type challenges

For instance we could do it for various stitches eg what is the most interesting or attractive way you have used chain stitch? We can ask this question about not just basic stitches but lesser known stitches as well.

Or we can ask a similar question about techniques eg have you done any ... (chicken scratch, pulled thread work, surface embroidery etc) if so share a photo

Or we could colour theme it eg have you worked with yellow as dominant colour? Post a photo. Have you ever used orange and blue? Post a work based on a complimentary colour scheme? (This one could be heaps of fun a real doozie)

Or we could choose a design element such as Have you worked a piece a piece with line as the dominant design element - post a photo. This too could be heaps of fun.

Then there is crazy quilting we could have "post a photo of" seam embellishments that include... (herringbone, cretan, buttonhole etc )

Or "post a photo of" an unusal way of using ... (lace beads etc)

Then there is things like "post a photo of" favourite fabric postcard

or "post a photo of" .... (eg mixed media, layering, machine embroidery ) technique used on a fabric postcard

What others can people think of? I hope others can see the fun in this as will make a list

I think we will have to tell people to post either a single photo or limit it to 3 to avoid the swamping factor and encourage people to tag

We could make it quite frequent as we are talking about photos of past work not current work.

Ok back to doing the dishes ( I really did stop, dry off my hands, and excitedly type this out)

[neki rivera]

sharonb said:

Me again excited -
I was thinking about Niki's idea of posting a stitch or concept of the month and thought about when we shared photos of our needlecases here on stitchin fingers. It was so much fun seeing what people used.

While doing the dishes thought we could have all sorts of "post a photo of" type challenges

For instance we could do it for various stitches eg what is the most interesting or attractive way you have used chain stitch? We can ask this question about not just basic stitches but lesser known stitches as well.

Or we can ask a similar question about techniques eg have you done any ... (chicken scratch, pulled thread work, surface embroidery etc) if so share a photo

Or we could colour theme it eg have you worked with yellow as dominant colour? Post a photo. Have you ever used orange and blue? Post a work based on a complimentary colour scheme? (This one could be heaps of fun a real doozie)

Or we could choose a design element such as Have you worked a piece a piece with line as the dominant design element - post a photo. This too could be heaps of fun.

Then there is crazy quilting we could have "post a photo of" seam embellishments that include... (herringbone, cretan, buttonhole etc )

Or "post a photo of" an unusal way of using ... (lace beads etc)

Then there is things like "post a photo of" favourite fabric postcard

or "post a photo of" .... (eg mixed media, layering, machine embroidery ) technique used on a fabric postcard

What others can people think of? I hope others can see the fun in this as will make a list

I think we will have to tell people to post either a single photo or limit it to 3 to avoid the swamping factor and encourage people to tag

We could make it quite frequent as we are talking about photos of past work not current work.

Ok back to doing the dishes ( I really did stop, dry off my hands, and excitedly type this out)

me again :)
the post photos of sounds fun and interest generating.
the post photos of techniques can be a useful learning tool
i agree maxing out to only three

re revelry applications:
weavolution has a cool platform and features similar to ravelry .
you can share drafts and photos of your finished projects.
it has a project time tract too.
i find it helpful as it servers as a sort of spreadsheet all in one place . and the benefits of seeing what everyone else's doing/making.

[Carol-Anne]

I like the post a photo idea. As a personal point of view, I prefer the stitch/colour type themes over the crazy quilting/favourite post card type themes. One of the things I like most about SF is that it caters for everyone interested in textiles and fibre arts and I love the fact that there are so many techniques and styles under one roof. If you take a theme, say 'yellow' I think it is open to every technique, where as if you take a technique you are limiting it to those who use that technique. I think those type of themes could be run within the individual groups. They would still open for everyone to view and enjoy.

I don't think we could ever run out of themes; trees, flowers, cats, dogs, water, fire ...

I would be happy to do an occasional round up of things that have caught my attention. I think it would be nice to have a reasonably large pool so we get a good range of different tastes represented.

[Barbara/Hopscotch]

Sharon,
You have such a love for what you do and such a desire to share your experience and information with us, how could we not be excited, too! When do you get some time to yourself, though?

Barbara

sharonb said:

Me again excited -
I was thinking about Niki's idea of posting a stitch or concept of the month and thought about when we shared photos of our needlecases here on stitchin fingers. It was so much fun seeing what people used.

While doing the dishes thought we could have all sorts of "post a photo of" type challenges

For instance we could do it for various stitches eg what is the most interesting or attractive way you have used chain stitch? We can ask this question about not just basic stitches but lesser known stitches as well.

Or we can ask a similar question about techniques eg have you done any ... (chicken scratch, pulled thread work, surface embroidery etc) if so share a photo

Or we could colour theme it eg have you worked with yellow as dominant colour? Post a photo. Have you ever used orange and blue? Post a work based on a complimentary colour scheme? (This one could be heaps of fun a real doozie)

Or we could choose a design element such as Have you worked a piece a piece with line as the dominant design element - post a photo. This too could be heaps of fun.

Then there is crazy quilting we could have "post a photo of" seam embellishments that include... (herringbone, cretan, buttonhole etc )

Or "post a photo of" an unusal way of using ... (lace beads etc)

Then there is things like "post a photo of" favourite fabric postcard

or "post a photo of" .... (eg mixed media, layering, machine embroidery ) technique used on a fabric postcard

What others can people think of? I hope others can see the fun in this as will make a list

I think we will have to tell people to post either a single photo or limit it to 3 to avoid the swamping factor and encourage people to tag

We could make it quite frequent as we are talking about photos of past work not current work.

Ok back to doing the dishes ( I really did stop, dry off my hands, and excitedly type this out)

[Linda J]

Hi Sharon,

What I would like to see is how to get around this place lol and few tutorials. I am an avid EPPer, quilter, redwork (using just the running stitch)...now I am making cloth dolls w/clothes..so cute and easy to do.. I have a sixteen year old daughter and she even checks the dolls out and changes their clothes..

Take care,
Linda J
VA

[Lorelei Halley]

Sharon
I definitely think that the stitch directory collected to a single place on this site is a very good idea. Having a "reference book" kind of thing to discover new stitches would be very useful.

[Dionne White]

Definitions of NING and TAST would help me out for a start! I have begun a Book of the Month review. Not all are recent releases. Obviously they are items I stock but I believe the appraisal of the product is fair and honest and I try to advise where they are most appropriate. Not all books are suitable for everyone.

[Carol-Anne]

Hi Dionne

NING is the social network community that hosts Stitchin Fingers. SharonB created Stitchin Fingers and there are other networks on the NING community. A very similar thing to Yahoo groups.

TAST stands for Take A Stitch Tuesday which is a challenge run from Sharon's blog. Sharon proposes a new stitch every Tuesday and people explore it. This years TAST is called TAST 2010. The original TAST is being re-run in one of the groups here called Take a Stitch Tuesday.

Dionne White said:

Definitions of NING and TAST would help me out for a start! ...