How to follow a blog

At the last meeting I promised to continue the social media 101 info. Here's how to follow a blog.

There are several ways to follow a blog and different blogs have different ways to follow them. The 3 most common ways are by email, on facebook or in a reader. Let's go over the email way first.

Some blogs have a box on the sidebar that looks like this, but will be smaller to fit the sidebar. Simply enter your email address and press subscribe. Most email subscription sites will then send you a confirmation email. Just click the link they give you and you will start getting an email when a new post is made. If you scroll down you will see this box on the sidebar to the right. If you want to follow this blog by email just enter your email now. Please don't enter your email in the box below since it will not subscribe you to this blog.

Enter your email address:


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I have started following the blogs I really like this way. If you have a blog and don't have a follow by email I suggest you get one, it really does make following blogs easier. Feedburner has a good feed site.

Another way to follow a blog is thru a reader. A reader is a place where all the updates for all the blogs you follow this way can be found. If you have a gmail email then you already have a reader. To see your reader go to the page where you can see your gmail. Along the top of the page will be many choices such as search, images, documents, calendar and more. cCick the word more and a drop down menu will appear. Click reader and your google reader will come up. This shows all of the new posts from the blogs you follow. The only drawback is that you have to remember to check your reader everyday or you might miss a post.

The most popular way to follow a blog thru a reader is thru Google Friend Connect otherwise known as GFC. However blogs that are not made thru blogspot or blogger will not have GFC starting in March. By now most blogs that will be losing GFC do not have it available anymore (I'll cover that in a bit). If the blog is a blogspot blog and you want to follow in a reader find the part on the sidebar that says "Join this site with Google Friend Connect" followed by little face icons under it. Click the Join This Site bar and you are done (it may ask for sign in info if you are not signed into your email). Now the posts from this blog will start showing up on your reader.

If you have an IPad or IPhone there are reader apps that you can get. I use Feedler on my IPad and love it. It's very user friendly and lets you sort thru the posts easily.

The last way to follow a blog is by having the posts show up in your facebook feed. It's thru a site called NetworkedBlogs. There is a little bit of set up the first time you click it so the site knows your facebook info, but it's very simple to follow. Then the blog posts will show up on your facebook page. Again unless you check your facebook very often you will miss some posts, but with some blogs losing GFC this may be the only way to follow. I have started asking bloggers to add a follow by email box for this reason since I don't check my facebook too often.

There you have it, 3 common ways to follow blogs. I know there are other ways out there so if you know of any please let me know.

Modern Block of the Month

Last month we made the July BOM from Sew Mama Sew's Modern BOM. Here's a few blocks that our members made. If you didn't make your block yet here's the link.

Since these blocks are going to be used in our own quilts you can always add other modern blocks you found. Here's a great block that Jessica made called Tailspin. She has a wonderful blog called Take a Long Hard Look. Make sure to check it out. I don't know about you about I am definately going to be making this block for my modern sampler quilt.



What other blocks will you be adding to the quilt? I look forward to seeing your blocks next month. Here's the link to the next BOM we are doing.

February Meeting

Our February meeting was tons of fun! We learned how to use social media to keep up with each other, saw an Accuquilt demo and signed up for our Secret Sisters. Plus there was a bunch of great eye candy to see. Show and Share is always my favorite part of the meetings.

Here's a few pics of projects our members shared with the guild. I appoligize if some pics got left out, some were fuzzy.

As you can see we are working on some modern blocks to make our own sampler quilt. This month's block was the July block from the Sew Mama Sew Modern Block of the Month. There is a tab at the top of this blog where you can get all of the info about the BOTM we are working on.

Our next meeting will be 1 week later in March due to Spring Break. It will be on March 22, 2012.

Till next time

Secret Sisters

We have decided to have secret sisters this year! It's a great way for us to get to know each other and who doesn't like giving or getting gifts.

Julie H is going to coordinate this activity. Here's the links to the rules and questionnaire. Please read the rules before you sign up for this activity. Then fill out the attached form and bring it to the next meeting (March 22) or you can email it to the guild Secret Sister email.

Here's the Secret Sister questionnaire link

Here's the Secret Sister rules and ideas link.

And on a side note the next meeting will be 1 week later because of spring break. It will be on March 22nd with the Saturday Sew on March 24th.

Let's Tweet

Do you tweet? If you are not on twitter yet, you are missing out on being part of a great quilting world. There's all sorts of quilters who tweet, including a very large modern quilting group.

What it is...
Basically twitter is a way to say something to lots of people all at once. The tweets are limited to 140 characters so this isn't the way to write a book to anyone. And it's in real time. where Facebook is not. You can see what your friends wrote on facebook for days and years, but once you have seen a tweet it's gone.

How it works...
Once you download twitter onto your computer, phone or tablet and set up an account you can start tweeting. You will have to pick a twitter name and hence forth you will be known by that name so choose carefully. Twitter names always begin with an @.

A short note about the actual program. There are several different apps out there that will let you tweet, I suggest starting with the twitter app or program and once you have the hang of it you can look into different apps.

Now that you have a twitter account it's time to start tweeting, but if you tweet right now no one will see it. The only people who will see your tweets are the people who follow you and conversely the tweets you see in your twitter feed are from those who you follow or who directly tweeted you using @yourname in the tweet.

How do you find people to follow and get followers? 1st get a friends twitter name and 1. follow them and 2. tweet directly to them. For instance if you tweet me, I will blast it to my quilty friends on twitter who will then follow you. Then you can look who is following you and decide if you want to either follow them back or block them.

Tweet this "Hi @friendsname this is XYZ from FWMQG!". If you put my twitter name I will make sure my quilty friends say hi and welcome you. My twitter name is @shapernes if you want to start there.

There's also something called a hashtag. It's a word or words typed with no spaces with a # before it. Try searching #quilt or #quilting to see current posts that people have marked with that hashtag. That's why they mark it with the tag, so others can find them. Then click on their picture and read their bio and their past few tweets. This way you'll know if it's someone you want to follow. I tend to not follow stores who tweet about what they have to sell, but that's just a personal preference.

Once you find people just start tweeting. It could be anything you like. My last tweet was "Aww Hubs just walked in with red roses and candy". We also ask questions about quilting or show off our newest creations. It's amazing what conversations I have on twitter. After a while these people aren't strangers anymore, but I don't know that I would go as far as say that they are friends. I like to think of them as my 'tweeples' or friends who live in my IPad.

That's all for now. Don't be afraid to play around with it. You can always tweet me any questions.

Until Next Time,

 

A New Year!

Hi everyone! Sharon here :) As of today I will be working on this blog and promise to keep you up to date with all things about the MQG. This is where you will find the info about the next meeting or Saturday Sew, as well as, info about our block of the month and other projects. I'll also be posting fun things from around the social media world of quilting.

If you have something to share, let me know. This is the guilds blog and I'm all for having guests bloggers.

The next meeting of the FWMQG is this Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 6:30. We now have a dedicated meeting place at Angela's new digs. It's at the old Cabbage Rose building, which is across from the new Cabbage Rose.

This month we will be talking about how to use social media sites (twitter, flickr, facebook and pinterest) to keep up with the wonderful world of quilting! I will also be bringing my Accuquilt cutter and will do a demo on that. So bring your fabric so you can cut your own shapes and appliques. Here's a list of the dies I have:

Breast cancer ribbon
Rose of Sharon
Equilateral triangle
5" square
Tumblers - small and large
Hexagon's
Hearts
Circles
Diamond
Quarter square triangle
Half square triangle
2.5" square
4.5" square
Jumbo Christmas tree
Butterfly
Dragonfly
Bumble Bee

So bring your fabric to use this great machine :)

Until next time,