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Many of us are eagerly searching for signs of spring. I've spotted my first two! Now that some of the snow has melted in a few sections of our garden I can see our Snowdrops with their white buds all ready to bloom soon. Hopefully, we won't have more snow covering them up again and we'll soon see the delicate, lovely flowers opening. The other sign is that many trees have begun getting what I call their "lacey" look which is caused by some buds beginning to swell albeit very slightly. Both sign are very encouraging indeed! Our news this month is that this Newsletter, as you know it, is coming to an end. It is being replaced by a blog. I have already started it by including some of the articles from the last newsletter. I'll continue adding from previous newsletters bit by bit, until they have all been archived on my blog. I've begun adding some new content as well. |
As my long time readers know, this newsletter started out as a weekly email message. As it grew in length and features were added, I prepared it online instead, changed it to a monthly newsletter and sent out notices when it was ready to read online. Then it became difficult to find the time to write it monthly so it was changed to bi-monthly. Last year it became impossible even to keep up with that schedule. Now, with this blog, I"I'll be able to spend only minutes and partial hours adding to it every week so it will become current again. .
Maria's Quilt Scraps will include everything that has been found in my Maria Michaels Designs Newsletter and even more because readers can add comments to blogs. Another very special aspect of it is the fact that you can share your quilting news and photos with me and that can also be added. Blogs offer a great deal more usable space than my website does and a greater scope for content, too.
Visit Maria's Quilt Scraps to see its beginnings and learn more about blogs below. Some new material has been added and some of the last newsletter appears there. Be sure to subscribe!
Maria
What is a blog?
For those unfamiliar with blogs, the name comes from joining two words: web + log = blog.
Blogs are used:
- by individuals to keep their family and friends updated on what is going on in their lives.
- as online journals or diaries.
- to share political views.
- to share thoughts and ideas.
- by teachers to post class rules, assignments, and so on.
- to replace newsletters.
- by quilters to share quilt news, patterns, ideas, techniques, and more.
- by crafters of all kinds.
- as learning tools.
- to give advice.
- by authors to discuss their books.
- by businesses to provide more information on products and services.
- for quilters, knitters, and all kinds of handwork. Blogs also include provisions for readers to respond to everything that appears on blogs which many readers enjoy because this enables to participate.
- for many more reasons, some of which haven't likely been thought of yet.
We are all familiar with finding websites we like and bookmarking them or adding them to our Favourites. Then, when we want to find them again, we click on Bookmarks or Favourites and choose from the list in the menu that appears.
With blogs, we subscribe to RSS Feeds. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Subscribing is easy.
- You'll find this little logo on your favourite blog's web page usually on the right side of your top toolbars.
- Click on it.
- A window will open with the name of the blog at the top and just below it two plus buttons and the link subscribe to this feed. Further down the blogs home page will appear.
- Click on that link subscribe to this feed.
- A small window will open with subscribe to this feed at the top and a place to choose the folder you'd like to store it in - just like when Bookmarks or Favourites are being saved.
- Whenever you wish to read the blog, click on your Bookmarks or Favourites and choose from your list of Feeds.
I have also added this link to my blog pages for those who wish to subscribe via RSS Feeds. - It is provided by Google, as you can tell.
- It keeps track of your favourite blogs.
- It helps you to stay up to date with them.
- It checks your favourite blogs for new content so that you don't miss anything.
- It keeps track of them all in one handy place.
- It is a free service.
- No software to download or install.
- You do need a Google account.
Learn more about Google Reader by clicking here.
Bloglines - a free online service for searching, subscribing to, and sharing RSS feeds. No software to download or install.
You need to sign up for an account to use this service.
Net Newswire for Macs
BlogBuster
FeedDemon - a free service. Requires a download of the RSS reader application
There are likely more and you can do a search for them.
Please Visit My Blog and Subscribe To It!
I would dearly love to have all 1202 Maria Michaels Designs Newsletter readers switch to and subscribe to its replacement blog - Maria's Quilt Scraps.
I will continue to use the Newsletter for a while during this transition stage. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please email me at maria at maria michaels designs.com. (Please change the at to @ and remove the spaces.)
Please go to |
Most readers will prefer this method for several reasons.
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For the next few weeks I'll be adding past articles from my newsletters so that they'll be archived there. That means you will receive daily, or almost daily, messages for a while. Once that's done my plan is to add content once a week. My thanks to Sue, a reader who told me about this great email method of subscribing to blogs! As I'm sure you can all tell, I'm new to them and didn't know about this handy option My thanks also to all of you who have emailed to let me know how much you enjoyed my newsletter. It gives me great pleasure to know that! Rest assured that my newsletter will remain the same. The only changes are that it's in a different place and I'll be adding articles once a week instead of your having to wait 2 or more months for me to put an entire newsletter together. An added bonus is that my archives will all be in one place. I'm very pleased that this blog format allows me to continue with my newsletter. |
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Our winners are chosen by random number generator software.
Winners:
January - DoeeyesTn@..............
February -
buck_2735@.............
March - jrburkitt@.....................
Congratulations to the winners listed above! They have won my Easter Egg Table Runner pattern.
Winners can claim their free patterns by emailing me to verify their email address, and including the pattern name they have chosen.
Winners must claim their free pattern no later than January 20, 2009 after which they are no longer eligible.
*Note: Winners will need the free download of Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 7 to print their patterns.
This is a partial list of past newsletters. If you have missed them, click on the links to read about other featured quilters, book reviews, tools, and more.
Newsletter: |
Featured Quilter: |
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| December 2008 | Mary Pauline Laughlin Revisited |
| September 2008 | |
| January 2008 | Lyn Durbin |
| December 2007 | |
Featured Quilter Updates: Ivo Camilleri, Betty Cotton, Sew-Sisters: Judy Baldwin & Karen Kraemer |
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Ivo Camilleri |
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Betty Cotton |
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Sue Wilkins |
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The Sew-Sisters: Judy Baldwin & Karen Kraemer |
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Eldrid Røyset Førde and Simply Quilts |
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Karen Murphy Gass |
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Mary Pauline Laughlin |
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Anna Grossnickle Hines |
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Jean Boyd |
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Linda Franz - Quilted Diamonds 2 |
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Alice Walter and Deb Hopkins |
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Joyce Jones |
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Eldrid Røyset Førde |
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Kay Mackenzie |
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Fraser Smith |
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Marci Baker |
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Donna Kohler - The Treadle Lady |
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Florine Johnson |
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Linda Franz - Quilted Diamonds |
© 2002 - 2009 Maria Michaels Designs. All Rights Reserved