Blogging

It seems that everyone is doing it these days.  One needs only to google a topic to find blogs aplenty that will scratch the itch for info, chit chat or perhaps even more than you want to know about a topic.

I had never even seen a sewing blog before I began.  Reading my son’s Gator sports blog was my only exposure to this new form of communication.  Only after posting for many months did I happen upon other sewing blogs—and I was shocked!  They were all fabulous!  I wanted to quit writing and spend my  time reading.   But I really enjoyed documenting my projects and hearing from others about their sewing.  So I continued.

Slow as I am at getting the hang of this, the learning curve is steep.  Except for me, my entire family is computer professional.  After my daughter and son-in-law set me up with this blog, it was handed it over to me like a set of car keys given to a 16 year old.  I knew where I wanted to go but I wasn’t sure just how to get there.

It seemed that all the sewing blogs were created in blogspot whereas  Janice Ferguson Sews is done in WordPress.   Only after seeing Terri Click’s pretty WordPress blog, The Thrifty Needle www.thethriftyneedle.wordpress.com  did I realize that I could do so much more.

In the past few days, I’ve learned a lot by just plunking around.  Of course, it has taken me untold hours to do the simplest tasks–I need to call Terri for some tech support.  I’ve just discovered how to insert a header picture but I don’t know how to get the text out of the photo and to the plain background on either side.

I would really appreciate any feedback on the changes in the appearance of the blog.  Do you like the larger photos or would you rather have the smaller ones and enlarge them yourself if they interest you?  Are there too many pictures?

“Blogroll,”  a list of my favorite blogs,  is another recent addition that I figured out.  It’s likely that you all are familiar with these great sites, but they are new to me.  I could spend all day reading about others sewing projects and thoughts.  Some have video tutorials, others have step by step instructions on various techniques, and all have an intimate, sitting-in-the-kitchen mood.  Who doesn’t want more sewing friends?

If you haven’t visited the sites listed, I would encourage you to do so.  Of course, you might never come back to Janice Ferguson Sews after seeing what these ladies have done!  And I will miss you!!!!!    But still I encourage you to see what’s out there.

I would also encourage any readers with an interest to try blogging.

Meanwhile, I appreciate your visits to this site and hope you will find some major improvements soon–if I can pick Terri’s brain!  With any luck, I will some day–maybe sooner than later–have my long awaited “store” up with my ridiculously excessive stash–uh currently knows as my “collection.”  In her blog, Terri Click points out that a stash can be anything, but a collection has value.  So I will be offering surplus items from my collection.

But for now, I need to get back to the sewing room.  I’m making Laurel new pajamas for her 7th birthday slumber party next week and hope to get a matching pair made for Kit, the new American Girls doll I am wrapping up for her.

Happy sewing!  And happy blog visiting!