FREE and FUN (Well, ALL my posts are fun...!!!)

ok, in addition to my Freebie section there on my sidebar, there are some times that I will want to bring special attention to a particular tutorial, tip, or whatever. Today, the spotlight goes on the Taunton site, home of the fabulous Threads magazine.

For instance, illustrated above is the front page for a fabulous tutorial on fabric knot buttons and beads which can be found here. The tutorial gives excellent instructions for five different styles of buttons or beads. Pics of my efforts do not yet appear for an obvious yet unmentioned reason. oh alright I'm not happy with the results yet!!!

Also on the Threads Tips and Tutorials page are:

• Garment Construction Tips, such as how to construct a no-slide shoulder strap, put a bead behind that button, and many more;
• Choosing and Using Notions Tips, like how to mark thread spools to remember settings or dental tools for sewing;
• Hand Sewing Tips for clipping threads on airplanes or one-stitch buttons;
• Design and Embellishment Tips -- did you know that you can cut fleece strips on the cross-grain to make great cord trim, or that there really IS a safe way to sew beaded fringe?!;
• in their Pattern and Layout Tips section, you can learn how to trace a pattern vertically;
• and in Fitting Tips, there are eight very on-time sets of instructions for better fitting garments.

Now a lot of this information, of course, is most appropriate for garment construction; however, especially from the Design and Embellishment Tips section, there are a LOT of cool suggestions that can be incorporated into many other of the textile/fiber areas.

Go check it out -- you won't be disappointed!

How to Create Your Email Signatures

Here's how:

Addendum following...

From your email page, look in the upper right corner, where you will see Mail Upgrades - Options. Click on Options.

Then you'll see three columns -- Spam, Management, and Premium Services. Click on Management, and scroll down past Mail Addresses, Archive Messages, POP Accesses and Forwarding, Filters, General Preferences, and then Signature (third to last). Click on Signature.

You'll see two lines, and then a text box. On the second line, where it says Plain or Color Graphics, be sure to click on Color Graphics (this ensures that any icons you want, plus any colors of ink or font styles will appear correctly in your finished product). Then, in the text box, pick your font and color, sign your name as you want it to appear, and list any blogs, groups, projects, etc.

When you are done, click below the text box on "Add signature to all outgoing messages" and TADAAA!! you have your signature.

Back at your regular email compose space, you'll see the line "Use my signature" with a little check next to it. This means that all your emails will automatically have your full signature at the end. If on a particular email you do NOT want your full signature, simply unclick that little checked box and sign your name however you want it to appear.

Good luck and have fun!!



SATURDAY -- Susan very kindly wondered which program the above instructions are for. Above is for Yahoo! email, which is my main address. However, I popped over to AOL and discovered their Signature Settings as follows:

In the top right corner, you will see a bar with the titles Today, Mail, Addresses, Calendar, Settings and Help. Click on Settings.

A box comes up called "Authoring Settings". Scroll down past Composing, Sending, Outbound Character Set, and stop at Signature. Click on the little box next to the term so that your signature will be added to all your outgoing AOL emails.

Now I haven't had time yet to go past more than the basic email services, so I don't know if AOL has the little icons that Yahoo! does -- but after the weekend (DH is home -- YYAAAAAYYYYYY!!), I'll venture further into AOL, and we'll cover MSN intricacies, too.

CQ Doodling

CQ Doodling
Originally uploaded by txstitchermom.

Practice Practice!