Getting Started Guide

The "My Quilt Patch" Getting Started Guide

Hello there and welcome. We are just so pleased to have you on board as a member of our quilting community and we really want you to be able to get the most out of your membership of "My Quilt Patch" and therefore we have prepared this guide to enable you to easily get to grips with everything that our site has to offer.

The first thing that we would like to make you aware of is that there are two contrasting but complimentary aspects to this groundbreaking community based website.

Great Patchwork & Quilting Content

Firstly, there is some great patchwork and quilting content available on the site on a whole range of topics and interests which you can access and browse at your leisure. There are featured contributions from many top quilting teachers and textile artists on some fascinating topics and techniques for you to learn from and try out. Also, as well as the featured material, you will find a lot of interesting additional material around the site that has been contributed by other members.

Please note that, as the MQP site has its origins in the south west of England and as it is still a relatively new site, there is an initial bias of material towards the UK in general and the Westcountry in particular. We would love to include more patchwork and quilting features and information from all corners of the world, both from quilting professionals and from hobbyists, so please let us know if you have something that would interest our members.

We have also featured a number of UK quilting venues on the site and know that there are many other wonderful places in the world dedicated to the needs of patchwork and quilting enthusiasts. If you know of one such (or run one yourself) please let us know about it by posting in the “My Favourite Quilting Venue” category in the MQP Forum.

If you would like something to be a “Featured Contribution” on the home page of the site please either send a Private Message (explained below) through the site to AdminTeam or send an email to admin@myquiltpatch.net .

Great Tools & Applications For Sharing & Communication

Secondly, the site provides a whole set of innovative features, tools and applications that allow you to share and communicate in all sorts of exciting ways with fellow quilting enthusiasts. With "My Quilt Patch" membership you get your own patch of cyberspace in which you can do some interesting and amazing things that will both stretch and enhance your participation in the vibrant and social world of patchwork and quilting.

However it is important not to be overwhelmed by the amount of things that you can do here (or by the length of this guide). We have set out this information to be a fairly comprehensive guide to all the features available, which you can return to at need, as you gradually explore all the applications and try them out. However, we suggest that you initially skim through the rest of this guide and just pick out a few things to do to start with, as suggested below.

So...where to begin?

Well, if there are any of the featured articles or resources listed on the Home Page (or in the left hand column of the site), that are of particular interest to you then by all means go and check these out. Any of these can be accessed by clicking on the image associated with the particular featured item. However, as well as passively browsing items of interest here, we would urge you to start to also participate more actively in the MQP community and the first place to start to do this very simply is just by updating your personal profile.

Updating Your Profile

Click on the "My Profile" tab on the top navigation menu to fill in your details. You can just put in minimal information if you are concerned about personal privacy-but hey, we are a friendly crowd here-so why not share a bit about yourself and upload your photo and complete a brief personal bio?

Other members would just love to know a little bit about you, how you got into quilting and patchwork, what sort of experience you have had and what your interests and preferences are. The system will show your location on a world map so others can see where you are, based on the information you provide for country, city etc.

Now you are a fully registered member of "My Quilt Patch" would you like to find out about a scheme that you can use to have free MQP membership, even after your free trial period expires?

Well the next section will explain exactly how this works (and you will also discover just what that PayPal email address field in the profile section is for!).

The MQP "REFER A FRIEND" Affiliate Scheme

As a full member of My Quilt Patch you are automatically enrolled in this scheme.

It means that when you use the "Invite Others To Join" link on the top menu bar and send an email to a friend or associate and they subsequently become a member of MQP you will be credited with $1 (appx £0.50) each month for monthly memberships (or $10/£5 per annual membership), provided they remain members of MQP.

This means that if you refer seven people who join and remain as monthly members your membership will always be paid for, as the credits earned will equal your subscription. If more than seven of your referrals join up then you will actually earn income from the site. (The MQP site automatically keeps track of who you referred and registers the appropriate credits to your account).

The way that the scheme works is that the credits earned from referrals will be paid as a rebate on a monthly basis into the PayPal account you have registered in your Profile.

In order to benefit from this scheme you must already have a PayPal account or otherwise you will need to set one up (this is simple and free to do at www.paypal.com)

We hope you will like the MQP site enough to want to invite your friends and quilting colleagues to be members anyway, but this is our way of saying "thank you" for spreading the word.

When you want to make a referral just click on “Invite Others To Join” on the top menu bar and follow the instructions to easily send an email invitation. The first time you use this feature, you may want to use the [Video Tutorial] link given in the instructions area to watch the short video on exactly how to do this.

Exploring The Other Tools & Applications

The next thing to do is to start to check out some of the many tools and applications on the site and discover which ones you would like to make use of. These tools are all intended to help you develop an interactive online dimension to your quilting and patchworking activities to enable you to share your interest and enthusiasm with other like-minded members of the quilting community worldwide.

These tools and applications are all simply accessed by clicking on the links in the left hand column of the website. Each application gives you clear instructions on its use but if you experience any difficulty just use the "private messaging" link to send a "private message" to "AdminTeam". (There is more on using private messaging and the communications system later in this guide) to ask for help. Each 'application’ can be customised to some extent to reflect your personal preferences in interacting with the tool and/or communicating through the website

Getting Interactive With The Forum

A good place to start to explore the features offered at "My Quilt Patch" and a key area for getting to grips with the interactive capabilities of the community is the MQP Forum.

Just click on the Discussion Forum link at the top of the left hand navigation menu, and this will give you access to the "My Quilt Patch Forum", which is where you can browse the forum posts of other MQP members covering a wide range of categories and topics related to patchwork and quilting. You can also contribute to the forum by making posts of your own, either by adding your contribution to "threads" already started by other members or by introducing new threads or discussion topics of your own.

Whilst the communication system is capable of sending your posts by email to all members, to avoid MQP members getting deluged with email on a daily basis, use of this facility is restricted and is subject to prior admin approval.

The forum is very simple and intuitive to use and again is reached via the links in the left hand column or on this page.

Why not start off by introducing yourself on the forum to the other members? We have a special category in the Forum for just this purpose. This category is watched by other members so they can see who is joining up and you may get welcome messages from people who share similar interests or geography.

Click here to go to the New Members category of the discussion forum

Private Messaging

The Communication System also provides a Private Messaging facility which allows you to contact any other MQP member(s) via their MQP nickname, directly through the system using text, voice or video messaging (a search facility for nickname lookup is also provided).

Create (or Join) a Private Subgroup

In the Communication System you can also create your own private group of MQP members (or be invited to join an existing subgroup) and use the communication tools to interact with each other in your own enclosed community. This is the perfect utility for existing quilting groups to use to keep in touch with each other between physical group meetings (provided they are all members of MQP). Or even to conduct "virtual meetings" from time to time as an alternative to physical meetings. Private subgroups can publicise virtual meeting dates and times to their members on the MQP calendar by sending details in a 'private message' to AdminTeam.

Creating Your Own Quilting Photo Gallery

Next we suggest that you have a look at the at the Photo Gallery. This is where you can have your own virtual quilting gallery to display digital photos of your work (or any other images that you choose). If you have ever wanted to have your own quilting related digital photo library that you can also share with other quilters then this is the place to do it.

You can create as many albums as you want (a great way to 'catalogue' your stuff) and choose whether you just share this with the group or make it available to the world. The images in your gallery can be used in your MQP blogs and/or custom website as well, if you choose to include them. To use the Photo Gallery just click on this application in the listing in the left hand column (or the blue underlined links on this page) and follow the simple to use instructions.

Create Your Own Quilting Blog in Seconds

Once you have explored the forum and uploaded your favourite quilt pictures to your photo gallery, why not try Creating Your Own Blog? Just click on the Blogs / Podcasts / Articles link in the applications list in the left hand column and then on the "Create New Blog" tab and follow the simple instructions to get started.

A blog is like an online journal or diary where you can share your quilting thoughts and ideas with other members and record the progress of your patchworking projects as they grow and develop (photos in your gallery can also be integrated into your blog posts if you choose). As well as being a vehicle for sharing your creativity with others a blog journal is also a way of recording and documenting your ideas and activities for your own benefit and later recollection.

If you need ideas and inspiration for creating your blog just browse some of the blog contributions that others have made and then make your own "online creative journal".

Privacy Note: Blogs can only be read by other members of the MQP group and cannot be viewed by members of the general public unless you so choose (However, you can also set up an RSS feed for your blog if you wish).

Reviews of Quilting Products & Resources

Members' Reviews are where you can tell other members about particularly good (or not so good) experiences that you have had with quilting related products or resources. This can be really helpful to others who may be looking for a similar item. Please do not use this facility in any way for self-promotion, as the idea is to share non-biased and informative reviews of stuff that will be of benefit to all members. If you don't have anything to contribute yet yourself, just browse the reviews of others to pick up tips on items that people have found to be useful or valuable.

Communicate with Other Quilters Using Online "Chat"

Using Online Chat: You can use either the Web Audio Chat or Web Video Chat feature to communicate directly with any other member/s of the MQP group, either on a spontaneous basis or on a prearranged schedule. To initiate a spontaneous Chat it is simply a matter of opening the application and entering another member's Nickname into the box labelled "Invite Member to Chat" and clicking on "Send Invite". This will invite the member to a chat session with you by sending them an email (and an SMS message if this facility is enabled).

Prearranged chats can also be scheduled either between individuals or groups and there is no limit on the number of participants (however chats between large numbers of people can easily become difficult and unmanageable). It is possible to submit notices of scheduled group chats (by sending a Private Message to "AdminTeam") to be posted on the My Quilt Patch Calendar, so that they can be viewed by all members. These can be principally for a specific group of members to participate in, or if you want to "lead" a chat on a particular patchwork and quilting topic and invite participants to join in on an "open house" basis, these can also be listed in the calendar.

Whilst you will need certain (free to download from the web) applications on your computer to make use of the chat facilities (Java 1.5 for 'Audio Chat' and Flash 8 for 'Video Chat'), these now come pre-installed with many browsers. In any case, you are able to participate in either audio or video chats by using text messaging only if you wish and in video chats by using audio only if you prefer.

These chat facilities can be of particular value to local quilting groups who can use this feature to hold "virtual meetings" or "webinars", provided all the participants are also MQP members.

Custom Websites

What about creating your own "Quilting Website"? -You can access the tool for this via the applications menu listing, in the left hand column of the site, under Member Websites. Using the user-friendly WSYWYG (what you see is what you get) 'word processor like' editor nothing could be easier or less "techie"! To make it even simpler, when you open the application you will see a [Video Tutorial] link on the row of menu tabs. Clicking on this will take you to an animated tutorial on how to use the editor to create your web page. You are free to put up whatever you wish on your site (within reason and in conformity with the MQP terms & conditions) although we suggest that it should be broadly patchwork and quilting related.

Self Promotion

You can use your custom website to promote yourself or your own products and services if you wish and, if you already have your own website hosted elsewhere, you can simply create a splash page on your MQP website and hyperlink it to your existing site.

However, in the interests of keeping the MQP community as 'Spam Free' as possible, you are not free to promote your site (or any other commercial activity) anywhere else on the MQP website except within the single forum category reserved for this purpose entitled "Members Marketplace".

Any member who contributes a quilting article or similar content that is a featured item on the site will be able to include hyperlinks to an external website from it. Also, if you would like become a "featured commercial member" and have a small ad box on the front page of the MQP site with a link to your website or blog then just send a Private Message to "AdminTeam" with "Featured Commercial Membership" in the subject line.

You will see these ad boxes in the left hand navigation column. Since many of these ‘featured commercial members’ give discounts or special deals to MQP members it is worth clicking on these to see just what they have to offer.

Other Tools For "Advanced" Users

Other "Rich Media" Communication Tools: In addition to all the other fun and innovative applications already detailed in this guide there are several other features available within MQP for communicating both with other members and (in some cases) with the rest of the online world.

When you have had a chance to familiarise yourself with some of the main features already described you may like to check these others out also:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Sending Audio/Video Postcards

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· Audio Visual Presentations <!--[endif]-->

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· Video/MP3 Gallery<!--[endif]-->

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Teleconferencing

The Video/MP3 Gallery is where all audio and video files that are uploaded to the MQP site are stored including all the Video Tutorial files.

Instruction on how to use these features is given within each application and the tools can all be accessed via the links on the 'applications menu listing' in the left hand column of the site with the exception of the "Teleconferencing" feature. For information about using this last item please send a Private Message to "AdminTeam".

Now...'Just Get Going'... (but don't get overwhelmed!)

Well that's all from the "Getting Started Guide". As you can see there is a great deal of interesting things that you can do if you make full use of all the tools and features provided. However -don't let all these features overwhelm you! -Just use the ones that you feel will be most useful to start with and see how you go.

If you don't do much else, just complete your profile, introduce yourself to the group in the forum and enjoy browsing the "in house" and "member contributed" quilting articles and features.

We sincerely hope that you will enjoy and make the most of your "My Quilt Patch" membership.

Best wishes from the "My Quilt Patch" team.

P.S. If you struggle with using any of the site applications take a look at the "Video Tutorials" section which walks you through how to set up and use the various tools (as well as some "site basics" instruction).