I decided to take the plunge so many of you have already made. Yes, I joined Instagram. You can find me as catbirdquiltstudio.
Barbara Brackman had a great blog post the other day, on saving the Instagram world one quilt at a time. Her theory is that newer quilters largely have bypassed traditional blogs and blogging and gone straight to Instagram. The slant toward “modern” quilts, many from a fairly small set of patterns, narrows their perspective rather than broadening it. She has added hundreds of photos of historical quilts, reproductions, and other traditional quilts. It certainly provides a wider look at quilting!
So far I have loaded a few photos to #medallionquilt. It will take me a while to figure out this new (to me) platform. By the time I get it, the world may have moved on! If you use Instagram and have some great tips, please share! I’m all ears.
No followers yet!
Catbird Quilt Studio 
I am new to Instagram myself and have yet to figure out how to navigate it. Oh well… I am still trying to work my way back to FB. I have all of 2017 to learn to master both. LOL
And probably longer than that! 🙂 Yes, it’s a little confusing to me. So far I’m using my laptop to look around, and my phone to load stuff. But maybe I’ll branch out…
Ha! I don’t even have a smart phone, so I guess that leaves me out! I have multiple e-mail accounts for my multiple activities, and that is enough. However, I’ll be interested to know how you like IG.
I look at it as an experiment. Some things prove useful and some don’t. I don’t know how this one will go, but will report back!
Somehow I stumbled through installing Instagram on my ipad and phone without too many mishaps. You can find me at #snarky_quilter, I think. All I know how to do is take pictures and write captions. The rest is a mystery. I didn’t even know you could load already taken photos. Well, I post very sporadically and mostly use Instagram to look at gorgeous photos taken by some talented people. Something to do in the doctors’ waiting rooms. I’ll look for you there.
You can load prior photos by either using your gallery on your phone, if you store photos there, or by emailing photos to yourself and opening (downloading) them on your phone email. Then they are available to upload into IG. I don’t store photos on the phone, so this is my only option for older photos. (And yes, the rest is still a mystery!)
As I said to Kerry, I enjoy seeing your photos in one place, as a gallery. I think it is good for that.
Yet another Insta-luddite here–I have an account but I never look at it and have never posted to it–I think I deleted the app from my phone. I love my phone and use it for most everything but my issue is that I’m a words person –love writing them, reading them, playing with them, etc. I like photos but I LOVE words! Not enough words on Instagram!
I agree, the lack of words is disconcerting!! I want to know MORE! But, for example, I looked at Joanna’s page (not sure if “page” is the right word) and enjoyed seeing her photos as a gallery. Seeing the body of work in one place is cool. So maybe there are some trade-offs.
I have put the antique and vintage quilts I have collected on Pinterest, but I don’t do anything on my phone except talk and text, so I won’t be doing Instagram, at least any time soon. I was interested to read yours and Barbara’s Instagram insights, though, because before I read this post I didn’t even know it was only for phones! So at least I am oneteeny-tiny step closer to being tech-savvy. 🙂
You can do about everything except load photos with the computer, I think. To load you have to use a phone. Silly restriction. It makes it much more awkward for me, but I guess not for everyone. 🙂
I prefer to use my computer instead of phone, but I signed on so I wouldn’t miss out. Then it kept asking me for my phone number. Since I don’t plan to use my phone and don’t want to share it to limit calls, I cancelled my account, which took quite a bit of work. Now it won’t let me see anything that has a single picture from the site, even blogs like Quiltville. If there is even one picture from there, I can’t see the blog post at all – I just get the popup screen asking for my phone number. I don’t mind not being able to see the picture, but I certainly should be able to see the blog!
Oh my, that sounds unpleasant! I also didn’t give my phone number. I almost never give my phone number to anyone, so I hope that problem doesn’t come up for me. Thanks for the information. 😦
I am still the big doubter here…tried facebook, did not like it. IG?? I am not sure if I can commit to another media. I am interested to see how you like it. Lovely to see the face behind the quilts btw! Xo Johanna
I have a love-hate relationship with facebook, so I understand why you would not like it. I don’t tweet or follow anyone on twitter, I don’t do snapchat. I like to control my media rather than let my media control me. So … I’ll give this a try and if I don’t enjoy it, I can always stop. It’s a challenge! And an opportunity! 😉
Getting set up was sooooooo easy, wasn’t it?
NOT!
It was not. But seems to be in working order now. Thanks for helping me keep my temper. 🙂
Well before I could take the IG plunge, I had to take the Smartphone plunge. Which I did. And I have downloaded the IG app. Next move is to figure out how to use it. I really like Barbara Brackman’s idea and your medallions will fit right in to that expansion of horizons.
Like others, I prefer discussion with my photos. We’ll see if I can manage both.
Yes, the smart phone is way too smart for me, so even the idea of this was a little intimidating. I have an open mind on it, though I’ve nver been interested in blogs that are only photos without explanation. So I’m not sure how I’ll ultimately feel about IG. We’ll see… 🙂
I like Instagram as a viewer but tired on the commitment to post to it. Although I enjoy looking at pictures of things on Instagram and the short blurbs, I enjoy reading blogs by crafters much more and learning about their creative processes. I get so much inspiration out of reading blogs.
Absolutely, I love reading and hearing about creative process. The HOW and WHY is so much of my enjoyment, both for viewing and sharing.
Well done you, for taking the plunge. I still find myself resistant to IG for all sorts of reasons: I don’t want my blogging time eroded by a medium which doesn’t add anything to my happiness; I don’t want to do things on my phone, I prefer my laptop; I like words with my pictures (which is why I enjoy your posts so much, you inform as well as show). Perhaps I’m a fuddy duddy, but I like what I have 🙂
I’m with you on every point there, Kate. My primary reason is to share more widely. If not for that potential, I wouldn’t try it. We’ll see how it goes. I can always change my mind. 🙂