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There are many ways of creating repeating patterns using computer programs.  The following are basic directions for creating a repeat pattern using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.  Again, basic, but it should get you started.

1.  Open a new document.  It really doesn’t matter the size, as it will be re-sized later.  I selected the default paper size.

2.  For illustration purposes, I’m using a custom shape from the custom shape palette.

Tip:  To find  more custom shapes, open the flyout menu and select All and click Append.  This will append a bunch more shapes to your shapes palette.  This is in Photoshop CS4.  Elements has this feature (top right illustration)

3.  Drag to create your shape, hold down the shift key while dragging to constrain the design to a square.  Select the crop tool.  The goal here is to create a square with a border of white.  Put the crop tool in the center of the design.  Hold the option/alt key and the shift key together and drag out.  This will make an square around the item.  Turn on your Rulers if they are not on.  View>Rulers.  Drag a vertical and horizontal guide to locate the center of the shape. (top left illustration)

4.  Use the marquee tool to select the left half of the image. (top right illustration)

5.  Open the layers menu (Windows>Layers).  Copy the left half that has the selection around it and then Paste.  You’ll see the copy of the section on its own layer in the palette. (top left illustration)

6.  Click on Layer 1 to make sure it is active (it is highlighted in color) and then use the move tool to drag it to the right.  (top right illustration)

7.  Click on the background layer.  Marquee to select the right side. Copy it and paste it.  The copied image will appear on its own layer, in this case Layer 2.  (top left illustration)  Drag it to the left. (top right illustration)

8.  From the fly-out menu on the Layers palette, select Flatten Image.  This will merge all of the layers into one (top right illustration)
9.  Repeat the steps, but select the top half, copy/paste it, then move it to the bottom.  Return to the background layer, select the bottom half, copy/paste it, and move it to the top.  (top left illustration)

10.  Determine the size you want your repeat pattern.  Go to Image>Image Size. Leaving Constrain Proportions and Resample Image ON, insert 60 x 60 pixels in the top Pixel Dimensions area (or insert whatever dimension you want).  Click OK.  The image will change size. (upper top right)  If you cannot initially see it, be sure you are viewing it at 100%.

Note: Ignore the Print Size box underneath it; it only applies to printing and has no relevance here. Also, my 60×60 pixel size is a good size for the web.  For print, however, you’ll need more resolution.

11.  To define this design as a pattern, go to Edit>Define Pattern.  (above this illustration, on the lower right)  Name the pattern.  I named mine flowers. (top left illustration)  Click OK.  (top right illustration)  The flower is now part of the Patterns Library.

12.  Open a new document.  I opened a document that is 640 pixels by 480 pixels.

To create your pattern, go to Image>Fill.  Select Pattern from the dropdown menu.  Select the pattern you just created, which will be on the bottom right of your palette.  Voila, you have a fill pattern.

Experiment. Consider different sizes, shapes, colors, and so on.

Also, you’ll see my pattern has a small gray line.  That means that I didn’t select my image quite right.  I should have turned on the grid.  Even so, I’m okay with the gray line.  It sort of looks stitched.   A happy accident.

I came across this YouTube video from MacMost.  It gives instruction on how to create a customized slide show in iMovie (rather then iPhoto).   Besides the vacation stuff, it could also be a good way of providing marketing information to a potential client interested in your quilts or artwork.  You can put together some images, add titles, information under each image, and so on.

I’ve no idea if the stats in this video are accurate, but it’s provocative nonetheless. Thanks Del!

When making a hanging sleeve for a quilt, it is important to incorporate some give to accommodate the hanging device, which at quilt shows is generally some sort of pole.  If the sleeve is sewn onto the quilt without any give, the hanging device can cause the quilt to buckle and not hang as it should.  While there are many methods of creating a sleeve, the following method works for me.  I also must credit quilt artist Libby Lehman on the instructions she shares on the IQA website.  While I discovered sewing wrong sides together for a hanging sleeve by accident (there’s a story), her folding method resulting in the “D” shape for give is more exact than my older method of  ironing in a pleat.

Cut a piece of fabric that is about 10+ to 11 inches wide by at least the width of your quilt.

I place the cut fabric on the back of the quilt, and I fold over the edges to the approximate width that I want the finished sleeve.  I finger press it (no photo – sorry about that!).    Generally I place the sleeve about 1/2 – 1″ from each side.

Fold the edge over twice and sew a seam away from the folded edge.  If precision is more important, then you may want to trim, double fold, and then stitch closer to the edge.  Or, you may prefer two seams — one by each edge.

When finished, lightly press the fabric in half, right sides OUT.

Open the fabric and then fold each edge to the center.  Again, right sides of fabric out.

Press this with a hot iron and some steam to create a good crease on each side.  Both crease lines will serve as the hand stitching line.

Grab the two edges of the fabric to seam together.  The fabric remains right sides out.

Sew the entire length of the sleeve with a 1/4″ seam allowance.  I start about 1/2 inch from the edge, back stitch to the edge, and then stitch the seam.

When coming to the end of the seam, I sew just about off  the edge.  I then swing around the fabric around . . .

and sew about an inch or so in.  This way the end of the seam is in rather than right at the edge.

Iron open the seam, but take care not to create a new seam.  I use a mini iron.  If you use a regular iron, tilt the iron so that you’re only using the tip.  Again, avoid making new creases (you only want the two to serve as your hand stitching line.

The seam is pressed open, but the original crease line is still there.

Pin the sleeve into position.

The important thing is maintaining the “D” shape.  In other words, do not pull the sleeve taunt.  If you’re more comfortable, baste rather than pin it into place.

Another view.  Also, per Alison’s helpful comment, watch the top placement of the sleeve to confirm that it is not too close to the edge.  Otherwise, you risk the sleeve peaking out from the top when the quilt is hanging.

Stitch the sleeve into place using whatever stitch you prefer — blind, whip, etc.

Here is the side stitched down (and if you’re more careful, you’ll line up the edges of the seam better than I did).  Once the sleeve is stitched into place, the quilt is ready for hanging.

Again, Libby gets all of the credit for her folding method resulting in the “D” shape for give.  If you’d like a copy of her instructions, visit the International Quilt Association website here.  Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the download PDF link.  And, while there, if you’re not a member of IQA, consider joining.

I came across a free Mac OSX utility program called PagePacker.  The program gives you the tools to create a little 8-page organizer from one sheet of paper.

After launching the program, you’ll see a template page with eight sections.  The program  comes with a variety of DIY Planner pages, such as daily, weekly, and monthly  to-do lists, calendar pages, and so on.  You then select a form and drag it onto the template.   You can also bring in your own PDFs and images.  Once the eight sections of the template are filled, it’s time to print.  After it’s printed, you fold, fold, snip, fold and – presto – you have a booklet.

In addition to the to-do list  reminder booklets, with some careful folding and a bit of glue stick, you can make a very cool little booklet with quilt images.  Or with some Misty Fuse or Wonder Under, you can make a small fabric booklet.  Once you understand the orientation and layout for each page, you can create as large a book as the paper your printer can handle.  How?  Print the book to a PDF.  Then import the PDF into a program such as InDesign or Photoshop and enlarge it as much as you need to.

If you don’t have a Mac, there is an online tool – PocketMod – that’s similar.  To run the application within your browser, you’ll need a Flash player.  Also, there’s a video that gives you a quick demo of the folding and snipping process.

There are a lot of online color tools.  And while researching an article on color-related websites for an upcoming article for the National Quilting Association’s quarterly journal, I discovered one called Color Sphere that I enjoyed and wanted to share. To quote, “Sphere uses basic color theory in order to automatically provide you with visually appealing colors.”  They also call it “an online color theory visualizer.”

By selecting one of the formulas, such as complementary or split-complementary or even clash, you can see how a selected color or colors will interact.

The tool also allows you to select a formula and simulate how the colors will look under different forms of colorblindness.

You can view the full spectrum, web smart, or web safe colors.  The above is the web safe palette.  While you cannot control the size of the swatch or mix colors such as a pastel with a heavily saturated color, it’s an interesting tool.

I was happy to learn that this tool, created by Mudcube and minus the sliders, is also available as a free Macintosh widget to download and add to your Dashboard tools.
Click here to download the Dashboard Widget from Apple.

ColorSchemer, Design in Harmony, also offers a free application for Windows users called ColorPix and another widget for Mac users called Galleria. Windows users can also download Just Color Picker from Anny Studio.  It that allows you to select a particular pixel under your mouse and transform it into different color formats and then select different color harmonies.

Did you ever look out at scenery and find yourself wishing you could take a photo that shows the entire breathtaking view?  Behold Photomerge.  Photomerge is a tool available in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements that allows you to stitch together two or more photos to create one photo.

Here are the basic of using the tool.  I’m working with only two photographs, but it works the same way using more than two photos.

1. Open the images that you’d like to stitch together. In this case. There are two:

2. Next, go to File . Automate > Photomerge.

3.  The Photomerge dialog box will open.

The center column defines the Source Files — the images that you’d like to merge together.  Because I opened the files before selecting the Photomerge command, I clicked the “Add Open Files” button.  My two files (called Picture 26.png and Picture 24.png — most of the time, you’ll be adding jpg files) opened in the center column.  (Note:  If you didn’t initially open the images, or if you have multiple images open and only want to use a few, select the appropriate options from the Use: drop-down menu.)  The Blend images together is checked — which is what I want, a blending of the two images.

The left column defines the layout of the images.  While Auto works fine for most situations, it’s fun to experiment with other layouts.

Once you have your images ready, click the OK button.  Then wait as the software does the work for you.

The resulting image is a merger of the Source Files.  I often find the results interesting to use as is or inspirational for something else.

If you open the Layers palette, you’ll see each image on its own layer with a layer mask blending the images together.  The merger is a result of the software examining the pixels and overlapping the seam.  The more seams, the more you may need to correct things.  If you are familar with working with masks, correcting seams is a matter of blowing up your image and adjusting the mask where needed.

To finish the panorama, use the crop tool to select the area you’d like to feature.  Drag the center handles of the crop in and out until you are satisfied.  Click the Return key to commit to your crop.  If you are unsatisfied with your crop, use the undo command and give it another try.

And here you have it!

Some tips:  Try to overlap a chunk of the scenery so that the software can better recognize and stitch together the overlap.  Keep the camera steady and at the same level for each picture.  To take the pictures, I generally shoot one, move two steps to the right and shoot another, move two more steps and take a third (and so on).  When I cannot do this, I twist my body.  However, the more twisting, the more there will be wonky angles on the top and bottom of your image that may require cropping.

Coming soon: more panoamic images and an explaination of how they were done.

I came across this new search engine, Search Me.  It’s visual-based, allowing you to see the site that relates to what you’re searching for.

For example, when I search on my name, the first site that comes up is my personal site (which is good).  As I scroll through, I find all kinds of things — like an old interview of me done more than 10 years ago! — and  some pages that have nothing to do with me (my name is so common!).

If you’re a Mac user, you’ll see that the view is nearly identical to that “Cover Flow” view in the Leopard OS.

Under the Preferences, you can do things like create a “day theme” which makes the background white rather than the “night theme”  (the default) which makes the background black.

You can also select “searchme lite” which gives a vertical column of pages with a white background.

The program allows the creation of “stacks” — kind of like bookmarks, but visual.  To use stacks, first create a stack name.  Then, each time you find a page that you’d like to save into a particular stack, you drag the page and drop it into that stack.  Then, the next time you’re on the site, you can look at your stack to see what’s updated on those pages.  Search Me provides some stacks.  Being a news junkie, I loaded up the News stack, which includes 13 news sites.  There are other news sites that I like checking out.  To add them, I opened each and then dragged and dropped each page directly onto the stack.  The stack tools section includes the ability to email the stacks, share them, and so on.  There is also video tutorials on the site explaining how to create and use stacks.

Here’s the “news”  stack which I copies from their example stacks.  (Caveat: the stack was working when I added it.  If you don’t see it, first give it a chance to load, then check to see if you have a Flash plugin, finally let me know as it’s posible that they changed the code.)   Under the “share” link in the Stacks section, there is an option to share to a blog, which is what I did here. There is information on their site on how to do this (basically grabbing the HTML code and putting it directly into the source of your blog page).

Important to note: The site is BETA, and it requires Flash.  That means that while most of it works, it’s still int the testing phase and is a bit buggy.  Also important to note, if you clear your Flash cache, you will lose your stacks.   Here’s a workaround:  (1) Email the stack to yourself; (2) open the email and click the link to see the stack in your Searchme browser window; (3) click the copy link within site to save it to your stack. A caveat:  I do not know how long the email link is good for.  For this reason, save any favorites the “old fashioned way” — in your bookmarks folder!

Last night I had the pleasure of being the first guest in a telecast hosted by The Professional Quilter magazine. The topic was digital-related and it covered a few of the topics in my book. I was looking forward to taking questions.  However, the format of the telecast didn’t allow for me to hear questions from participants but rather to take them through email.  The following is one of the questions I received.  I’m sharing it and my answer in the hopes that it will be helpful to someone else in this situation.

The question:
I am trying to sell hand-dyed fabrics and am concerned about my potential customers being concerned that the color on their monitor will be the same as the fabric they receive. I was thinking of adding a swatch of white to each photo? Will this help.

Answer:

It won’t hurt, and it may give a point of reference knowing that the swatch should read white. Thus if the white fabric reads darker than it should, chance are the hand-dyed fabric would also be darker.

The main question is can you match what your customer sees on his/her monitor to the actual fabric they receive. The answer is you generally cannot guarantee what your customer sees.  Why?  There are several factors that are outside of your control.  They include:

• how the person’s monitor is calibrated (if it’s even calibrated);
• what the age of the monitor is;
• where the person views the monitor — is it in direct sunlight? shade? a room with brightly colored wall? and so on;
• is there is a busy, colorful background pattern surrounding the displayed website;
• even the person’s vision and color perception will come into play.

To alert your customers, consider including a statement on your fabric page that the color being displayed may vary from the actual color of the fabric. If color is critical, the person should contact you for more information. Something like ..

“I have made every effort to photographically represent that fabric as best as possible. However, because of the wide variations in monitor quality and color settings, I cannot guarantee that what you see on your monitor will exactly match the actual fabric color. If color is critical and you have any questions about the fabric, please contact me and I will be happy to help.”

If you have a digital-related question that you’d like to ask me, please drop me a line and I’ll try to help.

I learned of an Irvine, California company called scanmyphotos.com while reading an article called  “Your Photos, Off the Shelf at Last,” by  David Pogue in the August 13th edition of The New York Times.  This company sounds too good to be true – but apparently they are and it is.  I suspect if others react to what this company offers as I did, the company is going to be flooded with work.

Here’s what they offer:  Scanning 1,000 photos, burning them to a DVD, and charing you $50 for it!  Is that the deal of the year?  The decade?   There are requirements — things like the images need to be between 3×3 to 11×14, bundled together in like sizes, cannot scan from a photo album, and so on.   They also scan slides, negatives, VHS to DVD (ooh … that comes in handy).

Is it just me?  Or are you now adding another item to the “to do” list

On Saturday, Rich and I went to the Lakota Wolf Preserve in upstate New Jersey.  They offer serious photographers the opportunity to walk within two sets of wire fences.  There are panels  cut through the interior fence allowing photographers to get an unobstructed view of the wolves.  However, the fee for the privilege is several hundred dollars.  While I’m all for the money going to the preserve to help care for the wolves while giving the ability to take some nice photos (and maybe one day I will), there were other factors that swayed us away for the higher price tag:   We simply wanted a couple decent  photos to remember the experience, and there was only one camera between us.  Thus, we took the far less expensive $15 tour that kept us on the outside of the two fences.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that it meant photographing through two sets of fences.  After some experimenting with settings and watching the angle of the light, I was able to take some photos that look as though there was no fence, or, at worse, a pale shadow of the fence.

When my husband saw the pictures, he asked “How did you do that?”

I also received some email asking how I was able to blur out the background of the butterfly pictures.  The very short answer to both questions:  Watching the light and adjusting the aperture.   Watching the light simply means seeing where the angle the light is coming from, its intensity, and how it may affect the subject of the photograph.  Some photographic terms for defining how that light interacts with your camera are:

Aperture:  It defines the diameter of the lens opening and how much light comes into the camera.  The size of the aperture is defined by the f-stop.  The “f”  stands for fraction of a focal length.  Focal length is also referred to as depth of field.
Shutter Speed: how long the light is allowed into the camera.
ISO (or ASA) defines how sensitive the sensor (or film) is to light.

How you use the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO is a sea-sawing balancing act to get the end result that you desire.  Luckily, when using a digital camera, you can immediately see your results and make changes as required.

Shutter speed makes sense:  The longer the camera shutter is open, the more light that hits the sensor (or film). If you’ve used film, you probably remember buying 100 ASA film, 400 ASA film, and even faster films.  Most people generally used 100 because it gave very good results in most lighting situations.  While not exactly, ISO is like the digital equivalent of ASA.  Generally the camera defaults to 100, and sometimes people increase this number as the lighting decreases.  Like with film, the higher the number, the greater the risk of having a grainy image.  Both shutter speed and ISO are relatively clear.  It’s f-stops, however, that can get tricky.

If you’ve used a 35mm camera , you probably remember the series of numbers on the lens. Those numbers are the f-stops — for example,  f/2 to f/32.  There is a mathematical explanation between the progression of f-stops.  Each successive f-stop allows in half of the incoming light.  In other words, the f/4 setting allows in half of the light as the f/2.8 setting.  The f/2.8 setting uses half of the light as the f/2 setting.  The term “stopping down” means allowing in half of the light. You don’t need to know this math unless you want to.  What is helpful to understand, however, is the following:

The smaller the f-stop (F2), the larger the aperture and also the wider the stream of light coming into the camera.  The larger that aperture, the less the overall image is in focus and the smaller the depth of field.  A  small f-stop is ideal for photographing a butterfly.  It keeps the focus on the butterfly and blurs out everything else.  A smaller f-stop can work nicely when photographing a person.

• Small f-stop = large aperture or wide light beam = smaller focus area
  (small depth of field)

The higher the f-stop (F22), the smaller the aperture, meaning the more narrow the stream of light that comes into the camera.  The small the aperture, the more in focus, and greater the depth of field.  A high f-stop is ideal for photographing a landscape.

• High f-stop= smaller aperture or less wide light beam = greater focus of wide area
  (large depth of field)

It seems counter intuitive, as it would seem that the larger number would indicate the more light coming in.  But, not so.  Think of quilting needles — the higher the quilting needle size, the smaller the eye of the needle.  With f-stops, the higher the number the more depth of field because of the smaller aperture opening.

I really do get dyslexic with this stuff, and when I’m shooting I often think: small f-stop, small focus; high f-stop, wide focus.

This image has a medium high f-stop.  The higher f-stop means more of the image is in focus.  This is why the fence, especially around the area of the wolf’s head, is in focus. However, you can also see how the depth of field is graduating from somewhat out of focus to in focus.

This is taken from the same location, but this time I widened the aperture, meaning I used  a smaller f-stop which results in the focus being on the subject itself.  This means that the fence in front of the wolf is a bit blurred, and the area behind the wolf is a bit blurred.  Neither is very blurred because the wolf was relatively close to the fence.  Even so, I like this image better than the one above it.  Editing away the fence in this image would be far easier than in the image above it.

Here’s another example.  In this case, the fence is still visible, but not as distracting as it would otherwise be had I used a higher f-stop and the focus is still on the wolf.

Many cameras come with pre-programmed settings such as a close-up, a landscape setting, a person in the foreground and focus in the background, and so on.  In those cases, the camera is controlling the aperture and shutter speed for you (based on the ISO setting you’re using).  If you have aperture priority, that means you can set the f-stop and let the camera figure out the faster shutter speed it can use.  Shutter priority means you define how fast you want the shutter speed and it balances out the aperture.  Understanding these principals allows you to know when you may want to override your camera’s programmed settings.

In this example, the focus is on the head of the wolf and the nearby greenery.

Here’s another way to think of aperture and f-stops.   Think of a large circle, that circle can represent an f/2 aperture.  Then think of a series of progressively smaller circles, all within the large circle.  Each of the  progressively smaller circles have a progressively higher f-stop number and each smaller circle lets in less light.   It’s the large circle that is the constant.  The aperture can close smaller, but it can never open larger than the largest aperture of the lens.   And this is a prime reason why a “fast” 200mm lens can cost far more money than a much “slower” 200mm lens.  The wider aperture can allow in more light, meaning you can use it in a low light situation, but it can always be stopped down to let in less light.  However, a lens with a small aperture to begin with can only allow in so much light at its widest setting.  Thus, in the same lighting situation, one lens could require a tripod or flash, while another may allow in enough light so that neither a tripod or flash is needed.  But, again, it’s all a balancing act between aperture, shutter speed, ISO, available light, and even your subject (is it moving like in a sporting event or stable like in a landscape).

Here are a few more images using a smaller f-stop.

In this image, the fence is hardly visible at all.

While the fence is a bit visible in certain areas, it also looks like sunlight reflecting off of something like tree leaves.

When I was fooling with settings and looking at the results (I was using a digital camera), I realized that the placement of the wolf’s eyes affected the quality of the image.  When possible, I tried lining up the eyes within the space between the wire of the fences.  Otherwise, the eyes appeared less in focus because the wire of the fence was blurred in front of the eye.

None of these images are incredible (although I am partial to a couple of them),  and they are a bit “soft” because of having a blurred fence in front of the subject, but they all are better than they would have been if the fence was prominent.

So, to answer the question of how I photographed the wolves and the butterflies: I used a fairly decent lens with its lowest  f-stop,  I watched the angle of the light, and I focused on the eyes of the wolf or the head of the butterfly.

As you can see below, I’ve been on my annual hunt to find butterflies to photograph.  In the last batch, I grabbed a media card and went off photographing.  The day prior, however, was my mom’s birthday.  A couple siblings, my husband, and I took mom out for dinner and then a small party at her home.  I took some pictures of mom blowing out her candles, and so on.  What does that have to do with my butterfly pictures, you wonder?  It was the card with mom’s pictures that I inadvertently grabbed, and I reformatted that card before I took the party pictures off!  Oh boy.  I’d never hear the end of this one!

Then  my brain kicked in.  I remembered that a couple of MacWorlds ago, I bought a photo recovery program  called “Picture Rescure, Digital Picture Recovery,” by Prosoft Engineering, Inc.  I installed the program  (yes, I bought it a couple of years ago and haven’t installed it until now).  I inserted my media card.  A screen appeared showing the card.  I clicked the start button.  Slowly the bar along the bottom started making its way from one side to the other.  As it did, a grid started filling with thumbnail images. And, there they were: the photos of mom!  Wow.  It worked!  I only had to select those images and click a recover button.

My partner informed me that of course it would work, that reformatting doesn’t actually erase the card but instead resets the directory information.  Since I didn’t fill the card with mom’s images, and since I didn’t fill the card with butterfly pictures (something I would have done had there been more to photograph), the images of mom were still there.  In theory it all sounds fine, but seeing the reality of it actually working was great.

Lesson learned:  If you reformat your media card and then realize that you didn’t yet get photos off of it, stop using the card.  Then do a search on “photo recovery software.”  While the program I used is no longer being sold, Prosoft is selling a new program called Klix (which I suspect is even better than what I was using).  Hopefully you’ll never need such a program.  But at $30, it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind when photos are inadvertently deleted.  It works with both Mac and PC platforms.  http://www.joesoft.com/products/klix.php.