It's Blackberry time

Not the electronic device. The edible sort.

DH, DSon and DSon's freind have been picking blackberries, and had a lovely afternoon turning the berries into preserve and squash / syrup (for diluting with water and drinking ... soft-drink, you know).
And here are the pictures to prove it :


Setting out (some of the) containers for the preserve / jam.












The almost boiling cauldron












Cleaning the edges of the glass with a cloth dipped in boiling water.












Putting on the lid (deep concentration)








The first 4 glasses. More were made. I think we ended up with 12 liters of squash/syrup/juice and about 20 glasses of jam / preserve. DS's freind is going to take about half home. DH has enough blackberries picked to make another batch the same size.

... DD and I will enjoy consuming them.

Dissing ms Aloi

Have you read ms Aloi's rant about we who knit, stitch and blog ?
Well ... just in case you haven't, follow the link.
I would have liked to comment directly to ms Aloi on the HuffPost site, but frankly, giving HuffPost free access to all my information, including my address-book, is not something I want to do. Instead, I'm doing the next-best thing. I am writing my very own counter-rant on my own, crafty blog.

- - -

When I cut out a new pattern for sewing, I use my great-aunt's scissors. She was a seamstress, and kept both herself, her (unmarried) younger sister and their mother well provided for all her adult life by plying the needle and keeping the upper crust of her town well and fashionably dressed.
I have my mother's pincushion displayed in pride of place; she was a prolific writer in her scholarly field, and brought up a large brood of children, most of whom were not 'by her belly'.
I have my aunt's sewing-box and a good deal of her knitting-needles; she too was a tough, self-reliant female, who spent her life educating young mothers.

Coming from a line of bad-ass women, who did not need empty posturing to make themselves heard or seen, has - I must admit - given me a less than tolerant view of people (disregarding gender), who out of hand dismiss the lives of these women and the way they chose to express themselves at the end of the day.

I am a pastor, a university teacher, hold a ph.d. in a seriously scary scholarly subject, am the mother of two teens, and a wife, freind, neighbour and counsellor as well. I do not waste my time making perfunctory and juvenile statements about immaterial subjects (like super-heroes or vampires), I spend the time I call my own, by creating things that are beautiful to my eyes, and sharing them with my freinds all over the world.

I can wrap myself in one of my aunt's beautiful lace shawls, knitted in the evenings after long days of work, or lay out my mother's embroidered place-mats, or fold my great-aunt's beautiful, monogrammed white-work napkins, that are only used on special occasions, and when I do, I feel a deep connection to these women, just as I do when I cut out a pattern, put a pin in the pin-cushion or cast on a new pair of socks on my aunt's pins.

If you, ms Aloi, consider yourself a feminist, consider too, that being female and being a feminist, is not about being male. It is not about just turning the tables and showing male superheroes posing like female ones. It is about finding a voice. A voice and a place where you, as a woman, can be you, and are empowered.

Your voice - sadly - seems scornful, juvenile, narrow-minded and ignorant, just as you seem to be basing your evaluation of female worth on whether or not a given female is buying into the male way of expression. I do not need to reduce my life and my opinions in that way.

... and 'ignorant' ?
'The Killing' is not originally Swedish, it is originally Danish. And yes, there is a difference. I know the two countries are very close in many, many ways (just think of the myriad of wars that have been fought between them), but they are still not identical. Try looking both up on Google Maps or Wikipedia.

... and Jane Austen is one of the most brilliant authors of any age, whose elegant prose continues to run little circles around her readers, disregarding the subject-matter; it boggles my mind to think you can praise Buffy the Vampire Slayer and True Blood and not recognize the wicked, subversive brilliance behind a statement like this:
"The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of a sister author; and to her treatment of the subject I will only add, in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in women than ignorance."
J. Austen "Northanger Abbey" chapter 14

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 5

SO, circular 4-patch in the centre, version 2. There is no green in the centre, and still the block reads 'too green' to my eyes.
And I think I have broken the 'code' on when I think a block is 'too green' : When the inner and outer triangle on the pieces for the 12" block are too alike, the block reads as 'too green' for me. Strange but true.
Well. At least I now know what to avoid :-)

And then Paula asked if these blocks will go into a big quilt. Well ... depends :-) Right now, I enjoy making them. I am trying to stick to a sort-of colourway (green for all outer triangles, pink-orange-yellow mostly for the inner bits, and in the fullness of time, I think (but haven't decided firmly yet), that they will be set on various blue backgrounds. How big the quilt will end up, all depends on how long I think it is fun to make them, experiment with colourplacement and the like. So : Yes, Paula, they will end up in a quilt ... eventually :-) But when and how big no-one knows.

On to the next one.

Hybrid-piecing Hexagons

Hand-piecing hexagons is - for me - the natural way to do it.
Occasionally (rarely, but it happens) I get impatient and feel that I 'need' to move forward faster, and that is when machine-piecing comes into the picture.

BUT, machine-piecing hexagons seems to me to be a cruel and unusual way of doing hexagon-blocks. My sewing-machine and I like each other well enough - most of the time - but we are not on what you might call intimate terms, and me doing inset seams of any kind on the machine is not a sight to be soon forgotten (no matter how fervently you might wish that it was, and that your ears would stop burning)

Hybrid-piecing to the rescue !

Machine-piece the straight, not-inset seams, and then hand-piece the 'troublesome' inset seams. And because that sounds complicated (but isn't) here is a small description, with pictures.

I would like, at this point, to apologize for the quality of the pictures. I am not a professional photographer, and getting clear pictures when doing closeups like this, is - frankly - a bear to do. Know that I did it as well as I could. If you have trouble seeing how a picture could possibly illustrate the point I'm trying to make, double-click on it, and it will open 'on its own' in a (much) larger size.


Lay out your block (in this case, a double GFG-flower). I prefer to lay it out with the back up.
(and yes, eagle-eyed reader, there is a number on one of the hexagons. That is because it is printed from the CD. These hexies have been around for a loooong time)







Machine-piece into what might be called hexagon-strips.

Piece edge to edge (!)







When cutting the pieces apart, trim the thread on both sides, so that no ends 'stick out'. On the picture (right), you can see that one side of the seam has been trimmed, the other hasn't.
Trim them all.

Doing this means, that you can 'open' the seam when hand-piecing the strips together, but it still leaves just (!) enough thread to ensure that the whole seam doesn't unravel on you. If you feel iffy about having only 0.25" of thread-end between you and an unraveling seam, clip the thread a little bit further out, and then, with your needle, unpick one stitch at each end. You can do that while piecing.

If you want to press as you go, this is the point where you press the strips.
It isn't necessary, because the rest of your stitching will be by hand, so you can just leave well alone and press it all when the flower is finished. If you really want to press, press all seams the same way. Yes. Same way. It will work out and will press up a treat in the end.


Once all the strips for the flower has been machine-pieced, the hand-piecing part comes.
Since your pieces have been prepared with Inklingo, use a plain running-stitch.

At corners, take a backstitch, so you get both of two pieces anchored to the same match-mark on the single-piece (click on the picture if you have trouble seeing the back-stitch ... I do). Do not break the thread, but 'pass' from one hexagon to the next until the whole strip has been pieced.
Then move on to the next one.


When all the hexagon-strips have been joined, press your double hexagon flower.

It will press flat a treat, and all the intersections will open beautifully.





Requirements :
One of the (many) Inklingo 60-degree hexagon-collections.
1 flower-centre hexagon
6 inner-flower hexagons
12 outer-flower hexagons

Repeat as desired :-)

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 4

SO. Double Sunflowers look good, but really ... 100 pieces to piece is a bit much sometimes. There has got to be something else I can do with the centre circle.

There is :-)

The collection comes with quarter circles, so ... maybe a circular 4-patch ? Worth a try, at least :-)
And this is the result. I sort-of like it. But I still think that the open space in the centre is too much.
Strangely, this one doesn't seem too green. It 'should', but it doesn't.

On to the next one ! Maybe without green in the centre ?

Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler

Over at the Inklingo Sampler-blog, I'm following Barbara Brackman's Civil War sampler, and writing up printing-tables for the blocks. Brackman does hers in the 8" format, I do the ones at the Inklingo Sampler in a 6" format.
Occasionally, a block pops up, which doesn't really agree with me. Or with Inklingo. Either or both.
And one such, was the block for week 30, Peterson's Stars and Strips. Oh, the 'stripes' part is a piece of cake to make with Inklingo, just use the 1" Log Cabin collection, print 3 reds and 3 whites, and you're good.
The part that doesn't sit well with me is the applique'ed, 5-pointed star.
I don't do applique stars. Not if I can help it.
And yes, I have done'em. 5-point, 6-point, 8-point. And I'm not doing any more than I absolutely have to.
So, I didn't stitch the block. Just wrote up the printing-table, and made a link to a web-page with directions on how to make a 5-pointed star.
And then, a few days ago, I realized that the actual quilt, over which Brackman has constructed her block, does have applique'ed stars, but ... it also has a blue border with white stars.
So, here is my version.
It's a 6" block, and is very simple to make. You can make it 8" by adding some more strips, or by using the Inklingo 1" Log Cabin collection rather than the 0.75" collection I've been using for this block. What is important for this one is : red fabric, white fabric, and blue fabric with white stars.

Follow the link to download a printing-table for the 6" block.

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 3

So, I didn't like the green-ness of the previous Sunflower.
New attempt. Inner triangles of the larger of the two Sunflowers are no longer green, but rather a light yellow. Same general colour-family as the diamonds.

I like that.
I have also begun to audition fabrics for the background, and I like the general idea of 'bright blue', hovering somewhere between cerulean (thank you, 'The Devil Wears Prada' for that term) and cobalt. Time enough to make a decision, though :-)

What I do not like, is the way the inner diamonds look on this one.
Lesson learned here : When making a Double Sunflower, the fabric used for the smaller (inner) diamonds should read as a solid (or almost solid), and not have a busload of interesting bits of pattern.

On to the next one !
I hope you can tell that I'm having fun :-)

Making Patterns

So, I have bitten the bullet and done what I never thought I would do.
I am opening my own (teeny-tiny) shop-corner here on the internet, and am, as of today, now, beginning to sell patterns.

I have also 'opened' the left-hand margin of this blog. On it, you will find links to my shop. Each picture will be a link to the shop-page, and on the shop-page, the head-line for each pattern will take you to the blog-posts that are relevant for the pattern.

I know there is only one pattern for sale right now, but there will be more. In the fullness of time.
Do not, however expect to see it next week or the one after. I not only design and make patterns, I see some in my life too, and one of the recurrent patterns is, that every time I believe I have plenty of time and energy for something, something else happens that throws a spanner in the works, and it all goes to pot.
So don't hold your breath for the next one, just ... keep your fingers crossed.

The first pattern is called Tea Roses.
Size of quilt : 48 x 66"
Uses Inklingo Collection #3 for templates.

The pattern uses 10" squares (actually, it uses a Layer Cake), but can be made with F/16s too, or scraps from your stash.

If you encounter problems with either buying or using the pattern, please contact me :
tildebinger (at) paradis (dot) dk
This is my new shop e-mail, so everything sent to that addy will go directly into a separate folder, and I can deal with it momentarily (if I am awake, at home, and by the computer)

This, first pattern is launched with a sale-price of only 7.50 US $
After August 15th, it will be normally priced, and will set you back 9 US $

IF you are living in Denmark, and buying from there, please use the Danish Kroner option in the shop. Here the price - until August 15th - is 39 kroner.

What you get :

A pdf-file (you need to print it out yourself) containing 12 pages, with fabric- (and other) requirements, notes on how to make the block, Inklingo printing tables, and a lot of words.

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 2

So, the big open space of a 5"+ diameter centre for my 12" sunflower was too much for me.
Which means I'm ready to try something different. Something that will give me more interest in the centre of the block. What about a double Sunflower.
Because, let's face it, where is the fun in stiching a 12" block with 49 pieces (that's without the outside, background, which hasn't been put on yet, and thus does not count), compared to stitchin a 12" block with 97 pieces !
So here it is : Double the Sunflower, Double the fun (! ???)

And lessons learned on this one : Not so much green. I really must reduce the amount of green on these blocks. On to the next one.

Organizing Fabric

I'm a messy quilter (who would have thunk). When I start a new project, I pull fabrics, and audition them. All over the place. They are draped on tables, on floors, on chairs ... everywhere.
Then, as choices are made, they tend to stay where they were.
On tables, on floors, on chairs, everywhere.
And that is how a true mess is born.
This time, with the Sunflowers, I've decided to try a new strategy.
Once a fabric is chosen, it has been put in a box. Many fabrics in one box ! All together now. Yes, it is overflowing, and there are too many fabrics to rest comfortably in it, but they are all together now. I can take out one, put in another, and I can still, at a glance, audition whether or not I think it works with the rest of them. As it looks now, I would say that this grouping has the prospect of a nice, soothing quilt in the general colourway of 'chartreuse and magenta are neutrals' variety.

P.S. To those of you who think OMG, she can afford magnum bottles of Grand Cru wine from Saint Emilion, rest easy. It was a gift from someone of my acquaintance who can afford magnum bottles of Saint Emilion Grand Cru. And I never (never) say no to gifts of wonderful wine. As you can see, I even save the wrapping. It was the first, and will probably be the only, time in my life where a wine of that calibre ever enters my life.

Another one bites the dust

This is a finished quilt-top. Not a finished quilt, but at least it is a finished top.

Project was started in late August 2008, and have been stitched on rarely. Until this May, where it moved to the top of the list, and became my priority project.
The blocks are entirely hand-pieced, but the joining of the blocks is by machine.
For the longest time, I called it 'Rectangular Hexagons', but after the previous quilt was finished and up on the design-wall, and this one went up (while the last blocks were pieced), DH said that it looked like old-fashioned, English Tea Roses, so that's the name.
TeaRoses.

In May, I decided to make an effort to finish this top, before my b'day this year, and I'm proud to see that I met my goal.
Now on to piecing the backing.

Washing fabric

I always wash my fabrics before storing them on my shelves.
Always !

I think I have one JellyRoll that is still wrapped tightly, with the ribbon, that isn't washed, but other than that, all fabric on my shelves are washed. Yes, that includes 5" charms, 10" squares and the other small bits.

Now, washing F/4s and even F/8s is easy. Pop them in the washing-machine with the rest of it, and you're done.
Washing charms, or even the 10" squares, is worse. Popping a small bit of fabric, with nothing but 'loose' sides into the washing-machine, makes for lots and lots of fluff in the load, and might unravel more than one is ready to loose, so, here's what I do :

Using the hottest water I can wring from my tap, and a bit of (mildish) soap, everything is dumped into the hand-wash basin in the bathroom, and left there to soak a bit.
I agitate it lightly, just enough to know I have done it, but as you can see, I have quite a small sink, and there are 40 squares, each 10" now crammed into it.
Rinse - again in water as hot as you can get it - as many times as you need to get all the soap out. On the last rinse, do not drain (!)
Now comes the fun part.
Take off your shoes or socks (or be prepared to have them soaked) and roll up your pants / jeans (again : or be prepared to have them soaked, at least at the hem).

Take the soaking, dripping, running wet squares, one by one, and 'hang' them in your shower. Tiles or glass, either works. My shower has tiles, but I've done this in showers that have glass.

Flatten out the squares as you hang them, so there are no large air-bubble caught between shower-sides and fabrics. Don't obsess ! just ... do it.

And then, when all are plastered to the wall, leave the shower and close the door. Depending on air-humidity, you will be able to pick up almost-dry squares of fabric within a few hours. Some will have fallen on the floor before they were dry enough to store, but that's ok too : Give them a quick run-over with your iron, and they are perfect.

With 'big' pieces like 10" squares, the majority will loosen before they are completely dry. With 5" charms, the majority will stick until they are completely dry.

The beauty of this way of doing things is :
You get your fabric washed.
You don't get fabric that is impossible to iron out.
The majority of shrinking has now happened, AND, whatever nastiness the producer has treated the fabric with, is now out, and even scent-allergics (like yours truly) can handle them without fear of a fit.
And that's the way I do it here in Copenhagen.

Going on

Well I'm progressing slowly, but surely on the Hexagon quilt.
Now two thirds of it is together.

And that's about what I'm getting done ... which is much more than nothing.

Other than that, I'm reading, and leafing through quilt-history books, and listening to music, and doing nothing in particular.

Working hard at wasting the last week of my vacation. Come August 1st, and I need to get back to studying and preparing and taking notes for classes. BUT not yet. Not yet.

Weather is, as can be seen on the picture on the right, rainy. Interspersed with showers of rain. Unless it is drizzling.
Naturally there is the occasional pour-down, but mostly, it's just rain.

A day of prayer

Well, in the wake of the horrible happenings in Norway, I've turned off the TV and the radio and all the rest.
I know what happened is horrible. I know it is devastating now, and will continue to be so for the survivors, probably for the rest of their lives.
I know, that thousands of lives are going to be wrecked because of this.

It is beyond words.

I don't want to be caught by a churning TV and endless repetitions of what happened, talked about either in sombre tones, or in the slightly shrill, breathless voices of reporters trying to wring the last drop of drama out of what really isn't a drama, but a tragedy;
instead I've sat down myself to stitch, and to reflect, and to pray.

And I'm halfway there on the hexagon-rectangle TeaRoses.

Very restful colours, and I certainly need those today.

Progressing on the hexagons

Not much progress on any Sunflowers.
BUT, I have some rows together on the rectangular hexagons, or TeaRoses as DH would have it. One third of the top is now together, and they are, even if I say so myself, looking good.

Now, if only the joining of blocks into strips, and the joining of strips into wider strips, wasn't so mind-bogglingly boring, I might be persuaded to work faster, but procrastination lures around every corner, and sometimes even dances right in front of my eyes.
And you know what Oscar Wilde said about temptation. Whoever can resist a temptation, doesn't deserve it.
I am very deserving today.

And just because, here's my kitty basket-case. Most of the cat is rolling over the edges, and bursting out over the top, as dough which raises, but you see, there are some blocks in that basket, and as long as I persist in sitting here, without a quilt laid out for her to rest on, she has to make do.
Basket case.

Here comes the Sun(flowers) 1

Today the sun was - surprisingly - out to play, so I sat me down on the veranda, mug of tea and some stitching at hand.
Sunflowers !

I have been in love with Sunflower quilts ever since I saw a picture of one in 'Lone Stars' (Texas Quilt History book, volume 1), which was - incidentally - my very first quilt-book. And I have wanted to make a Sunflower quilt ever since.

I have had recurring searches, trying to find a pattern or a way to make this easier to construct, but every single pattern seemed to involve about a zillion little bits that needed to be cut terrifyingly precisely, and then curved seams galore, or, applique of curves galore. And frankly, I didn't have the heart or the courage to commit to it.

BUT, then Linda Franz issued two sizes of Sunflower templates (Inklingo), and ... well ... what can I say ... I just had to do it. I have already shown 4 small Sunflower blocks, made with the 6" collection, so here is the first 12" Sunflower.
It is 'plain', not double, just a Sunflower.
And I love it, but ...
... there's always a 'but' with me.
The centre fills too much, and is too uninteresting.
And it's almost too green
And I haven't (yet) decided what to do about the background.

I'll try shaking things up, one parameter at a time, and with any luck, by the time I have stitched 'That Perfect Sunflower' I'll have enough blocks for a quilt.

Field of Flowers Finish

And I have a finished project !
The first one in years. Literally !
"Field of Flowers", which is shown above and to the right. The colours on the above picture are more true to the real thing than is the full picture on the right.

Shown sleeping on the quilt is my - occasionally - cute kitty, Josephine. In my mind (and hers) she's a terminally cute, tiny almost-still kitten. In the parallel universe that everyone else inhabits she's a slightly overweight, middle-aged cat who talks (too) loud, when she's dissatisfied (and she is frequently), hogs the covers at night, terrorizes any new cats that might come under her radar ... BUT, then she lies down on a quilt, rolls into herself and falls asleep, and she's as cute as can be. It isn't just sleeping dogs one should let in peace.
Quilt is made with the Inklingo Drunkard's Path and 6" Sunflower collection, and with oodles of scraps and F/4s (and F/8s and F/16s) from my stash. And if you click on the smaller picture, you'll see it in a larger format, and will be better able to see what it really looks like.

Quilting in Progress

Well ... quilting is sort of in progress.
It is quite difficult to get up from the current project, and go wash hands or something of that order, because when I come back to the machine, this is what is in progress.
Yes, she looks dead cute our kitty, but it does hamper my style and progress, particularly because my backbone seems to be made of marshmallow when it comes to waking up kitties, kiddies and other cute critters.
I did lift her up, and quilting commenced ... eventually.

200th post and the ugliest backing in the world

Yep. This is (according to blogger, at least) my post # 200 on this blog.
Took some time to get here, but now it has arrived.

And I have been pondering what to do; keep quiet and pretend nothing special happened, have a big bash with loads of prizes or a medium sized give-away. It is the latter. A medium-size give-away. BUT to qualify to enter, there are conditions, but first a bit of an explanation :

On your right is a picture of what is possibly the ugliest backing in the world. It is certainly the ugliest backing I have ever contemplated putting on a quilt; its main merit is, that it is fabric from the shelves and that together, they represent a little more space for some of the good stuff I actually want.

It is strange that it turned out this ugly, because each individual fabric in the mix is quite nice ... well, was quite nice before they were put together. But the sum of the parts is ... worse than I ever imagined it could be.
BUT, beauty (and hideousness) is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder, so this is where we close in on the give-away :

To enter the give-away, you need to somehow publish a picture of your ugliest quilt to date (back or front), on your blog or in an online photo-album. Once it is published, you go back to this post, and leave a comment with a link to your ugliest endavour, and you're in !
The prize ?
The prize is a 25 $ gift-certificate to an on-line quilt-shop of your choice. Yes. My ingenuity falls short of deciding what you want, so a gift-certificate it is.

Comment, with a link to a picture of your ugliest quilt (back or front) before July 15th, where I will do the draw. And remember, the prize is anything you can get for 25 $ at your favourite, on-line quiltshop :-)

And just so it won't all be ugly : Here's a picture of the finished Field of Flowers top. I swear to you, it kicks more a ... donkey in real life than it does in this picture ... is more alive, if you will. And looks nicer. DD - who has already claimed this quilt - loves the front, but hates the backing. Too bad. If she wants one, she'll get the other. The good thing about the combination - I've told her - is, that in the fullness of time, she'll be able to tow the quilt everywhere without worrying that it gets dirty or torn on the back :-) A few patches to mend it could not possibly make it any uglier than it is already.

Made with Inklingo Drunkard's Path and 6" Sunflower collections.

Eeeeeew ....

We have owned this house for 21 years.
This is the first time something like this has happened.
Sewers set out, and ... eeewwww.

This is what the basement looks like (the rest of the rooms are more of the same) :











Fortunately, only one essential trunk (with photos and family papers) was hit by the water, so this is what the living-room and the kitchen looks like (and the rest of the rooms are more of the same) :












I think, possibly, that this will be the event that finally pushes me to scan the family photos, my parents' love-letters, and other family papers, and begin processing them.
It will be a few days before I'm back with you.

Simple Woman's Daybook - 2

I'll do the Simple Woman's Daybook, again. It is still a neat idea. And even though I am not doing it with any real regularity, it is a good way to keep up to date with oneself.

Outside my window...
It is overcast, but with glimpses of sun. Rain has been threatened but not realised. And the doves are cooing. Amazing to be 200 meters from the road-stretch in Denmark which has the most traffic, around the clock, and barely hear the traffic.

I am thinking...
That being without teen-agers for a week is good preparation for becoming empty-nesters.

I am thankful for...
DS graduating, with excellent results; and DD finishing her first year in high-school, also with excellent results. Having gifted children can be a mixed blessing, but they both seem to have finally found a peer-group where their braininess is not a (huge) problem.

From the kitchen...
Have just made an egg-salad. In this country, that means loads of mayonaise (but in our case, tempered with low-fat sour-cream), chopped up hard-boiled eggs, apples and maccaroni; curry, salt, pepper and a dash of mustard to taste. Not diet-food, so we rarely make it, but it does taste good.

I am wearing...
The permanent uniform : Jeans and a t-shirt. Bare feet though. Which is nice.

I am creating...
Beautiful things. And striving for making order out of chaos. Always a hard thing to do.

I am reading...
'Finding Sanctuary' by Christopher Jamison; and - because that is not an easy and fast read - I am in the process of re-reading Dorothy Dunnet's Lymond Chronicles. Not exactly an easy read either, but not one where you have to stop and contemplate every 5 pages either.

I am hoping...
To find more permanent work soon. Being without a congregation is not really what I am best at.

I am hearing...
Genesis, Greatest hits / Turn it on Again, and U2 The Joshua Tree.

Around the house...
Cat is not-quite sleeping on the table. Leaning into my left arm and purring. Mentally she's a kitten, even though she is becoming a middle-aged lady, and has been 10+ pounds for years.

One of my favorite things...
The smell of air-dried, fresh linen. On the bed.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Make a few more quilt-blocks of the two kinds I have going. Hand- and machine-work respectively. And get back to the paper I'm trying to write. It needs to be finished by September 1st, and the sooner I get it licked into shape, the sooner I can dream away the rest of the summer.

Is this weird or what ?

I'm child-free this week (well, teen-ager free, amounts to the same thing, and the quiet is a balm to both soul and body ... even if I'm somewhat unsettled and on edge by not having the brood within shouting distance).

ANYway. Carpe Diem, take the day, take the opportunity : Time to wash the quilts in their rooms.

Two of them went very well, thank you, but the third. Oh, no. Unintentionally pink in places. Back into the washing-machine, this time with 3, rather than just one, dye-magnet. All 3 sheets came out purple-red.
... and so did parts of what used to be whites on the quilt. If you look at the picture top-right, and see the two stars on the left side of that picture; they used to have white fabric, where there is now light purplish-pink.
Or look at the picture below. Bright whites in some places, but muddy, light purplish pink in others.

And in case you wondered : All fabrics have been washed before being pieced together.
The finished quilt has been washed before. In the same machine. Using the same water-tap. And using the same soap. It did not mis-colour last summer or the summer before that. It did so this year.

Now, I don't have access to Retayne or Synthrapol or any of the other fancy stuff that Americans use, I live in Europe, so : any suggestions on how to salvage this ? Other than learn to love light purplish-pink instead of white?

Graduation

I do not, as a general rule, do this, but ... DS has now graduated from the local equivalent of High-School, and here are the pictures to prove it.

Getting the cap on Tuesday (when students pass their final test, the teacher who does the exam also gets to put the visible proof of passing on said student's head), after a well-deserved A.



Getting the diploma.

The cap he gets and wears is identical to the cap both his mother and his father ... and 3 out of 4 grandparents' got when they graduated 'Gymnasium' (and his maternal grandmother graduated in 1939, so ...). Not the same cap, mind you, just looks the same.



After the ceremony, all 262 new students (yes, that's how many graduated on Saturday, from this school), started "the drive". Going from home to home, visiting each for 10-20 minutes, and then driving on. By the time they arrived at our place, they had been going for 8 hours, and had already visited 15 different homes, and were - generally speaking - outrageously drunk. But well-behaved and delightful all the same.

So, for 15 minutes on Saturday evening, we had a yard full of students. And since we thought they might be cold after a day spent on an open wagon, we had hot chocolate as one of the things offered. It was recieved gratefully, and enjoyed thoroughly.


Oh, well. A mother is allowed to brag, and to be proud :-D

Consider it done.

Frescobaldi's Passacaglia

I have been looking for a CD with Girolamo Frescobaldi's 'Cento Partite sopra Passacaglia'.

Diane Boston named Lucy Boston's Passacaglia-quilt for it (full story in Diane Boston's book). So, I have been searching WITHout luck, until my teenage children said 'Have you checked YouTube ?'

Well ... duh, as they would also say.

ANYway I have, now, checked YouTube, AND Vimeo and here it is :
Part 1, and Part 2.


And just so you don't think the quilt doesn't still live, here's a picture of one of my favourite blocks in the big Passacaglia quilt.

Isn't it amazing what fussy-cutting will do ?

Different strokes for different folks

Before I start : The picture has absolutely nothing to do with the post below. I just think that a picture-less post is boring, boring, boring so ... the picture shows a mock-up of some of my Rectangular Hexagon blocks, laid out on my ironing board. I have at the time of writing, finished 2/3s of the blocks I need.

Another note :
I have absolutely no economical ties with Inklingo (more's the pity). I do not own even the tiniest bit of that company, and I do not, in any way, get paid by Linda Franz or Inklingo ... or, indeed, Accuquilt.

So, get ready for :

Accuquilt vs Inklingo.

On one of my forays around the internet, I stumbled upon a site, that led me to the Accuquilt page, and ... I've heard about it before, and it sounds nifty. It truly does. Slap the fabric on a piece-of-something that comes with the cutting-machine, run everything through with the hand-crank and ... hey presto ! up to 6 identical and precisely cut shapes.

And I noticed the 'Studio Top Selling Die Bundle' which has one Dresden Plate shape, and one size Orange Peel (but only with half-peels), one size Winding Ways and one size Drunkard's Path ... and some leaves, flowers and squares.
Apart from the Leaves and flowers, everything is available in Inklingo. The Orange Peel and the Drunkard's Path collections have squares too.

And I thought, well, Inklingo doesn't cut it out for you. You need to find your scissors or your rotary-cutter.
But if you don't have an ancient blade in your rotary-cutter, you can cut up to 6 identical shapes with that one too. It isn't something the Accuquilt can do that my rotary-cutter can't.

But the price !
I can get just about anything Inklingo, and still have money left over compared to buying the Accuquilt 'Studio Top Selling bundle' of shapes. That particular set of cutting dies costs a whopping 750 $ (and that is with a discount, because it is a bundle); to actually use that particular bundle, I'll have to have the 'Studio Fabric Cutter' as well, and that one alone is 595 $.

Then I thought, how far can I go for 1,345 $ with Inklingo.
Well, the cheapest MacBook (according to apple.com) will set me back 999 $ ... let's call that 1,000 $ (and we all know that Mac is more expensive than generic windows-computers, so I'm not bargain hunting here)
That leaves me 345 $ to get a printer and one or more collections of Inklingo.
An HP deskjet all-in-one, will set me back about 100 $ (remember, I'm not bargain-hunting), and then there will be 245 $ left to get all of the Inklingo collections that are similar to the ones in the 'Top Selling Die Bundle' ... and I will still have money left over !!!
So, the economic bottom-line is, that I can get 4 (comparable) Inklingo-collections, AND a computer, AND a printer (and not the cheapest possible) and still have money in my pocket, compared to buying the Studio Fabric Cutter, and that Top Selling bundle of cutting-dies.

What is more, the cutting-machine will only cut fabric. It doesn't do anything else.

And yes, I also found out, that I could get much cheaper versions if I went with the smaller 'GO!' cutter (which starts at 140 $ for the 'baby' size and costs 350 $ for the 'normal' size), but still ... There is a very limited number of 'dies' for the 'baby' one. If I want the big, top-selling bundle, I need the big, 600 $ machine.

If I then look at what is available for the small, and much less expensive, 'GO!' cutting-machine, and look at the dies for making a Double Wedding Ring quilt ... that set of dies is 90 $, and the prize for the Double Wedding Ring Inklingo collection is only 35 $ ... what is more, the Inklingo version includes a seriously beautiful design e-book.

... it's not even as if one can just slap any fabric in any size or any condition into the cutting-machine either ! It has a limitation on sizes of fabric, just like the printer which prints Inklingo shapes does, and the fabrics used in the cutting-machine needs to lie flat (i.e. be ironed) just as I iron fabric to freezer-paper with Inklingo.

It sort-of boggles my mind how expensive that nifty (and yes, it *is* nifty) piece of equimpment is, particularly seeing that it has one use only. The computer has many other uses, with and without Inklingo, and the Inklingo collections are much, much cheaper than the comparable accuquilt-collections.
I can change a lot of rotary-blades, and buy some seriously good scissors and still come out ahead using Inklingo ... if I am willing to cut under my own steam.

So I think I'll stay with Inklingo, thank you all the same, buy myself some new rotary blades, and continue to cut on my own, rather than invest in a machine to do it for me. It is a nifty and neat idea, but I like the prize of Inklingo better :-)

Oh, and this is not even mentioning, that with Inklingo, you get the match-marks and the cross-hairs which shows you exactly where to match the pieces together :-) That in itself is - in my opinion - worth gold. Particularly when dealing with curved shapes or shapes with lots of bias.

Field of Flowers

I now have 4 Sunflowers up on the Design Wall together with the Pink-And-Green circles.
And I really think now would be a very good time to call it finished, start sewing it together for real

And I've begun shopping my stash for possible borders. Lots have been looked at, but I actually think that the combination in the mock-up on the picture to the right, is a good option.

The green batik is one that has been living in my stash 'forever', and has been used for multiple projects now. It started its life in my Quilted Diamonds quilt (called 'The Advantages of Natural Folly'), showed itself in at least one block of the Passacagila, is in many of the blocks on this Field of Flowers, and has been interspersed in many small projects also. It is a lovely fabric, and I'm happy I wildly overbought on it, but it is time to begin using the last bits. The fabric will be better loved if living in a quilt than it will living in my stash, so ... yeah ... I think that's the one.

And in case you wondered, here is a picture of the 4 Sunflowers that are going / have gone into the Field of Flowers quilt.


And another picture of the latest Sunflower block. I worried that the orange batik would stand out in a bad way. I genuinely think that it doesn't.

In fact, I think the Sunflower with the brown-and-pink center stands out more than the orange one.

Simple Woman ...

On one of my forays into blog-land, I found this Simple Woman's Daybook, and thought ... what a neat idea.
Now, I know me, and will probably not be following this up in any way, but as the day winds down, the teen-age rose-garden (the neurosis variety, due to exams and end-of-term) being quieted for the day, I thought ... hmm ... why not do it. So I will.

Outside my window...
It is dark now. It is - after all - fairly late in the evening. But days will get longer for another month still.

I am thinking...
No big thoughts, but loads of smaller ones. As term winds down, my brain is freed from paid work, and ideas start bubbling.

I am thankful for...
My health.

From the kitchen...
Made meatballs (the Danish variety : Frikadeller) with new potatoes and a tomato-salad tonight.

I am wearing...
Jeans and a t-shirt. Bare feet in flat leather sandals.

I am creating...
Blocks for two quilts. One is the Brackman Sampler, one is my own pattern.

I am going...
To bed soon.

I am reading...
"Made to Stick" (again) by Chip and Dan Heath.

I am hoping...
That kiddies' exams go well this next month.

I am hearing...
The quieting sounds of a city, slowly falling asleep (mostly), and the purring of a cat.

Around the house...
Hubby coughing with a late-spring / early summer cold. DD playing the piano. DS playing a violent computer-game to celebrate a well finished exam today. Cat draped across my shoulders, the both of us enjoying each other's company.

One of my favorite things...
Quiet.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Get going on two writing projects. A scholarly one and a pattern.

What I'm up to

Well, since I'm opening the ball on the Inklingo Sampler blog today, I thought I would show you the sort-of secret project I've been working on these past weeks.
A hexagon alphabet.
... yes. A tad silly, I know, but ... it has been fun to design and make.

And the Field of flowers is growing slowly too. Now that I've made all the letters of the (English) alphabet, it's probably time to get another Sunflower-block or five printed, and get going on making more of those for the project.

And in case you wonder what all the fabrics on the ironing board are for, they are pictorial (novelty) fabrics that I've pulled in order to make an I Spy quilt for my niece's two kids. I aim at having them finished for Christmas (but I'm not telling you which year!)
When there are (reasonable) pictures to share of that project, I will. Never fear.
ANYway, that's what I've been up to, in between fuming over incompetent imbeciles (read the two previous post).

Internet shopping - update

This is a follow-up on the below post (Internet shopping - what to do).

Today, 6 days after I wrote 'The Company', threatening to out them unless they got their act together, I made one last effort to get hold of them, and get a response other than :
"I do apologize, but i am checking on this and will have an answer as soon as possible"
Sic!
That is the total of the response I got last week; no 'dear ma'am', no signature sign-off, no nothing. Classy, eh ?

BUT I waited until today, and then threw myself into a last-ditch effort.
To try and get some attention, other than the patently incompetent person with whom I had hitherto "communicated", I cc'ed the mail to all and sundry on the company's web-page, including the company CEO. The bottom-line of my mail was, that I threatened to put a name on the below post, and to do so within 24 hours unless someone got their act together.

This FInally, got me a reply that could - in a good light and with a gentle breeze - be considered if not courteous, then at least decent. Still no courtesies like 'dear ms xxx' or the like, and no name-signature on the mail either (just the company address), but at least I finally got a reply which can be summed up with "I'm sure we've refunded your money, but I'll look into it today".

... is it just me who is hopelessly ancient ? Have general courtesies like 'Dear ma'am' and an actual name at the end of a mail really gone so far out of fashion that I should not expect it ? Or is it just a case of 'If I don't tell her my name, she cannot tell on me' ?

A little while later, another of the e-mails I cc'ed to replied, "I'm looking into it, and I'll make sure your money is returned to you"

Well about **** time. Either of those should have been the reply on April 28th (2 weeks ago), and should have come promptly and courteously, not as a somewhat sour response to an out-and-out threat. And if the company, when looking into it, found information that my money had already been returned, and that the glitch was not on their part, they should have sent me another mail informing me of this.

I am (pardon my French) royally pissed off.

What kind of business ignores politely phrased requests, and only react - sourly and with bad grace - to out-and-out threats to their livelyhood (this is a rethoric question, which necessitates no question-mark at the end; the answer is 'no business who wants to stay in business' and should be self-evident).
Whatever happened to customer-service and customer-satisfaction?
I'm a patient person when it comes to understanding that things can go wrong, for people as well as companies, but in order for me to show patience and tolerance of someone, they need to communicate with me. This has not been the case. And now, when communication seems to finally happen, I find that I'm all out of both patience and tolerance.

Needless to say, that it will be a very long time (probably forever) before I buy any of this company's products again, and it will be the same time-frame for my recommending it again. It is a bummer, because I loved their products, but frankly, I am not prepared to trust a company which acts like this with any part of my money, or - indeed - my time.

SO, now I wait another week, and see if my money is indeed returned. I will not hold my breath.

Internet shopping - what to do ?

I have to ask some advice here, because a situation has occured that I have never had happen to me before.
Some background :
I've been shopping on the internet, with bookshops and quiltshops, publishers, big and small companies, US, UK and locally. I've been doing it for something like 8 years now, and even though my credit-card has been hi-jacked a few times (and been caught in my bank's 'cheat' filter), I have never experienced anything but good to excellent service, and timely response to my orders and inquiries.
This, sadly, has ended now.

On February 28th, I ordered some items from a small company, whose products I know and love. I got an order-confirmation and were not notified that anything was amiss (such as the ordered items being on back-order).
On March 3rd, the amount due was withdrawn from my account. This usually signals, that the merchandise ordered is now on its way to me.
Sadly, that was not the case.
On March 16, I was notified that the merchant had delays in shipments, that my order was on back-order. For various reasons, this made it necessary for me to cancel said order.
So far, so good.
I would think, that good business-practice, at this point, is for the merchant to return the money to the client immediately. Payment has been received, but no goods have been delivered.
Well ... I am a patient woman, and sometimes banks are slow so I took a breather, and things happened and it took a little while for me to act on the non-refund of my money.
We got to April 28th (almost 6 weeks after I cancelled the order, 2 months after ordering, and 7 weeks after the money were withdrawn from my Credit Card account by the merchant), and I checked again, but no money had been returned.

SO, I wrote a polite mail to the company, reminding them that they owed me some money, and requested that they return my money to me, forthwith. Today, a week and a day later, I have not heard from the company, neither have any money been transferred back into my account.
My question to y'all (who are in the US of A) : What are my options now ?
Is there a place to formally complain ? Or do I 'just' start naming names on the quilting-communities I am in, on-line. I would prefer not to do the latter, but I am fairly angry at this point. One thing is to have merchandise on back-order, but to take money from a customer, knowing full well that you cannot deliver the goods said customer is paying for; not notifying said customer with due diligence; and last - but not least - not in any way reacting to a politely phrased request for the situation to be rectified has sort-of done away with my patience and understanding for the small business-owner.

And please understand, this is not (just) about the money. I can survive donating 35 US $ to someone, but I would prefer to choose the cause myself, and have it be something worthwhile like the Red Cross or Doctors without Borders, not a company that doesn't even bother to answer mail from their customers.

SO : What would you do ?