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 ?

Another Sunflower

I've been working on other things these past weeks, mostly paid work, but ... another little 6" Sunflower has now joined the Drunkard's Path flowers on my design-board.
This is going to be one kick-a... pardon, kick-donkey quilt.
All in the fullness of time :-)

Maybe ....

One of the things I'm (re-)-learning is, that I'm not particularly good at finishing things on the machine. I know it goes quickly, but ... machine-work really isn't my thing, when hand-work is available.

HOWever, my flower-field, made with the Inklingo Drunkard's Path collection, is now (slowly) being joined on the machine,
... and as it is going up on the design-wall, it fills it out more and more,
... and my little 6" Sunflower-block was swallowed,
... and .... hmmm .... maybe I should make a few more 6" Sunflowers in (surprise), green and pink (mostly)
... and maybe intersperse them between the simple rounds made with the Drunkard's Path blocks.

Well, no harm, no foul, I can make the blocks, and if they don't work out after all, I can just (did I write 'just' ?) make a zillion of them and get my Sunflower quilt. I seriously think it looks good there. Breaks the monotony of the circles beautifully :-) But it could be just me. One thing is for sure, the next Sunflower will get corners from 4 different greens, not just the one.
Imagine finishing one quilt-top, while surreptitiously starting a new one, all in the name of enhancing the first ?
Miscuit utilis dulce ? (To mix the useful with the delightful. Horace in Ars Poetica, line 343), good name for a quilt, wouldn't you say ? And so apt.

Here comes the Sun(flowers)

For ages and ages and ages I've wanted to make a Sunflower quilt, but frankly, the thought of marking and cutting all those curvy triangles gives me the hives. Now I don't have to mark them !
Linda Franz has a Sunflower collection out (for 6" and 12" blocks), and I'm happy as a hog in mud :-)

What is more, the 6" size is eminently scrap-friendly, so I might just try to use this to make a dent in my scrap-basket ... yeah, right. Dream on.

Thank you, I will :-D

First Sunflower on the left. If you want to see more of it, go to Linda's Sunflower page (you might want to get the design-book while it's free)

If you decide to buy and need a printing-table, you can find it at the Inklingo Sampler blog.

What a difference a border makes

I seem to be on a roll.
First the big Passacaglia-top was finished, and now the 'Reject-Passacaglia' top is finished too.

And isn't it amazing how different the wide, outer border makes the quilt look ?
I planned with the wide one, then, when I got to the point where it was just the two slim borders, I thought 'That looks finished', and decided to call it a day.

... then, just because the wide borders were already cut and marked, I put them up there on the Design-wall, around the 'finished' little quilt, and ... liked it. A lot. So ... the wide borders are on now, and another quilt-top is finished.



I call the top my 'Reject Passacaglia', because it is made with blocks that didn't make it into the big Passacaglia-quilt. They aren't wrong as such, there aren't any (big) boo-boos on any of them, they just didn't work with the rest of the blocks in the big one.

BUT, they work ok together, and the borders does pull them in. I know the fabric looks beige (or sand) and it is, but there is a crackle in the mottle, and the crackles are pink and green :-D just like the blocks.

Passacaglia !

Top is finished !!!
Yes indeedie :-)
Picture more-or-less speaks for itself, won't you say ?
Well, it's taken 2 and a half years to get it this far. Granted about a year of that was spent doing ne'er a stitch on anything at all. Not Passacaglia, not any other project. Another 3 months (or maybe 6) were spent in (mild) denial about the blocks that simply didn't work with the majority.
But now it's finished, and even if I say so myself, it's looking good :-)
Finished size : 72 x 96"
Yes. It turned out a big quilt

As we were taking pictures this morning, a neighbour saw us at it (he knows the deal when I stand in the middle of the road with a camera), and came out to see. Much praise was given, and it felt good. What felt particularly good was, that he rushed of his house, barefoot, just 'to see what you've done now'. Really a nice man, wouldn't you say :-)

Work In Progress

Saw over at Freshly Pieced (click on the button above if you want to see her blog), that's she's doing Work In Progress Wednesday, and thought I might try to tag along :-) See how it goes, if I can keep it up.

I am - finally - back with a needle and some thread in my fingers. It has been a long sewing-drought, but it seems (finally) to be over. The project that currently sees all work is the Passacaglia. However, the big top is now too big to show easily, so, I'll postpone showing that one off until the weather has calmed down (it's rather blowy outside), and/or it is sufficiently finished for me to get it back up on the wall and take a picture.
Instead, here's a picture of the 9 left-over blocks. Yes. Nine blocks more than was necessary was pieced.
Now, looking at them, I'm sure you too can see that all of them are ... too something.
Too 'loud' or dark or brown or ...
Anyway. They are not bad blocks, they just didn't work with the other 35. Now, they will be joined, more or less as you see on the picture, they will get a border (or 3) of plain stripes, and then I'll decide whether they will go on the back of the big Passacaglia-quilt, or will become a separate small(-ish) quilt.
Only time will tell.

Not a bad reject-quilt, eh?

Empty spaces

It must be some sort of law of physics, that any available and 'naked' horisontal surface, will fill up in no time flat if left unattended for more than 5 seconds.
Showed you my nice, ready-to-work-on table day before yesterday. Well, yesterday I did laundry. DH thrifted a sack-full of table-linens a while back. Lovely stuff. White, damask- and jaquard-woven stuff, lots of napkins, two sets (each of 14 or 16) embroidered with monograms.

Most of it has been laundered and ironed for the longest time, but ... during my marathon clearing, cleaning and washing day yesterday, the last load of the white linens surfaced, and ... now my table looks like this. Again.

Time for some ironing, I think, and then maybe, just maybe, I'll reclaim my 'empty table' before going to bed tonight.

Setting myself up for success

Hello again. Two posts in two days :-) Don't get used to it :-)
Well, right now I'm feeling the need to do, and in order to accomplish that, I need to try and set myself up for success.
Knowing me, is (also) knowing that I have the attentionspan of a concussed sparrow most of the time. If I'm bored, I fiddle, and twiddle, and get restless, and ... move on to ... something else.
SO, to ensure that I actually get anything done, I need to make deals with myself. Not in the grand, all-encompassing manner I like to do, but in the small ways.
Yesterday I showed you my sewing-room table. I couldn't handle 'clear the table', but I was perfectly able to handle 'Do 5 minutes on the table', so that's what I did. A grand total of 7 times, and it was ... done.

Some of you who read this blog have seen my 'Boxed Stars', and some of you even know that I'm hand-quilting it. That has been stalled for the longest time, so, yesterday, I decided to set myself up for success in that respect also.

I made a small box, holding everything that I find essential for hand-quilting.
Needles, thread, scissors, Hera-marker, Roxanne thimble, ruler (for the straight lines I want to quilt). On the side, a big book that I place under the frame when I mark a section.
And then, one of the most important things in my setting myself up for quilty success : Before I put it aside 'for now', I thread the next needle and do the first few stitches. That way, I can just pick it up and get going.

One (more) thread done, about a zillion to go ... but that is ok. It's going to be a wonderful quilt in the end.

Hello again - Cinderella'ing

Well. That was a very long silence, but ... life has been happening. Life and not much (any) stitching.
Excuses out of the way now :-)
I hope I'm back on the block now.
And I'm ready to get back to some stitching.
Problem is, before I can stitch, I need a place to work, and - as always - when things backslide, they backslide, and one of the first places to suffer, and last places to be rescued, is my sewing-room, and ... the table.

SO, nothing for it. Cinderella needs to go on duty (hence the 'Cinderella'ing of the title of this post). You know, Cinderella went to the ball, but before that, she had to clear and clean and scrub and sort and .... So ... yesterday was Cinderella-duty, i.e. Cinderella outside of the ballroom. And just so that you'll know I'm not pulling your leg, here are the pictures to prove, that I actually did something :

Table before I started
After 15 minutes of Cinderella'ing
After another 15 minutes of Cinderella'ing
This morning (and yes, I moved the 'puter in here, since DS is writing his end-of-term thesis in 'the office' and cannot for the life of him keep is mouth shut, and I need peace and quiet to work, so ...)
The remaining problem identified : Piles of neatly folded and lovely, lovely fabric that has no place to go. As you can see, I seriously need to get some stitching going ;-)

An old project is finished

I don't think I have shown you this project before ?
It is (as is now my wont) made with Inklingo, in this case, the Drunkard's Path Collection, AND the 1.5" circle that is in several Inklingo collections (if you want to see which, go to the Inklingo Index of Shapes)

It's two placemats, and I'm frankly amazed at how much visual change the applique'ed circles gives ... and how much the colour of the circles means to the 'expression' of the thing.


ANYway, they are finished and will now to into the box I have of white elephants, ready to move out into the world as a gift at some point.

Another one bites the dust

This one is a remake ! This one, in fact. The green of the centre 'leaves' was just too ... green, SO, when (yet another) yard of the fabric arrived, I decided to re-do the block completely. And here it is :

Three more Passacaglia-blocks to make ... and hopefully, only three more !

Passacaglia # ???

Yes I really don't know which number of Passacaglia-block this is ! I haven't counted them recently, and I still need to make (at least) 4 more to have the full 35 ... and be crossing my fingers that the 5+ I'm (re-)making will fit in with the ones I've 'kept' ... if not, I fear that I will just have to make what I have work !

Never mind : here is the most recent Passacaglia-block. Fussy-cut from the same fabric as that used in the post on Passacaglia below.

Red and shirting

Since I have too much that I 'ought' to be doing, nothing of that gets done. I need to make another 5 Passacaglia-blocks (at least) to replace the ones that got taken out of the equation, but ... instead of those, hexagons happen.

Made with Inklingo (naturally), with 3" sides. Mostly reds and shirtings, but a wee bit of yellow is in there when a visible third colour is necessary.

And you can find directions on how to make all the stars on the right on the Inklingo Sampler blog ... stars and a few other hexagon-blocks with 3" sides.

Award ???

Berit at Mit Lille Rosa Syrom has given me an award ... and I haven't got the foggiest idea who to pass it on to, because 7 is both too many and too few.
I follow, and check in on, quite a few blogs, and I really don't know which ones I enjoy the most.

SO, if you have a quilty blog, and want an award, please copy the picture on Berit's blog ('cause I can't seem to be able to do it), and put it on your own blog, and then ... tell us all 7 things about yourself, and here comes the worst part : They are to be INTERESTING things !!!

And in order to be able to pass the award on to you, I now need to tell you 7 interesting things about me ... and there really isn't all that much to tell. SO I've decided to tell you ,who read this blog, something you might not know about me already.

1. In 11 grade, I knitted a full-lenght skirt in bold cotton colours and with oodles of primitive patterns ( the style is called Hønsestrik in this country, and you can find pictures of the general style here). That was the beginning of a hitherto constant joy : Knitting.
   
2. I am allergic to most scents.
3. I started quilting in 1998, because I had a STUNNING stash of probably 10 F/4s that I bought, just because I loved the fabric. Yes, I know, TEN fat-quarters !!!
   
4. I love pink. Any shade of pink, really. Probably a rather pathetic attempt to overcome the total lack of pink from my childhood; my mother didn't approve of 'gendered' colours, so pink was a no-no, and I was continually dressed in 'blue is always nice'.
5. I love Jane Austen, and re-read the novels frequently. Not because of the plots, but because of the elegance and economy of language, and because she has such a sharp eye for human foibles, and is able to dress them up in a way that makes you forgive not only the rest of the world, but yourself as well.
6. I speak 2 modern languages fluently, can handle myself adequately in 3 more, and read yet another 3, for a total of 8 modern languages.
7. I can also read 8 dead languages (with the aid of a dictionary and a grammar)

... I hope there was something in there that you find interesting and/or at least one thing that you didn't know about me before :-)

Passacaglia again

After a long hiatus, I'm back with the Passacaglia blocks, and a new one has been made.
And I think I might have figured out why it has been stalled for so long. Not only have I been working too much, but I had 35 blocks finished ! Alas, quite a few of them do not work well with the rest, so I need to make 5-7 new ones ... if I do not run out of Background-fabric !
ANYway. Today I will be printing for the border, to ensure that I have enough background-fabric for that at least, and then see how many new blocks can be eked out from the rest.
And here's the first of the re-done Passacaglia blocks

Klosjes / Spools

This post seems to be a bit of a sales-pitch, and it might well be. But that is only because I really, seriously consider the below to be the best possible advice I can give anyone. And no, I don't have any kind of economic interest in Inklingo ... unfortunately :-)

Spools seem to be all the rage on the net at the moment, and I've seen quite a few people who have bought the Cindy Blackberg stamp-set ... which seems very nice, but will cost you 32 US $ + postage.

I, on the other hand, am doing spools with Inklingo. All the necessary bits are in the Lucy Boston POTC collection, and that is only 30 $, and no postage, since it is downloadable. Once you have registered and bought it, you can download it and be stitching in about 30 minutes.

... and no, you don't need any special equipment. A normal (cheap) inkjet printer, an internet connection, Adobe Reader (which is free), fabric, freezer-paper, iron, needle and thread.
If you're a bit iffy about printing with Inklingo on fabric, I suggest that you go to Linda Franz's Quick Start guide, order some of the free stuff (you need to register to get it, but Linda is one of the good guys)

And no, Inklingo will not ruin your printer. I've been printing with Inklingo for many years now, and have had the same printer all the time, and it still works ! so ...
IF you are doing Klosjes / Spools blocks, consider the cheaper solution .... and get the templates for a truly amazing quilt as well.

... oh, and there are directions on how to make the block/s over at the Inklingo Sampler blog.

The most beautiful book ...

I bought this book a while ago; Annete Gero 'The Fabric of Society', and it frankly cost a fortune ! but I also think that it is just possibly the most beautiful quilt-book I own.

There is Australian history, and quilt history. Pictures of some absolutely wonderful quilts (and some that are just plain weird), and then there are 27 patterns on a CD and on a pull-out pattern-sheet.
Inspiration for years to come.

... and naturally, the one quilt that I absolutely love, is one there is no pattern for. No matter. It can be adapted to be made with the Inklingo Orange Peel collection, Collection #2, one of the collections that has a circle on it, and a seriously big (applique ?) block.

... Maybe even the Baltimore Medallion block that has now been languishing on the shelves for some years ???
(well, I can see on this blog, that it was finished about the time I started the blog, and that was December 2006)

My mind is spinning with how to make it, and it might even happen some day :-)

Back on the blog ?

I hope I am ... back on the blog, that is. After a(nother) long silence, I'm slowly edging my way back into where I was before 2 full-time jobs ate all the time I had.
And I'm back getting some needle-and-thread therapy (or vitamin Q if you like).
Right now, my quilt-life is the hand-quilting of Boxed Stars that take up my quilting-time ... which is nice :-) It will be a finished quilt, in the fullness of time, even though there is still an extremely long way to go.
BUT, One Thread every day will see it done.

Dresden Plate ????

As this is written, I have beaten Cathi !!!
She is always (and I do mean ALways) the first person to publish a block when a new Inklingo-collection out, but this time, I seem to be the first person to publish a picture of a block made with Linda Franz's new so-called Dresden Plate Collection !

Let me be frank, just between you and me and the internet :-) Had I not known Linda well enough to check out anything new she publishes, this one would have gone by unnoticed by yours truly.
I don't like Dresden Plates.
Sorry, but there it is. I know that many people love them, but ... that's why they have both chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice-cream
ANYway. Dresden Plates leaves me pretty cold, but this one ! I couldn't resist it. And even though I am not good freinds with my sewing-machine, and I don't do curves, it is completely (!) machine-pieced. I haven't got a clue what the block is called, and I know I could have done it far more precisely with hand-piecing, but I love it. Karen K. Stone has a quilt with blocks like this (tho' more colourful) called Missisippi Wheel of Fortune.

Mother's little helper

Sometimes, just sometimes, it is pretty hard to get to the cutting-board.
Particularly when kitty Josephine (called "Feeneh") takes an interest.

She has become very sticky these past days, which is understandable, since our black cat was put down on the 2nd (unavoidable), and the rabbit moved out of here and in with another family yesterday. So ... from 3 critters to just one in less than a week ... makes for an extremely confused and sticky fur-baby.
To an extent where even my sewing becomes interesting. Usually, she only takes an interest when she can lie down in peace on the project, but now, even the component parts have appeal.

Good thing that no rotary-cutter was in action.

The block on the cutting-board is one of the upcoming blocks on the Inklingo Sampler.

Northumberland Star, Barbara Brackmann's Encyclopedia of Pieced Blocks # 2901b

And the winner is ...

Remember the give-away ? That started on December 24th ?
The Passacaglia-giveaway
The winner is found ! And is Deanna.

I have contacted her privately :-)

... and just so you won't get a post, completely without pictures, here is one of my Drunkard's Path flowers. Just the ones I could fit in on the design-board before Passacaglia took over completely :-)

Passacaglia # 34 and 35 ... and the full mock-up

And here are the most recent Passacaglia-blocks, the last ones made in 2009 :
First one made with the same striped fabric found in Block # 30


Next one made with the same fabric as # 32, 28, 27, 26, and 25. And, accidentaly, one of the two fabrics that Linda and I are giving away :-)

Finally, a mock-up of the 35 blocks sewn so far, on the design-wall.

I will be taking four out and making new ones.
They might look ok to you on the screen, but they stand out too much in the wrong way when seen in real life, so ... I'm there, but not there. BUT that's ok.

Happy 2010 !

So, we're out of the noughts and into the teens of the century and the millenium.
Strange ... but nice.

And today is the day, where I try to take stock of my needle-work projects.
I started fighting UFOs as far back as 2002. Then, I had "about 50" projects that were started, but not yet finished. The "impossible goal" was to get down to 10 or less.
When I reached that milestone - and what a happy day that was - I decided to reduce my number of PIGs (Projects In Grocerybags, aka : kits) and to try an bring down my number of started projects down to 5 or less.
... now that one is giving me some trouble ... and 2009 has not been good for my confidence. For the first time since 2002, I end the year with more projects than I started !
I'm still below 10, but ....

And what are they :

Boxed Stars (being hand-quilted)

Lone Star (top finished, to be sent out for quilting)

Drunkard's Path : a mostly machine-piecing project of which I have taken no pictures ... yet. Passacaglia takes up the design-wall completely, so the DP project won't go up there until that one is ... finished.

Rectangular hexagons. Sees occasional work when travelling or staying with freinds

Passacaglia. The only one that I'm seriously working on right now. I have made the 35 blocks necessary for a (roughly) 60 x 84" quilt (plus borders), but four of them are ... wrong, so I need to make another 4, and the wrong ones can then go on the back :-)

Give Thanks. Which I started preparing in 2008, put away during preparation in October of that year, and has not taken it up again ... might be time to evaluate, eh ? Either continue preparation, and actually do it, or give it up and re-distribute the fabric.

The Inklingo Sampler. One block pr. week

... and two knitting projects.

And 2009 did not give me any big quilty finishes. However, 2009 was the year where I started writing patterns, two of which are available for free from Inklingo, and 3 more that are available for free to the members of the Inklingo Yahoo-group. The making of patterns is a frustrating experience, because most of the time, I know how I would like it to look, but am unable to do it, due to lack of proficiency and software.
Oh, well.

Passacaglia - Pattern and Give-Away

I've been collaborating with Linda Franz on making a free pattern for Passacaglia. It is for a table-runner, but if you have fallen in love with the project and want to make a full-blown quilt, the clues are in the pattern. All that is completely off are the fabric-requirements.
The pattern is FREE ! And you can download it right here.

To celebrate the new pattern, and the season, both Linda and I are having a give-away.
Each of us are giving away 3/4 yards of the two fabrics used to make all of the blocks shown in this post. That is more than enough to fussy-cut the 4 blocks needed for the Table-runner.
Yes. They are fussy-cut from just two fabrics. Both from the Mezzanine collection from Michael Miller (Stained Glass and Gothic Arch).

The give-away goes through all of the Christmas gift-giving season as I know it :-) starting today, the 24th of December, because that is when gifts are given in my country, Denmark.

The give-away ends on January 6th, where gifts are given in - among other places - Russia and Spain, to celebrate the Three Kings.

This is what you do :

• To get one chance to win the fabric, leave a comment on this post on this blog.
• To get a second chance to win the fabric, go to Linda Franz's blog "All about Inklingo" and leave a comment there.
• To get a third chance to win the fabric, put the Inklingo button (on the right side of the page of the Inklingo Projects blog, a bit down) on your own blog, and write about the give-away.

So, leave a comment and run over to Linda's blog and leave another comment.

Then, if you're a blogger, write a post on your own blog about the give-away and the FREE Passacaglia-pattern. And please : leave contact-information in your comment/s.
You cannot win if we cannot contact you !