Category: Blog Strolling

Blog Strolling

Comments, Blogger, Frustration

Elizabeth E.9 Comments

For some reason, Blogger has been playing with me.  Not my blogger–YOUR Blogger.

Which means that I’ve not been able to leave comments unless someone had enabled the new blogger (a confusing mess if there ever was one) so that the new format for comments showed up.  I am an avid commenter when I’m not grading (which is what I should be doing now, but hey–it’s lunchtime and I’m taking a break).  But for about the past two weeks, I can’t leave comments.  So I tried to switch to a different gmail, thinking maybe Google had it out for my old one.

Surprise!  They’d deleted my alternate gmail address.  Just because they can.  And no, you can’t have it back.  Not even if you click through at least 25 very unhelpful screens trying to figure out why, but getting the same message over and over and over:

Give It Up.  We Rule the World. You Can’t Have Back Your Other Email. Now Go Away.

Sigh.  So I set up another email to match the web name on this blog, and tried to comment.

Nope.

I have to set up a BLOG in order to comment.  It’s not enough to have a gmail address–YOU HAVE TO HAVE A BLOG.  I already have a blog.  Like I have about nine blogs.  Like I love the digital world except for when I hate it.  Which is about now.

But remembering that Google rules the world (which is why when I have to search for a sensitive topic, like why mothers-in-law are the most hated people on the planet, or should I hand piece or machine piece, I go to a new favorite: duckduckgo.com which has a no-tracking policy. You’re welcome.), I knuckle under to their incessant demands that I set up another blog, which if I do all my stuff right should mirror over to this site. And so far, it does.

So if you see a new name on your comments, say like opquilt.com, with the above Gravatar picture, it’s me.  Elizabeth E.  The one and the same.

And now maybe I can stop banging my head against the wall, and finish up grading those student essays.

Blog Strolling

Quilting Valentine Quilt

Elizabeth E.5 Comments

I listened to the Florida Primary Vote returns as I pinned this quilt together for quilting, my WIP for this week.  I have two other quilts that bring up elections when I look at them.

The first is a For-Snuggle-Only flannel quilt (no name on this one), that I tied together on my living room floor while watching the national returns come in from the Bush-Kerry election in 2004, when I lived in Washington DC.  My husband is an avid watcher of the political landscape; I’m more of the I’ll-always-vote-but-wake-me-when-it’s-over type.  But the political spectacle can be interesting to listen to while quilting, my hands busy while the politicians’ mouths are a-going.

The second quilt is this that I began in a Judy Hooworth class, titled D.C. Dots & Dithers.  The political game is always on when you live in Washington, D.C. and I wanted a quilt to contain my memories of living there.

I scanned in my Inauguration Ticket, then printed it out for the top of my label.  Underneath you find. . .

. . . a description of the quilt, and my thoughts on it all.  I used an already-started quilt top, quilted it, then added the labels — and the meaning — as I worked.  Back to the Valentine’s Quilt: I began by stitching in the ditch around all the squares so I could get rid of the pins.  Trying to decide how to quilt is always a hard thing for me.  I scanned through blogs, my Road to California photos, trying to look for ideas.

I drew up a pattern in my quilting notebook (in the turquoise) and began.

A pause in the action for a beautiful sunset, and dinner (husband was at a business dinner), then when I came back up I looked again at the quilting I’d started.  Ugh.  Not for me, so I started unpicking the first part I’d started.  It may have been the thread (I was using a fine thread) or the too-busy nature of the circles, but it had to go.

So now I have two messes Works In Progress: one on the quilt, and one here, at my cutting table.  I’m off to school this morning, and will think about it all when I return.

Thanks to Lee of Freshly Pieced Fabrics for hosting us all on this WIP Wednesday.  While I’m linking back to her blog, you really ought to look at her good news of this week: one of her quilts hit print!  Congrats!

New address for this blog: http://www.opquilt.com, a birthday gift from my son.  Thanks, Peter!  No need to change address books–this new address refers over to this site but is easier to type; both addresses work.

Blog Strolling

Quilt Night for November 2011

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

Quilt Night was over at Jean’s house this month.  And guess what?  It was just Jean and I there–we chatted and visited, talked about how we met our husbands (we’re both in second marriages), our grown kids, pets, recipes, and of course, quilts.

But first, check out this beautiful spread of treats: caramel brownies, vegetables and dip, fruits (including some awesome fresh raspberries), salsa and Halloween chips in black and orange.  I must admit the brownies and the raspberries held my fascination.

Jean went first for show and tell.  She’d finished the quilt she had been working on at October’s Quilt Night, and was now sewing on the binding.  It is a stunner.

I couldn’t get a very good picture of it, but you can sort of see the beauty and complexity of her work.  She owns a long-arm, so she’d quilted it herself as well.  Jean’s a Renaissance woman!

Then we got to talking about combined fall/Halloween quilts.  She pulled this one from her table in front of her TV — one side is a beautiful fall fabric and the other side are these cute log-cabin-style pumpkins.  We also talked about the ebb and flow of Quilt Nights.  Sometimes after a big bash, we go small again, like tonight.  I was so ready for Quilt Night–it had been a long week and I needed to get out and go.

Finally, after working all evening, I have something to show: the Halloween House quilt was quilted.  I trimmed it up and sewed on most of the binding, but when it got to the end and I wanted to try to join the binding fancy-style, my brain gave out, so I gathered up and went home (with a few brownies for Dave).

I’m so glad I went and so glad Jean and I got a chance to chat and sew together.  Really, whether it’s two or twenty, isn’t that what getting together as quilters is all about?  Thanks, Jean!