The ‘Trending’ Rant

I was outraged by the “Trending” expert* on Gobal news the other day.  Christie Clark (BC’s premier) was on the radio to give the “State of the Province” address.  The ‘expert’ criticized Clark for not Tweeting during the interview and subsequent Q&A.  REALLY? She’s ON THE RADIO – TAKING PHONE CALLS!  It is already an innovation.  Lots of people. Listen. To the radio!  (Was that William Shatner?)

The ‘expert’ went on to comment that Clark could have used Twitter during the commercial breaks, or have  one of her aids could tweet for her (they have people for that, apparently).  Come on.  She’s on a break, taking a sip of water, catching her breath.  An aid?  To tweet for her, no wonder our taxes are so bloody high.  The stupidity of it had me yelling at my husband.

I don’t have a twitter account, or a smart phone.  I have a cell phone but I forget it all the time and waste hours trying to find it.  I think it takes pictures…

I have been meaning to post this for some time now.  My motivation was this post by a recent FP blogger.  She’s quite good, and has a new follower.  http://classicconfusion.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/the-grammys-twitter-do-i-laugh-or-cry/

*apparently someone who follows social media to see what everybody is talking about.

PS  My apologies for yelling.

Birthday Quilt

I mentioned in the previous post that I had a ‘birthday quilt’ on my list of things to finish.  I finally got it bound and cleaned up two days ago.  It is ready to be put in the mail.  I stippled the entire surface this time.  I wanted a particular variegated thread and thought I had been lucky enough to find it until almost a third of the quilt was completed.  ARRRG!  It wasn’t white, red and brown, but green!  Duh, I should have twigged onto it when I read the label and it said ‘Holiday.’  The technique was done with my new free motion foot.  It will take some practice to get better at it.  I learned it is necessary to keep the speed of the machine consistent and move the fabric a little at a time.  Of course the tendency is to move faster as the machine goes faster and the result is stitches that are too big.  I am getting the hang of it and am looking forward to trying other free motion patterns with subsequent projects. This effort is not perfect, but I am still thrilled with the way it turned out.

Here is what it looked like to start —

I had a bunch of pre-cut squares in various sizes and thought they would be a good choice since the recipient’s favourite colour is red.  Some you might recognize as fabric from the quilt I made for my father’s 90th birthday.  Because the squares were all different sizes, it required some math and mental gymnastics to figure out how to assemble them into some sort of pattern that would work.  I thought sewing them into strips the width of the quilt would work the best and for the most part it did.  Stretching and compacting each strip to get them to fit resulted in a finished product that does not lie perfectly flat as the full image shows.

Still, I think it looks great!  This colour palette is one of my favourites. I never thought I was so partial to red until I organized my stash one day and realized how much of the fabric I had purchased — was.

The birthday is tomorrow.  Somehow I doubt that Canada Post will get it there by then.  Better luck next time…

 

 

Breaking the Cardinal Rule

“But if you do not obey these commands, declares the LORD, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.”  Jeremiah 22:5

When I was first drawn into the joy of quilting, I was told the following.  “You can have three projects on the go at one time.  One of the stages of being cut, one being pieced, and one being quilted.”  So I confess things are piling up, because I have birthdays, an ordination, a UFO because I have been unable to locate someone who does long arm quilting, a project the quilting group is working on for donation to a local women’s shelter, and banners for the church to complete for the beginning of ordinary time following Easter.  This is my current work space.  It may be difficult to see, but there are three projects represented here on the go.

I am in the process of binding one birthday quilt.  I am close to working within the rules again.  The ordination stole only needs another 12-18 inches, and the women’s shelter quilt is progressing quickly.

March 10 is far enough away, right?