Yay!
June 11, 2007I have my quilts back. They don’t appear to have been opened at any stage so all is well. The driver denies ticking the permanent export box, although he says that pretty much all packages are permanent so he does tick the box for people when they forget. Hmmm. I suggested he might want to check with the customer before doing that but he says it isn’t worth it. Well that’s nice to know.
Yay, another milestone hit
June 10, 2007By the skin of our teeth we got the first batch of my first pattern printed today. I am so thrilled. If things go according to plan I hope it will be available it Sandown in two weeks time. It shouldn’t be a big deal but it has been a long time in the planning. I have three other patterns ready to be typeset, proofed and then printed, which hopefully will be easier now we have done one.
I have started looking for some online shop software. We had planned to write our own, we are a household of software engineers after all, but really there is too much other work to do. So if you have software you would recommend I would be very interested to hear about it. As well as my own pattern I have the Turning Twenty, Turning Twenty Again and Turning Twenty around the block patterns for sale. If you want to order anything before we get the online shopping working use the contact me link and I will be happy to sort out manually.
I’ve also sent another secret squirrel off to it’s owner, which is always nice, it will be secret for a bit longer, sorry. Other than that I have just finished my first ever bias binding on a quilt. Yes it has curved edges, and it went pretty well. I don’t think it is something I want to be doing too often though.
Waiting
June 8, 2007I post more when I am dealing with DHL because there isn’t much else I can do. I have a quilt on the frame I want to be working on but I know I can’t hear the phone if the longarm is going, even when the phone is on the quilt too. I called the TURN team this morning and have been told there is no way I am getting a TURN number. In fact having talked to them I think it is pretty much impossible for a sole trader to need one. This is good, very good in fact. The government is really trying to make it easy on small businesses, which is great news for me. However we now have to convince DHL, which I suspect will be somewhat more tricky. On the bright side I do have a contact on the TURN team who is quite happy to talk to DHL for me.
The problem is getting hold of DHL. I have gone through the computer system (national rate line) several times, apparently this is the only way to reach the tracing unit. It is a clever system. You can’t email anyone on the tracing team directly, they don’t seem to have email, you can’t phone them directly either. SO you have to pay the national rate every time you want to talk to anyone. Also by forcing you to go through the computer system and enter your AWB number then listen to the status of your package they get to add call time every call as well. Ho hum, at least they have now taken a message and I should get a call back soon. Until then I need to find something quiet to do.
Pretty in Pink – back
June 7, 2007
I think the back shows better why I am so pleased with this quilt. Of course it was also harder to take pictures of. the backing is actually a pale pink with a sort of paisley pattern. I hope that the back looking good and being a little more subtle will extend the quilts life. It could be used this way up for an adult quite easily.
There are a few areas with slightly larger gaps than other areas but not many and mostly in places dictated by the design. I think the overall effect is pretty regular. The stitches also look pretty even, I don’t have stitch regulation, so I have to try and move smoothly. It’s surprising as I thought I was quite tense when I started the quilting, but it doesn’t seem to show. Maybe I actually quilt better more tense?
When I started the project I was planning on putting quite open quilting on this piece. I didn’t want to push the cost up with a lot of machine work. It didn’t quite work out that way, but in hind sight I think that is probably a good thing. When I do Linus quilts I tend to put more quilting on the quilts for boys or younger children, on the grounds that they will be loved a lot and need every chance going to stay in one piece. It also occurred to me that this is a potential heirloom, it may be around in a hundred plus years and if it is will give a snapshot of this family at this time. It’s a nice thought and one I considered a lot finishing the quilting. This quilt got the quilting it wanted, and I think it knew better than me.
I just hope I can do as good a job on the bed quilt I am putting into Sandown. It’s getting very close (I am hand delivering so I have a bit longer) and I still can’t decided what I want to do on it. I am hoping it will start talking to me really soon. If not I guess I start winging it and hope it gets chatty as I go, right?
Pretty in Pink – front
Before the quilt went off today I look a lot of photographs of it. It has gone from something I didn’t quite understand to something I am very proud of. I think it is the best longarm quilting I have done so far and I wanted to make sure I had a good record of it. Isn’t it typical, I put a show quilt on the frame and mess it up, a child’s quilt that will be used and loved I manage to do really well. Oh well these things happen. I did hope it might be that I suddenly had found the secret formula, but no. The next quilt used the same threads and a similar pattern, the thread broke the tension shifted and in general it was a bit of a nightmare.
Still back to this one, which is a far happier tale. The pattern for the center of the top is based on my ‘Ginko Typography’ quilt. I’ve been thinking about making a pattern from it but I like the more free form approach I currently use to make it. The design brief said pink and floral, so we decided to go for machine applique flowers. These should stand up to hard use and have a lovely puffy look. I wanted to keep quite a lively feel to this quilt so the flowers are places quite randomly but only on the most visible area of the quilt.
To take the pictures I laid the quilt on my bed, it is intended to fit a single with some overhang all the way round. One of the borders should fall neatly on the edge of the bed, different borders depending on width of the bed (I hope). It is very tricky fitting a bed other than your own, you can’t just nip up and try the top. I thought the picture with the nude in was amusing. It shows the range of my work quite nicely and somehow the two quilts seem quite happy together.
The binding re-uses the fabrics from the inner two borders. I had planned on using a white piping but it seemed too harsh, the pale pink sits much better with the rest of the quilt.
Secret Squirrel
I have been working hard today, I’ve got lots done and I feel much better for it. Unfortunately it is more secret stuff so I can’t show you that. On the other hand one of my other secret projects is now allowed out. I was taking lots of pictures of it this morning before it left for it’s new home. I believe it is now there (I sent it by hand not courier) so I guess I can now brag about it.
It is the ‘Pretty in Pink’ commission. Pink is really not my colour and there have been times when I really wondered what I was doing. It is surprisingly hard to select fabrics that aren’t your colour. I decided the way for me to deal with it was to only consider the quilt in grey. After all the most important thing in quilt design is value right. I got the top together and I wasn’t convinced. It looked fine in black and white though so I carried on. Here are the pictures I took while it was on the frame.
As you can see the quilt is hot pink. It is designed to appeal to a seven year old girl, and having taken advice from people who sell fabric to young girls and indeed young girls themselves, this is the colour to go for. I would have to admit to quite liking the star fabric. It is so soft. I have no idea how I would include it in a quilt for me though.
The top was all pieced then the layers loaded on the frame. Once I had it loaded I positioned and fastened the flowers in place. I am really pleased with the flowers as they are somewhat three dimensional. Of course I couldn’t get that to show in any of the pictures.
The background, which is most of the quilt, is quilted with two types of flowers, hearts (thanks Myrna) and peacock feathers. Once I got into the swing of flowers I really enjoyed doing them, so I think this will be added as one of my freehand overall patterns. I am sure it will look good on a wide range of quilts.
It was only after I added the flowers that the quilt started talking to me. I could finally see past the colour and see where it was going and what it wanted. I love it when I reach that stage of any project. This one though was special, I didn’t think it would happen so it meant a lot more when it suddenly came together.
Not much to say
It’s hard to get hold of the TURN team and they don’t want you to call until they have had your papers for 48 hours, which would be tomorrow afternoon. DHL are unhappy I haven’t got hold of them and given DHL a name and extension number so they can speak to the same people. SIGH. I have far too much work to do to waste time chasing people who are trying to help me. I don’t want to upset customs, it isn’t a good plan.
It looks like the package I sent Datapost actually arrived early! OK they didn’t manage to deliver it, but until I hear otherwise I will assume they really did try and the recipient was actually out. Hopefully they won’t have too much trouble getting their package.
Customs
June 6, 2007It’s official I have to get a TURN to get my quilts back. No not a small bird nor a dodgy stage act, a special number you need to have to be able to move goods over the value of 600 pounds in or out of the country. In fact I don’t need a TURN but a pseudo TURN. I’ve applies and if all goes well I may have it in 48 hours. Then I can give it to DHL, who can give it to customs who will release my quilts.
As with everything in this case it isn’t as simple as it could be. TURNS are issued for people moving goods from the country of origin to another country. The quilts are moving from here to here. Hopefully they will apply some common sense and just give me the number anyway.
Hmmmmm
So my quilts have turned into wallpaper, and either increased or decreased in value, depending on how you interpret the numbers. There may or may not still be 2 packages, but they are definitely stuck in UK customs. I have to apply for a TURN code or VAT number before I can get them back, as you aren’t allowed to import goods over the value of 600 pounds. If I can get the form it will then take 48 hours to get the code. However getting the forms isn’t as easy as you might hope.
I really wanted to waste another day chasing DHL, really I did. I didn’t have anything else I should be doing at all. Of course all my customers will understand why their jobs are late and still want to work with me. Yeah right. I see some very late nights in my future as I try to catch up with everything. Yes, I am finally having a sense of humour failure. I think I did well getting this far.
Progress
I looks like my package was released by US customs overnight. After that it moved around the depot and then left. As it is now on a new airway bill that is addressed to me I think it might be on it’s way home. I guess the theory is that in 2 days it might be home. So anyone fancy guessing when it will actually arrive at my door? It would be nice if it was soon. I’ve decided to enter ‘Decadence’ into Houston and I would very much like to take some better pictures of it. I have ones that would be fine for identification but they aren’t as good as I would like for sending to a jury.
For sending my entry forms in I will try Fedex via Mail Box Etc. They offer a guaranteed next day service, and I will be sending my forms on Monday. That gives them 4 days to get them to their destination. It will be interesting to see if they can do any better than DHL.
Now I’ve also just checked on my Datapost package I sent on Monday. That is on a three day service. I have to say the tracking for that has been less the useful. It has been in transit since I sent it, which is in some ways the right answer, but I was hoping for a little more. It now says it is accepted, last scanned by delivery agent New York. Given I know it isn’t going to New York I am guessing this doesn’t mean it has been delivered, so does it just mean that a delivery agent has agreed to deliver it? There is also not date or time information on this tracking so it is hard to tell if it is on schedule to be in Utah tomorrow. I guess we will just have to wait and see. Yes it is what you think it is, and aren’t you glad it didn’t go DHL like it was supposed to.