The place to be in London on a Saturday night

I'll admit I'm weird. Sometimes I get a craving for Swedish meatballs and their sauce. I live reasonably close to Ikea so it's something I can at least fix without flying to Sweden. Usually the food shop can supply me but it's been out of stock recently. I thought about coming for lunch today, then sanity kicked in. You don't go to Ikea in the middle of a rainy Saturday, that would be very silly. However my need for meatballs hasn't gone so I figured by dinner time the store wouldn't be too bad. After all anyone less sad than me would have a life and many better things to do on a Saturday evening than have dinner at Ikea right? Wrong, very very wrong. I have never seen it so busy. Apparently this is where you take your loved ones for dinner now. Still I suppose it will mean my dinner hasn't been sitting keeping warm for hours, if and when I eventually get it.

Dead computers everywhere

Just in case anyone is trying to get in touch, I have a very sick network. We think one of our servers isn’t talking but it isn’t a simple fix. So I am largely out of touch until at least late tomorrow. If you need to get in touch more urgently please phone me. My number is on my website there is a link to the right.

I guess without the computer to distract me, or indeed let me do any more paperwork, I can get on with sewing. I spent a lot of yesterday working on finishing the sample from my book. Maybe today I will get it done. At least I managed to check my quilts had arrived before it all went wrong.

One more quilt done

You’ve got to love piped bindings. They may not be the solution to every problem but for some quilts (especially those you need yesterday) it’s great. If you haven’t tried it you might like to get yourself a copy of Grand Finale a DVD by Ricky Tims. I was going to point you at his online shop but apparently he is filming at the moment so his shop is shut. Anyway it’s a great technique which allows you to complete the binding by machine. Even better the piping looks like a much harder and more time consuming binding even though it is quicker and easier. Neat huh. Now I need to get back to quilting my Hever entry. I would like to have the binding on that today as there is some hand stitching I want to do before it goes. Yes you did hear that right. I want to hand sew!

International Shipping

Argh. Maybe I should just give up on entering quilt shows. I can’t believe how complex it is to ship a quilt through customs and back. OK it is being made harder by me wanting in insure it for more than $45 and the show wanting me to use that as it’s value. I’ve talked to so many people about how to do this, and frankly I am none the wiser. I could spend about 1000 pounds to get it a passport. I may then be required to pay the full value of the quilt to US customs to get it into their country, although I might get it back when it comes home. I can’t afford that. I could send it out on a temporary export, exactly like I have done every other time, but then I would need to give a sensible value on the customs form to insure it. The show doesn’t think that is a good idea. I could ship it with no insurance and hope. Oh and I’ve been warned that when you tell US customs something is of no commercial value they like to cut the corner off just to be sure. Guess what I am supposed to put on the form. So send it uninsured with an invitation to cut it up. It’s not sounding like something I want to do. Of course I don’t have anything better to be doing, I love trying to figure out a way to get around three different sets of rules at the same time. No really I do.

Too busy to post

I am quilting everything in sight. I have my quilt for Hever to finish, and several urgent customer quilts. Of course I still need to get everything ready for Scotland too. Yes I am looking forward to it but I have a lot to do before I go. I have to get my new quilt at least drafted and the first section written, ideally I would like the quilt finished. What do you think? Will it happen?

Out first round

We lost in the first round to a previous champion. In a very close race, he crossed the line first by 0.004 seconds, and won by virtue of having the smaller breakout. Still, the 13.82 at over 101mph (albeit on a 13.88 dialin) set new bests for both ET and speed.

Rain

For a while there it did look like we would get a second qualifier. However, it's now pouring with rain and there is a 5pm curfew. I think it is safe to say we have finished for the day now. We had entertainment in the pit today. A balloon modeler. I did try to be grown up, but he taunted me for long enough and I had to have a penguin. It's very cool isn't it. I've included a picture of his URL so you can go and have a look at his work. Apparently he does a lot of more complex sculpture when he can sit and work. The things I've seen are just the quick bits. I found it interesting how much he manipulated the balloons. Some of them seem to yank and twist and hope. Billy doesn't he seems to persuade the balloons to do what he wants. It was really fascinating how many ways he could shape the balloons.

Wow!

That run was our first over 100mph run. Woot.