I had to take a break from my holiday recovery to repackage the Stars In My Hand quilt for shipment to the Road to California Quilt Show in January. When I received the quilt back from the IQA show in Houston, it was packaged in a long skinny box, rolled around a water noodle wrapped in acid free tissue paper. Very creative, that water noodle thing (and if you have no idea what a water noodle is, look here. We have a couple of the single noodles that the kids use in the pool at Garmisch when we go, but I had no idea what they were called. Google to the rescue.). Yes, you could roll the quilt around a cardboard tube from wrapping paper or something, but the water noodle is more stable, and won’t bend from the weight of the quilt when you pick up the roll to put it in the box.

I use the post office and have never had a problem. If I used UPS or FedEx, it would cost a small fortune to ship a box of this size and value internationally

This is one of those things that’s a bit scary, trusting the post office with an heirloom. I say “post office” because even though most folks ship things like this with FedEx or UPS since their tracking system is better (and maybe they have a better record of not losing things, though I’ve not seen solid stats on that), I use the post office because of where I live, and have never had a problem. If I used UPS or FedEx, it would cost a small fortune to ship a box of this size and value internationally, and if I declared it’s true value on the label, customs fees might be incurred either coming or going. Not cool to have to pay customs on your own quilt when it comes back from a show.

So the US Postal Service is the best option really, and it’s all in how you send the package. Read the rest of this entry »

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So, I did get the gift for my landlady done on time! It was a bit tricky to make these things so that all the seam allowances were enclosed, and they had enough body to really act like a napkin ring (if you know what I mean) but they turned out really well, and I’m so pleased that what I had in my head really worked.

I already had a lovely fabric covered box for her, and the napkin rings fit right in, and I have the perfect piece of organza ribbon to tie around the box for the finishing touch.

Voila, the perfect gift!

I’ve had such fun with my embroidery machine and all the software that now I just want to keep going, but I have to wait until after Christmas probably, since if I don’t go bake Christmas Tree Bread and some other goodies today and tomorrow, my family will probably mutiny! I really want to try these Brombeerbusserl from Delicious Days, a simply yummylicious blog that my mom sent me a link to recently. They sound (and look!) so d’lish, as Nicky says. I’m off to the kitchen, then!

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I really don’t think I’m all that unorganized. Yeah, my studio (and the rest of the house, it could honestly be said) is a bit cluttered, but I’ve always said that know where everything is. I do have a pretty good memory, and that helps most of the time. Every once in a while though, I end up running around crazy looking for one stupid item that’s gone astray. I must point out here that I didn’t, in any way shape or form, help whatever it is to go missing. I didn’t put it somewhere weird, or lend it to someone, it just grew legs, and isn’t where I left it.

Every once in a while, I end up running around crazy looking for one stupid item that’s gone astray.

What does all of this have to do with my quilting and fabric art life? Today I set out to make some little napkin ring type thingys to give to my landlady for Christmas, to match the tablerunner and door hanger from last year. Nothing is ever as simple as you wish it to be. Considering that I haven’t used the embroidery machine since last Christmas, the first order of business was to excavate the thing from the clutter that finds its way to the table where the machine lives. Then I realize that due to major computer issues including a new motherboard and reformatted hard drive, the software that drives the card reader/writer that makes the embroidery designs available to the sewing machine isn’t loaded.

So I go hunting for it, and the box with the software and instructions is nowhere to be found. After an hour and a half of tearing the studio apart, Read the rest of this entry »

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