Friday, June 1, 2018

A little more practice

Hi everyone, and welcome to another weekend.  A summer weekend! It's been quite the week around here, but first I want to say a great big THANKS to everyone for their comments on my post last Friday, about the finish of the Grandma's Quilt.  Apparently, the day before I posted about it, Blogger decided to stop emailing comments made on the blogs, making it hard to respond individually.  But know that I read all of your comments and appreciate them all so much.

I want to know how all of you are planning to deal with responding to comments from now on, because I was having a conversation with a friend and she doesn't think that the emailed comments are coming back.  I got an email from an online friend that said the same thing, and then I talked to a couple of other people, and none of them think we'll get comments mailed again without some kind of opt-in process from commenters allowing their email to be shared.  I'm sad to say that they might be right.  We didn't get any notification from Blogger, but I think they intended to eliminate that feature.  (Some communication would be nice, wouldn't it?)  The fact that they seem to be "working on it" now only shows how much they over looked the anticipated response. So, I'm not certain it's coming back and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with comment responses from now on.  I do know that I treasure the relationships I've made through this blog and not being able to respond privately and individually will have an impact on future friendships.  So, yes, I really want to have a discussion about this and what everyone plans to do.  Let us all know!

(Diann came up with a work around that seems to work for her! I'll give it a try on this post.)

Wow, boring way to start a post, huh?  Let's have a picture to lighten this up:


I haven't had much time to stitch this week because I'm getting ready for a professional conference next week, but I did finish off these two little practice pieces.  Both are small but functional since they both have a layer of Insul-brite in the middle (plus a layer of thin batting) so they can be used out by the grill or on a table.


This little one was quilted with orange peels, which were surprisingly easy.  The big accomplishment here is that this was all quilted without breaking thread.  One pass--yahoo!

Those are raindrops, not stains!

The little blue piece was quilted in diamonds.  They seem simple-- and they are-- but they gave me fits, mostly because I was too stubborn to actually mark anything.  Since it's all blue and white hsts I kept getting confused about which intersection I was aiming for.  A small sticker would have made it much easier!  Things like this are one of the reasons I want to practice on useful pieces, not samples.  Real-world learning is always better!  For me, anyway.


I'm happy with how these turned out.  I'm going to do one more baby-sized quilt, this time in an all0ver pattern, and then I'll move on to something larger, just to keep practicing and improving.


That's it from here for now!  Hope everyone has a good weekend.  I have to do some more work on my paper, then I'm going to a quilt show with a friend!  That will be a super-nice break.  It will be raining all weekend, so it's a good thing they're holding it indoors!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict,  Finished or Not Friday, and crazymomquilts.

17 comments:

Mari said...

Posting this comment as a test! Have a good day!

Annette Mandel said...

Pretty picnic trivets! You'll enjoy using them this summer. I don't have my own blog, so I nearly always leave an address. A78mandel at yahoo dot com

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Mari, thanks for mentioning my blog comment experiment! I felt like it was working because it did send everyone's comments to my email, but I don't know yet if my replies went back the other way! It sure would be nice to get more information about the whole thing... I love your diamond quilting! I haven't tried that design yet, and now I want to!

Libby in TN said...

I've been using Diann's workaround and am getting all comments, though most are coming as no-reply. However, because most are "regular" correspondents, I can access their addresses from my address book to respond to them. I "think" those responses are getting through.

Shauna said...

These are so fun!!!

Quiltdivajulie said...

For the time being, I am responding directly on the blog as a reply to the comment (which works for no reply as well as those with emails on file). I noticed that a couple of the link up providers now have opt-in boxes at the bottom of the entry when you sign up to have your post included. I have no problem if Blogger chooses to go that route. I can't be sure but it is likely somewhere deeply buried in all the updates to privacy notices we've all received, there was something from Google about all this - but since I rarely read ALL of the fine print (even though I worked for lawyers and can scan through the excess verbiage without too much trouble), if it WAS there I missed it. The main thing is for all of us to keep posting and NOT let this slow the participation in blogging to the point where Google decides Blogger is no longer viable!!!

Rebecca Grace said...

Great job, Mari, and what a terrific idea, to use Insul=Brite to protect your table from hot food! I'll have to tuck that away in the back of my noggin for a future project. Are you quilting on a domestic machine or on a longarm machine? Your ruler work looks really good to my eyes.

Julierose said...

Are you getting my comment? I tried it on my post and the only comment that appeared was MY OWN--(and how boring is that??)
this is so crazy--who has time or inclination to check back for answers to your own posting all day back and forth?? If blogger didn't anticipate this, someone dropped the ball for sure.
I will be trying to answer right on my blog 1st thing in the morning from the day before's comments I guess. Why does somebody always think they have a better idea? I say K I S S to them! hugs, Julierose

Bernie Kringel said...

This blogger thing has really frustrated a lot of people. Sorry to hear about it. I know a workaround will be found and this too shall pass.
Your quilting looks really nice on both of these projects! Great job. What quilt show are you going to? Sounds like a great plan for the weekend. Enjoy!

Mari said...

I've tried replying, but every comment is now no-reply. I tried replying to some addresses that I already have and they get returned unless I copy and paste into a new email. It's good to get an email notification, though!

Mari said...

Thanks!

Mari said...

Yikes! I never even thought of that! I just hope that they get a handle on this soon.

Mari said...

Thanks so much! I'm using my plain old sewing machine with a walking foot. I keep learning!

Mari said...

I'm getting the comments, but they are all no-reply. Replying here is the best I've got right now.

Mari said...

Thanks! Have a great weekend!

Mari said...

Mine have been returned immediately, so I've been pasting into a new email. I can't keep doing that, though, because I do have other things to occupy my time! We'll just have to keep trying new things until we find something that works well enough.

Marie said...

such nice colors!