A Quilt Top With Errors

Is there a quilting equivalent of 'typo'?

Hey friends,

I finished the quilt top I was working on in time to add photos to my Festival of Quilts submission. I am actually slightly amazed that I manged to pull it off. When I decided that I was going to submit a quilt I think there was a week and a half until the deadline!

The top is mostly made from scrappy blocks I had made already, with no purpose. Those are the smaller blocks nearer to the edges. I did have some wonky log cabin blocks already but I needed a few more. The ‘braided’ blocks were an experiment I had been working on just before I decided to make the quilt. And I had none of the diagonal strip blocks.

Because all the blocks are scrappy I think they work well together. I did have an idea that I would separate the blocks into cool and warm halves but I am glad that I went with all mixed together in the end.

One thing I am not happy with is the braided blocks at the lower right corner of the central panel. The blue block is supposed to be on the left where the orange one is. Would anyone else notice? Probably not. Am I going to get the seam ripper out and swap them round? Absolutely yes. Because it annoys me every time I look at it.

Of course, I laid out everything else so it would work with the colours as they are now, so I can’t just swap those two blocks. I haven’t quite decided how many will be affected… (Don’t try to talk me out of it. I know it looks fine as it is but try telling that to my inner perfectionist!)

Right, I’m getting off the computer now. My right thumb has decided to be painful again (so no hand stitching for me, boo) and I am typing this with my left hand. The right hand is in a splint and only makes the occasional input with the index finger. At least I had written the stuff below before this happened. Yes, please feel sorry for me. :-D

Have a lovely weekend!

x Carina

P.S. An important task for UK pals: if you do not want NHS to share your data with Palantir, please go to this link and tell them NO. And please share that link widely with anyone you know. As someone said on Bluesky, “UK peeps, you want Palantir to have access to all your private NHS data? You can opt out here. If enough of us do it we might actually be able to push those psychopaths out of the NHS!”

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Some Books I Am Enjoying

I would like to encourage reading graphic novels etc. Let’s normalise reading illustrated books for adults! Here are a few I have enjoyed lately:

Legends of The Tour* - Jan Cleijne. “Frame by glorious frame, this beautiful graphic novel captures the essence of the Tour de France – the grit and the glory. Since Maurice Garin's inugural victory in 1903, hundreds of thousands of kilometers have been covered in pursuit of the yellow jersey and few of them have been without incident or drama.”

The Middle Ages A Graphic History* - Eleanor Janega and Neil Max Emmanuel (illustrator). “Join historian Eleanor Janega and illustrator Neil Max Emmanuel on a romp across continents and kingdoms as we discover the Middle Ages to be a time of huge change, inquiry and development - not unlike our own.”

Noisy Valley The Art of Protest* - Myfanwy Tristram. Protest matters, and never more so than today – and yet our rights around dissent have been eroded in law. “Noisy Valley is a beautifully illustrated work of graphic non-fiction exploring the importance of protest, and what it can achieve, through the voices of one vibrant community.”

Yoghurt And Jam or How My Mother Became Lebanese - Lena Merhej. “Blending humour with poignant reflections, Lena delves into her mother’s life as a doctor during the Lebanese Civil War, challenging East-West clichés and embracing the complexities of hybrid identity.”

And here are a few more graphic novels I like*.

*bookshop.org affiliate link.

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Some Interesting Things on The Internet

The ‘Strange, Somewhat Miraculous’ Tale of Translating Lena Merhej’s ‘Yoghurt and Jam’.

Anthropeum. “Where in the world, and when, does this human artifact belong? Each day, ten objects. Guess where and when each was made.“

My June playlist.

I can’t remember where I came across her, but I really like the work of artist Dame Laura Knight.

The Allusionist is one of my favourite podcasts. It is a podcast about language. The last few episodes have been about the Icelandic and Swedish translations of Dracula. I am not interested in Dracula per se but these podcast episodes are really fascinating. Give it a listen! :-)

Taking Action Against AI Harm. “Get your company off of Twitter / X. If your company or organization maintains a presence on Twitter (or X, as they have tried to rename themselves), it is important to protect yourself, your coworkers, and also your employer from the risks of being on the platform.“

“As a result, many schools and educational institutions are considering the deployment of a platform that has told multiple children to self-harm, including several who have taken their own lives. This is something that you can take action about at your kid’s school.”