The Name Game: Pings and Needles

I'm so happy to have Sarah here today from Pings and Needles. You will enjoy reading about how Sarah chose the name for her bog. Trust me. She is creative and funny. Welcome, Sarah!

Hello *waving* ... thank you for having me over.  I totally love this series.  So, here goes ... 

Hi, I'm Sarah and I live in Brighton, on the south coast of the British Isles.  I'm only telling you this because I want to include one of my all time favourite photos.  It was a hazy late spring, late afternoon. Delicious.

And ....  back in the room ... 

How did you choose the name for your blog?

Well,originally I had planned on calling my blog 'pins and needles' but obviously it was already taken. How naive I was back then (back then being a year ago this Tuesday! LOL)  

I really liked the word play of 'pins and needles' as a sensory experience.  It also captured the emotional discomfort I was in at the time as I started my blog two weeks after my brother's funeral.  I needed to be lost in words and fabric and pictures.  It didn't (doesn't) block the pain, but creativity in any form really does help to numb it.

I've since discovered that 'pins and needles' has different connotations in different countries!  

In British English it's a noun for the tingling numbness that you get in the tips of your fingers and toes when it's cold, or when your foot's gone to sleep.  Acute yet quite pleasurable too, like sneezing. In Australia & the US, 'pins and needles' is used much more frequently as an idiom for nervous anticipation.   who knew? not me.

Also, I really wanted to find something that wasn't too 'cute'.I don't really do 'cute' in my space.  I can appreciate it in others' but not mine. Maybe I'll admit to 'modern cute' !?  

In my other (more offline) life I am an IT teacher and teacher trainer.  I've always been nerdy and geeky, so that's when 'Pings' came to mind.  

A 'ping' is the nerd word for a test message sent to check the speed of an internet connection.  I thought it was a great way of bringing my nerdiness in straight from the start.  I also like that it's a sound word too ... the 'Ping!' of a creative lightbulb moment  ... hence the tagline: "the exquisite pain of nerdy creativity" So now you know!  

Were there other names you considered, and can you share any of them with us?

I did that random thing when you just type a whole load of rubbish in to see what it would look like on screen (we all did that, right?)  like 'bongs and poodles', 'strings and noodles' 'bowls and ladles' 'cats and cupcakes', seams and warbles, you know the kind of thing ...  

 

I also have a nerdy blog on wordpress for work and non pings stuff, called wikibloggia. I should use it more really, but Pings took over!

Now that you are recognized by Pings and Needles, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could change it to something else?

 

Nooooo ... I wouldn't want to change it ever ever ever ... My alter ego is most definitely Pings now (or Pingaling as Lynne @Lily'sQuilts calls me!) 

(NOTE: How cool to have a nickname chosen by the fabulous Lynne. Could you possibly come up with something for me, Lynne??)

My blog is very important to me.  PingsAndNeedles  is now an integral part of my being more fully me. I write much more than I post and I sew much less than I want to, but I love the friends, connections, and inspiration that I find on a daily basis.  

Thank you for letting me witter on.  Do come and visit if you haven't before, or indeed if you are secretly stalking me.  All are welcome!   I've got a fantastic blogiversary paying it forward giveaway going on - you could win 16 FQs of Jovial from Moda ... and it's fun ...  runs till Weds 31st! 

(please don't leave a comment about how awful it is to be really stalked and that I wouldn't joke about it if it happened to me, because it has, so I can, but that's for another post ... another day ...) 

Thanks, Sarah! Please stop by PingsAndNeedles and say hi to Sarah.

There are a lot of interesting blogs in the fall line-up of the Name Game. And remember--if there is someone you would like to read about, either request it in the comment section or send me an email.

Farmer's Wife Friday: Farmer's Daughter/Farmer's Wife

The writer of this week's letter is from Clay County, Mississippi, a southern farmer's wife. She was not only a farmer's wife, but grew up as a farmer's daughter. "I have no hesitancy in saying that I wish my daughter to marry a farmer." She has money to spend every week, from selling butter and eggs. And "from a physical standpoint, nothing can be more invigorating than the daily exercise in the open air..."

A recurring theme I have found interesting is that these women find joy in the daily tasks around the farm, giving them a sense of accomplishment. And like others before her, this farmer's wife is happy  to be "...surrounded by God's sweet and wholesome air and the beauty of His world."

This week's blocks were a breeze to construct compared to last week's Night&Day.

The first was #17, Cats & Mice.

I have always liked the color of orange marmalade cats--is that a real color? I don't know--I don't have cats. I should have maybe switched the colors around because it looks like there are more mice than cats in this block.

I really like the star design in this block.

Next is #107, Windblown Square. Mark and I spent the first five years of our married life in western Kansas. Believe me. I know "windblown"!! The wind was oppressively present every.single.day! Sometimes when a storm was brewing the sky would get really dark, but it would have this kind of odd green-tinged color. That's what I was thinking about when I chose the colors for this block.

I really like "Windblown Square." Either on point or in a straight setting, the center part of this block has a lot of movement that is really great. And the best part is that it's all half-square triangles, so even though the block has a more complicated look to it, the construction is actually pretty simple.

Cats & Mice,  Windblown Square:

And my progress so far:

Head on over to Carla's blog to read her thoughts on this week's letter and see her version of these two blocks.

WIP Wednesday

Honest opinions only, please.

About a year and a half ago, I bought this fabric. It is by Brandon Mably and is called "pastel fish lips" (that's the link in case you want to head over right now and purchase some). Alternatively I can mail you about an eighth of a yard. All you have to do is ask.

When it arrived, it was one of those purchases that looked totally different in person than on my computer screen. The circles seemed huge. No, I did not pay attention to the ruler they had on the fabric to give you an idea of the scale.

It was brighter than I anticipated, especially for something described as "pastel." I did a post basically saying, "What was I thinking??" I thought about giving it away but instead I put it with the rest of my Kaffe Fasset stash and held on to it.

I decided this week to use this "pastel" fabric as the dark in one of my 36-patch blocks. I paired it with a more "sedate" fabric that veers toward the traditional side. Not only light versus dark, but traditional versus what was I thinking contemporary.

Here is my block.

 I don't hate it, but I'm not totally in love with it. But maybe that doesn't even matter. This is going to be a "smooshy" quilt. No borders, no sashing, no cornerstones, just one block blending into another.

My question: Does it blend? Or does it totally scream "Hey, look at ME!"

Here is it next to another block that is also larger scale. But this design also has a lot of space to "rest." There is no resting with "fish lips."

I put it right in the midst of other blocks.

Now you see it with its different neighbors, even though this won't be the final setting because I still have 14 more blocks to make.

So what do you think? Does it blend well enough, or will everyone looking at this quilt be saying to themselves, "What was she thinking?"

Thanks once again, Lee, for hosting this weekly show-and-tell!

The Name Game: Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle

I have been so anxious for this post. Because really. Don't you want to know how someone comes to name their blog "Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle"??

This blog is written by Hadley Gordon from England. I think Hadley Gordon is an awesome name. I think I may have mentioned that to her once. Or twice. It just seems so very British to me.

 So I'm thrilled to have Hadley here today. You'll find out all sorts of interesting things, along with seeing some beautiful work. And once again I had a hard time choosing photos, but you won't mind if this is photo-heavy, right?

How did you choose the name for your blog?

When I was thinking about setting up a blog I wasn't really sure what it was going to be about, so I thought I would register a name first and then see what happened.  

I didn't want to use my real name anywhere in the title, I am Hadley after Ernest Hemingway's first wife, and I am married to Mr Gordon, and I was petrified that someone I knew in real life would find out!

One of my favourite films when I was younger was Flash Gordon, and I love the lines "Flash, where are you?" "I'm flying blind on a rocket cycle", and was shocked that it hadn't been taken, so I bagged it as my own.  

I think it suits my whole blogging, quilting and other crafty life.  I plunge headlong into things without really thinking through whether I can actually get the results I want; and sometimes with 3 small children and a husband to muster, I feel that I am often rushing about not really sure what I am doing!

Were there other names you considered and can you share any of them with us?

 I could have ended up blogging about anything; it was 'luck' that I got hooked on quilting so quickly and that I decided to concentrate on this area, so I never got to ponder any sewing puns.... 'Mad Had and Dangerous to Sew' anyone?

Now that you are recognized by Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could change it to something else?

I love it, especially as I can shorten it to Flying Blind and people know it's me.  Others will call me FB too - it's quite nice to have a nickname that you can say in front of the children!  Although I hope that at least half my posts concentrate on quilty-type things, I am glad that I haven't pigeon-holed myself.

Thanks for sharing how you chose the name for your blog, along with your beautiful projects (and photography!) Be sure to stop by Hadley's blog and say hi.

Farmer's Wife Friday: Better a Farmer...

The writer this week is from Ramsey County, North Dakota. This writer strikes me as a bit defensive. "Why select the wives of unkind or thoughtless husbands, and use them as examples of the farm women?" Having said that, again this farmer's wife is clearly not someone who would enjoy living in the city.

"Compare a farmer of moderate means with the common laboring man of the city. Dos he have the means to give his wife many of the labor-saving devices? Does she attend afternoon teas and the best operas? No; from morning till night she toils, planning, saving, and trying to exist on his meager wage. Where can she go when mentally depressed? She hasn't the beautiful wide out-doors, the green fields, flowers and trees, or the invigorating fresh air which the country woman has and loves. She only has that stuffy, little house and if she steps outside, she is on the street, surrounded by noise, walls and people.

The two blocks this week had names taken straight from the outdoors: Night& Day, and Tall Pine Tree.

#59 Night&Day

So let me just complain a bit. You saw that sentence up above? The one that says "from morning till night she toils..." Yep, that's how I felt about this block. It wasn't named Night&Day for nothing. I started working on it at night, gave up in frustration, and started again today. I tried templates. I tried paper piecing. I drank a glass of wine (along with my whine...). My plan was to write a poetic description, something along these lines. "I chose the inky dark blue of a night sky and contrasted it with the warm yellow of a sunny day." Whatever. By the time I was done with it I didn't care what colors I chose. I didn't even care if all the pieces matched up.

What was the problem? I tried to analyze it. With a clear head. Before the glass of wine...I didn't ever quite figure it out. Carla had some problems with this block as well. She seemed to think that one of the templates was reversed. She even contacted the author, and after some email conversations, told Carla she had discovered an error in the book. Way to go, Carla!! My first two attempts (one made with templates, one paper pieced) ended up looking like kites.

I finally put my plastic templates on top of the paper piecing template to see if that would help me visualize things. It did. Whew. Done. Never doing this block again. Ever.

But it looks great, right? (Warning: This would not be the time to make any negative comments about this block. Just sayin'...)

On to #94, Tall Pine Tree.

Compared to Night&Day, this block was, well, night and day. It went together very easily. Poetic description: Can't you just smell the fresh pine needles when you look at this block?

Here they are together:

And the whole group so far.

Up next week is Cats& Mice and Windblown Square. I'll try not to read too much into those block names...

Don't forget to head over to Carla's this week to see what fabrics she chose for these blocks. Until next Friday...

Oh, the places you can GO!

Look what showed up on my doorstep last week!

SO excited about this little GO!baby by AccuQuilt. It claims to be very easy to use. I decided an assistant would helpful in testing this claim.

This fabric cutter is fabulous. Charlotte was happy to go through my stash and she chose lots of pinks. What nearly 5-year-old girl doesn't like pink, right? She tested out each of the three die sets that came with the GO!baby.

I showed her one time how the cutter worked and then she was on her own (with my supervision, of course).

This fabric was one of her favorites. Aren't the little scooters cute?

The GO!baby is so easy to operate that you can actually multi-task. My assistant already knows how to multi-task. She could turn the handle and watch Tangled at the same time.

The dies I chose were three sizes of hexagons, a parallelogram, and small tumbler. I have some cool ideas for each of them. And there could very well be a chance to win one of these Go!baby cutters of your very own, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, just sign up for AccuQuilt emails and you can get 22 patterns for free.

I know this picture was already at the beginning of the post. But don't you love how my assistant dressed in colors that coordinate with the quilts shown in the pattern download? On the other hand, it could be that I just wanted to show off my beautiful assistant again.

WIP Wednesday: 36-patch progress

This is it. The only sewing I have had time to do in the last couple of weeks, aside from my weekly Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks. These are from Amanda Jean's 36-patch quilt-along, and I'm really happy with them:

First, the blocks I have finished in the past week:

And my progress so far:

And in breaking news, I'm behind in this quilt-along. I know. Shocking...But I'm only behind by fifteen blocks. Usually by this time in a quilt-along I haven't even started yet I'm much further behind.

You can see what everyone else has been doing in the past week.

Tomorrow I'll have some information on some places you might want to GO!