chebe | Reading

At 13:00 today I came downstairs from my bedroom to have some lunch. There was nothing on the doormat. Fifteen minutes later, food made and consumed, I went back into the hall to go back upstairs, and there was a pile of post on the doormat, including a red card that claimed at 12:55 the postman had attempted to deliver a parcel for me, but there had been nobody in.

This happens probably once a week or so, and I am getting a little hacked off with our postie's inability to ring a sodding doorbell. We have one, but they always knock, which is not audible in 90% of the house - my mother's a childminder, currently caring for three kids under the age of five. If you couldn't guess, that means noise. Hence the doorbell, with repeaters on every floor of the house, to ensure we hear when there's someone at the door. If they ring the bell.

In case you aren't familiar with the UK postal system, having already paid £3.99 to have this item delivered to my door, I am left with what the Royal Mail seem to think is a choice:

paying to have it redelivered to my local Post Office, which whilst only five minutes walk away would cost me an extra £1.50.
spending 90 minutes on buses and spending £3.70 on bus fares to go and get it during the limited opening hours of the local "delivery office"
or waiting until Saturday, two days from now, and hoping the postman bothers to deliver it, the only option for which I wouldn't have to pay extra.

In other words, if I don't want to risk the postman pulling the same trick again, I have to pay them extra, on top of the delivery charge I've already paid, so that I can go and collect my parcel. I mean, does that make sense to you? I pay a delivery charge, don't get my parcel, and then they want me to pay even more for the privilege of going to get it off them.

I've opted for redelivery on Saturday, and I'm going to stick a note on the front door on Saturday morning saying "Sorry postie! I am in, you'll just have to ring the bell and wait more than a nanosecond."

Current Location: Manchester, England
Current Mood: grumpy
Current Music: Keane - Atlantic

vatine

Previously unread.

Third "Solar System" volume, although this is a novel in its own right, rather than a collection of shorts.

It starts with a tomb robbery, segues into time travel and from there delves in magic, technology, thievery and more than casual slavery. Nonetheless, it is a most readable work.

Crossposts: http://vatine.livejournal.com/453288.html

vatine

Previously unread.

Second book of Brackett's "Solar System" sequence. Much like the Mercury book, it is full of short stories. Resting snugly in the vast gulf between SF and Fantasy, it has elements of magic as well as spaceships. Hard to define and all.

Nonetheless, eminently readable. Definitely recommended.

Crossposts: http://vatine.livejournal.com/453102.html

colette_patterns_feed

Posted by Caitlin

http://feeds.colettepatterns.com/~r/ColettePatterns/~3/7QOpvnxXf3A/welt-pocket-inspiration

http://www.coletterie.com/?p=12368

Since Sarai shared her welt pockets off yesterday, I thought I’d add a few inspirational images of welt pocket variations you could try.

The first image shows a really cool piped tab on a welt pocket from this 40s suit. Then there is the ultra-thin lipped welt on this cool leather jacket. Another idea is to trim the pockets, like the green skirt above. And then there is that awesome chevron-shaped welt from an Anthropologie skirt.

Images: Denim Chevron, Decorative Green & Black, Grey Tab, White Leather

The home dec sewing has begun! And I discovered a way I can make it more interesting: by using remnants of my favorite garment fabrics. I once saw an exhibit of quilts at the Folk Art Museum, and some of my favorites incorporated scraps of fancy dress textiles: silks, velvets, and the like.

This past weekend I made a dress out of this amazing magenta rose-motif brocade (it's for a magazine article, more to come on that in the future!) and I had a little over a yard left. I thought about putting it aside for a blouse, but then I realized how luxurious it would be made into a throw quilt. And so the piecing began!

I added some length to the brocade I had by piecing together some scraps. And then I remembered this vivid pink dupioni I have in my stash, and that became part of the mix as well, just in a corner (I love little quirky details like that in quilts.) The finishing touch? A silk velvet backing, also from the remnant stash.

I sandwiched cotton batting in between the layers and basted them, and now I'm in the process of hand quilting it. I was inspired by these quilts from West Elm, which are made from vintage saris and have prominent hand stitching in a contrasting color.

I loved the idea of a humble running stitch on these luxe fabrics. So I'm using some Coats Button and Craft thread (the same stuff Alabama Chanin uses for handstitching) in ivory.

I absolutely love how the hand stitching looks on the velvet.

I'm planning to bind the edges in the velvet, I think.

I also found out that my throw looks pretty great with a pink chandelier, so I'm going to start convincing Jeff we absolutely need one. I'll let you know how that goes.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogforbettersewing/rjQh/~3/Z3Jif4GOLCg/in-progress-dressmakers-quilt.html

denise posting in

dw_volunteers

Code tour driver needed! 30 bugs, looking for it by Thursday at the latest.

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

We'll be beginning a code push in about 15-20 minutes. ~~Please put up your seat backs and return your tray tables to the full and upright locked position.~~ We'll update this entry when we're done!

(2:40AM EST: As always, the prep turns out to be more involved than we predicted. We'll hopefully be starting soon.)

3:10AM EST: And, we're done! Please report any issues here or to Support.

unicorn posting in

style_system

Hey guys. On my journal right now I'm trying to change the color of the bar around the "top of the page" footer link - for some reason I can't get it off of the pale blue it's on now and (preferably) change it to a gray that matches the other navigation stuff.

Also, the other navigation links (recent entries, archive, reading, etc) are all left-aligned on their bar, and I can't figure out how to get them to center instead.

I'm using a tweaked version of this code, if that makes anything clearer. Thanks in advance for your help!

gertiessewingblog_feed

Posted by Gertie

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogforbettersewing/rjQh/~3/LaFcOfgtr5I/thank-you-sniff.html

Okay, I know I said I would be back on the topic of sewing today, but I really need to write a post about how awesome you all are. (Sewing is awesome too, we'll get back to that shortly.) I quite frankly did not expect the incredibly sweet and generous response to my Twitter plea post yesterday. And I certainly did not expect several hundred new followers, and messages that were so nice they made me a little teary.

Okay, before I get weepy again! A few of you asked for book updates. I can tell you that I spent yesterday reviewing the final proofs, that it's releasing this September, that it has an awesome cover that I hope to reveal to you soon, and that I will write a special post the minute (nay, the second!) it's available for pre-order.

In the meantime, know that I am incredibly thankful for all of you (and so is Henry).

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogforbettersewing/rjQh/~3/LaFcOfgtr5I/thank-you-sniff.html

denise posting in

dw_maintenance

We're currently planning to do a code push tomorrow night, tentatively scheduled for 2AM EST Wed 22 Feb/11PM PST Tue 21 Feb (7AM GMT Wed 22 Feb). Most changes scheduled for this push are minor and there shouldn't be any more than a few minutes' disruption to service.

We'll update when we begin for you to report any potential issues you notice.

aryas_zehral posting in

style_system

Hi.

Is there anyway to make the text on the header not visible? I'm using practicality for

mood_music and I'd like to get rid of the journal title and page title so that just the image displays. How would I do that?

Thanks.

vatine

Previously unread.

Based on "The ginger star", I thought it was worth taking a (well-informed) gamble on a couple of ebook compilations of Brackett's works.

"Mercury's light" is a bunch of collected shorts, all involving Mercury. Not a planet as we know it today, but a planet of the golden age. Full of human-compatible environment and interesting alien biological (well, I guess life forms).

All in all, a most pleasant read.

Crossposts: http://vatine.livejournal.com/452846.html

geekfeminism_feed

Posted by Mary

http://geekfeminism.org/2012/02/20/ask-a-geek-feminist-round-6/

http://geekfeminism.org/?p=3465

Welcome to round 6 of Ask a Geek Feminist! How it works:

if you’ve got a question you think a geek feminist could answer, post a comment in reply to this post. (Comments will not be publicly visible.)
about a week from now I’ll distribute questions to my co-bloggers and they can make a post with an answer to a question as they like
about a week after that I’ll choose some of the remaining questions and open them up to our commenters

Your question, if it appears in a post, will be quoted (possibly edited for length) but not attributed to you, unless you ask us to attribute it. Since we’re not making them publicly visible, questions can be about anything you like; however obviously if you stray too far from our comment policy the chances of ever seeing an answer are pretty slim. Check out previous posts answering questions to see how this worked before.

Questions do not have to be about feminism or or obviously feminist topics: they could be about geeky interests including pop culture, about careers, about social life and so on. Given the name of this blog though, feminism might appear in the answer…

If you have a 101 (introductory) questions about feminism we suggest that:

you’ve looked over Finally Feminism 101′s FAQs and the Geek Feminism wiki’s 101 page to see if you can get an answer there first; and
you explain why you want a geek feminist, in particular, to answer this question. Do you think there’s a particular geek slant on this we might have or that our readers might like to discuss? The series is intended to produce interesting things for our community to think about and talk about, as well as an answer for the questioner.

If your question boils down to “why are there so few women in science/computer science/mathematics/engineering/physics, and what should we do?”, we’re unlikely to answer, please see this list of resources to turn to.

Questions will be accepted until comments on this post close in about a fortnight. (I don’t want to accept them constantly, because of the work of anonymising them.) If you miss out and find comments have already closed, another round will run within about six months… You can also ask questions non-anonymously in Open threads, although they may not be promoted to the front page.

http://geekfeminism.org/2012/02/20/ask-a-geek-feminist-round-6/

http://geekfeminism.org/?p=3465

colette_patterns_feed

Posted by Caitlin

http://feeds.colettepatterns.com/~r/ColettePatterns/~3/k4bFdJH7Rlw/featured-seamstress-amanda

http://www.coletterie.com/?p=12286

amanda

Name: Amanda

Skill Level: Intermediate

Pattern Used: Oolong

Blog: Sewin’ in the Rain

Her post about the pattern: Colette Oolong: The Sydney Harbour Dress

What kind of fabric did you use? A beautiful Japanese cotton I bought at Tessuti Fabrics in downtown Sydney on a trip to Australia 2 years ago. I love the raised threads in the fabric, it really highlights the bias cut of the dress.

How did you decide to reflect your personal style in the pattern? My best friend came fabric shopping with me and called this cotton print “very Amanda” when she first spotted it. She knows me too well! To bring out the orange-red color in the flowers (sadly only visible in a close-up photo), I added the ribbon bow to the neckline and the fabric belt at the waist. For some reason, the little bow makes me happy as I type away at my desk :) I was also inspired by the above knee length cut of Handmade Jane’s dress. I’ll definitely be making more versions this way!

What thoughts do you have about the project? I love the Oolong pattern, this is my 2nd version! Once it’s cut out it comes together easily and it hugs what little curve I have, which is always a plus. It’s nice that you don’t have to worry about installing zippers or buttonholes. One thing I’ll keep in mind for next time is to use a slippery lining if I plan to wear a dress in winter; I used a soft muslin for the lining and found that it clung to my sweater tights as I walked. I’ve never really worn dresses/tights in winter before so this was a good lesson learned!

Thanks, Amanda!