11/6/15

Crabby Appleton

Who, like me, was born during the 14th Century and remembers Tom Terrific? Actually, I think Tom Terrific might have originated as early as the 13th Century because it gives me great pleasure to say that I only barely remember the characters. The most memorable for me was Crabby Appleton.

If only I had grandchildren to share these little tidbits from my past. Even my mind's eye does eye rolls at the thought of it. For now, I have you, my bloggy friends. Thank you for being here.

Yesterday I finished as much as I could of the "Best of Show" section for Wind in the Whiskers. This is as far as I can take it until the whole quilt is sewn together.


When I had it that far, I hunted down the directions for putting together the whole quilt, which consists of seven sections plus borders. The whole quilt directions are included with Section 4. Go figure. But then, I should have known better because this is a McKenna Ryan pattern. I love her quilts, but her patterns suck. 

If you're reading this, McKenna Ryan, I'm sorry to be so blunt. Since you charge an arm and a leg for your patterns, you could at least print them a little less cheaply. Let's start with not using huge sheets of newsprint that are impossible to work with. Then let's stop printing on both sides of the already unwieldy sheet so that it would be possible to use a lightbox when tracing out the complicated (and tiny) pieces. Then, get the instructions right, for goodness sake.

This last parts bugs me most of all since at least one of the sections has a number of errors in it, which I enumerated right here. Then, I wrote a nice email (meaning, no four-letter words) to McKenna Ryan to advise her of these errors. As I recall, I believe I even specifically used the words "please" and "thank you". Did my corrections ever appear on her website? Did I even get an acknowledgement of my email? No. Just thinking about this puts me in a crabby mood. Can you tell?

My good friend Lynette from What a Hoot is making this quilt too. She put it perfectly when she observed that she knows she's going to love this quilt when it's finished. Yes, yes, yes! It's going to be fantastic. But working on it is a royal painus in the anus.


There is a point to this rant, which is this: when I looked at the whole quilt directions, I realized that I can't really sew only the completed sections together because parts of those sections extend out into the borders of the quilts. That means I need to finish the bottom (as it turns out) TWO sections before I can start sewing it together. The next section I'm going to do is on the bottom left: Kitten Kaboodle.


And, frankly, that is just fine with me because every time I work on this, it puts me in a bad mood.

So now I'm shaking it off...moving onto something a little less complicated. For one thing, I'm going to do the November block for the Block Lotto.


Join me on the Block Lotto Blog
blocklotto.com


Thankfully, this month's block is straight piecing because I don't think I can take any more complications in my sewing room for the rest of the week, at least. We're making this  "X and Plus" block. This is the one that Sophie made:


Looks simple enough, right? That shouldn't take too long. Then I'm going to make the next block for the Chicken Buffet quilt. This also happens to be my Let's Book It project for the month



 from this book:


Sharon told me I could use it for my project every time I made a block. Thank you, Sharon. Obviously, someone needs to give me a break before I throw some kind of a temper tantrum. Whoops. Too late. (Ahem.)

Well, this month, I'm making the Chicken Divan block. Aren't these funny? They should serve to lighten the mood considerably.



I've only made one other block for this quilt, this "Chicken Gumbo" block:


Each block comes with a recipe for the dish it represents, which makes it even more fun to work on.

I'm getting caught up on my many UFO's slowly but surely, and I think I'm going to have more time to devote to my WIPs in 2016. For now, I'm just plugging away, adding more projects from the back burner and getting some of these oldest of the old moving along.

That's only my sewing wish list for the day and the weekend. Today I'm going to spend some time in the kitchen. I'm getting an early start on dinner, which is going to be this Creamy Roasted Red Pepper and Cauliflower Soup. I'll serve that up with some slices of baguette spread with some of last year's Apple-Pear Chutney and sprinkled with gorgonzola cheese. Yum. Most of my cooking these days is designed to use our CSA veggies, and right now I have my sites set on the two heads of beautiful cauliflower hanging out in the vegetable bin, smoking cigarettes, and generally making a mess of things. 

There were enough green tomatoes in this week's share to make another batch of green tomato salsa, such is surprisingly delicious, especially on eggs. And finally, I'm going to try a new dessert recipe for these Baked Apple Roses for two. They look easy and they're so pretty! I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow.

So that's a pretty full day. Better get after it.

16 comments:

Vicki W said...

It's really unacceptable for people to publish shoddy patterns. Even more so for MR. It's not as if this is her first pattern and she has a huge customer base. Doesn't she realize that she loses customers with this?

gayle said...

I remember Tom Terrific and Crabby Appleton! I think you're right about 13th century...
(And how bad is it that I could sing along with those lyrics?)
Loving your chickens and commiserating over the kitties. Hang in there - you will win, I have no doubts.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

That would make me just give up on it and pass it on. I have seen the Chicken quilt done up and it is stinkin' cute!!

Shirley said...

The McKenna Ryan pattern you are making is absolutely beautiful. The quilt will be spectacular when completed. I've read other bloggers' comments on the problems with pattern and instruction. Don't think her patterns are for the faint of heart. Your embroidery projects are beautiful and I look forward to seeing the completed projects.

TheEclecticAbuela said...

Isn't it funny--I don't really remember Tom Terrific, but as soon as I saw the picture of Crabby Appleton I remembered him! I even *gasp* remembered his name. :) Thanks for the fun memory.

Lyndsey said...

I don't know about Tom Terrific or Crabby Appleton but I understand your frustration. I really hate it when there are errors in a pattern and it's even worse when the author doesn't respond, especially when the email is polite. I know you'll plough on with the quilt and figure it out in the end . All the stress will be worth it as it's such a cute quilt. The chickens are fabulous.

Wilma Lee said...

I remember Crabby Appleton, lol. God, I'm old!! Love your quilts.

Dana Gaffney said...

Tom Terrific sounds familiar but this Crabby Appleton is new to me, but I've probably just forgot, age you know. I feel like McKenna Ryan is an artist, not a quilter and doesn't have much to do with the pattern making otherwise I think things would have changed by now.

Chris said...

Hi Barb,
Have to totally agree with you about McKenna Ryan's patterns. I have purchased 3 (being a glutton for punishment) and maybe one day I will bite the bullet and finish them. Frustration set in with each. What isn't excusable in any way, shape or form is her neglect to respond to your note.

So......in all the time I've been following your antics - you're so much like me it would tickle you - why didn't I ever pay closer attention to the Block Swap thingie. I'll have to go back and give it a good read. Oh yeah.....and I do remember Tom Terrific and yes, I'm old.

mommalibrarian said...

"I'm Tom Terrific, the greatest hero ever, Terrific is the name for me because I'm so clever. I can be what I want to be and if you want to see just follow and follow me." That is the way I remember it. Too bad it wasn't Tomasina but that was a very long time ago.

mommalibrarian said...

"I'm Tom Terrific, the greatest hero ever, Terrific is the name for me because I'm so clever. I can be what I want to be and if you want to see just follow and follow me." That is the way I remember it. Too bad it wasn't Tomasina but that was a very long time ago.

quiltzyx said...

Tom Terrific & Crabby Appleton sound familiar, but that's as far as my brain goes.
I'm reading a book right now that my boss gifted to me, called Skipping Stones. The main character talks about a Pear Salad that her grandma makes ( I don't know why the Baked Apple Roses reminded me of it). I'd never heard of that salad, so I had to look it up. Uses canned pear halves, mayo, shredded cheddar & a cherry on top. Could be it's a Southern thing. I might have to try it though. (And so far the book is quite good, but it's sad. Laura did tell me that it does have a happy ending though. She warned me there will be Ugly Crying & snot going on while reading however.)

Lynette said...

Crabby Appleton. :D And that Chicken Buffet quilt seriously Cracks Me Up. Looks like a perfect foil to work on between Whiskers attacks. Completely agree with the pattern comments. It's such a chore on this one to make myself get the next block set out. . . But maybe I should suck it up and start tracing the out-on-a-limb one. That's next for me if I'm remembering right. I can't sit at the machine to quilt on what I really want to do right now (pulled hip flexor), but I can stand at the high counter and trace. ::sigh::

Angie in SoCal said...

LOL - I guess I'm old as I do remember Tom and his pal, Mighty Manfred. I enjoyed that show. So sorry about the pattern consternation - it does stir the blood when this happens. Those chickens made me chuckle. I'm curious does the CSA box come with the recipes - you are sure using those veggies up deliciously.

Kate said...

I checked with My Guy and neither of us remember Crabby Appleton. I checked with him because t's entirely possible that those memory cells have already died (he accuses me daily of loosing memory cells from even just a few years ago).

That is really sad about the pattern and that the author never responds to the complaints. It is going to be a gorgeous quilt. I guess once it's all done you can be proud you survived the experience.

Lynette said...

I'm finally working on mine again, and I'M IN THAT BAD MOOD ALL OVER!! ::hmphh:: I am going to make this move forward one way or another TODAY!~