8/6/17

Gearing Up

It's going to be a kitchen day today. This morning I'm gearing up for scoring, blanching, pitting, peeling, slicing, dicing, mixing, stirring, cooking, and canning. First, there are the peaches I gathered at yesterday's farmer's market outing...


and there are also beets to pickle. I have beets from our CSA shares, but Erik and Mae are overrun with produce from their own garden. I took some beets off their hands yesterday. Erik loves the pickled beets.

There was a little sewing time yesterday, and I finished the last two of five of these dastardly 36-patch blocks. Officially, I'm caught up on the challenges now...until the next one is released tomorrow.


Here are all five of my 36-patch blocks. That's a whole lotta cutting and stitching. They are, of course, the wrong size, as I griped about last week. When I see how they are used, I'll trim them to size somehow.


In yesterday's mail, I received the fourth pattern for the Girls' Getaway stitchery. There will be six of these, but nos. five and six have not been released yet. 


These won't get started until they are all released, and in any case, not until next spring at the earliest.

Also in yesterday's mail, I received a box of "samples" from Dritz after whining to them about their binding clips. I'm extremely impressed with their customer service. This is quite a haul. They sent two packages of their large binding clips. Checking Amazon, these go for $8.68 per package.


Also...these "Getta Grip" clips. This is a product I've never seen before. These sell for $8.54 on Amazon.


So, altogether, Dritz has refunded my original purchase price of $6.90  and provided me with $25.90 in merchandise for a total of $32.80. And I get to keep the clips from my original purchase. That's very impressive customer service...way more than I expected from them. I hope you're impressed too. Sheesh. I almost feel guilty now for complaining in the first place.

Hopefully, I'll get some sewing time today, but I'm not counting on it. If I do, I'm ready to start practicing the quilting motif I want to do for the Bee Loving quilt.



I have some ideas in mind, and they start with this bumble bee motif from Lori Kennedy. I'm not an artist, and so it will require some practice on my part, if I can pull it off at all. I'll probably start by stabilizing the quilt, which will mean stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and borders. Then I'll get to work quilting the individual blocks. If not today, then tomorrow for sure.

13 comments:

claudia said...

You shouldn't even think about guilt in complaining about products! It's those complaints that make product improvements and companies like Dritz who compensate customers in cases like yours are happy to do it! (You just gave them thousands of dollars worth of free advertisements!) Those Getta Grip clips look interesting!
I have this great water bottle from a company called Copco. Someone didn't know it was a forever bottle and threw away the cap a few years back. I wrote to the company and asked if I could buy a new cap from them, they sent one for free. Of course, I told everyone what a great company they were, because they are!
And again, thanks for the reminder to order my Girls' Getaway pattern. I think when I order the pattern this time, I will order the bow of white crayons as well. I picked up the "erasers" a few weeks back, I have my fabric and now I need the backing fabric. What fabric do you use for the backing? I have a few bolts of muslin, but I think they are all the beige-y color. I would think it should be white. (?) I think this is going to end up being one of my 'shut in for the winter' projects.
That Bee Loving quilt is so darned cute! You inspire me to do more!
You! Peaches and pickled beets. Love them both. I realy need to take lessons from you! How do you get so much done in a day?!? I know the answer...you don't spend time on the computer lamenting the fact that you can't seem to get anything done...like someone I know! That, and I really need to organize myself!
Nice 36 patch blocks! They colors are pleasing!

Quilting Babcia said...

Good for Dritz, and as the previous commenter said, they're getting some great advertising from you! Win-win I'd say. I used that same bumble bee quilting motif from Lori Kennedy on my Bee Charmer's Flower Garden quilt earlier this year. It took a bit of practice, and I ended up drawing the circle for the head and a few other general guidelines but was was a fun motif to stitch.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

You did a wonderful service for Dritz advertising and they did good by you - definitely a win-win. I always think peaches look like baby butts - I know, go to the corner Sharon. You really have your stitcheries and stitching lined up.

quiltzyx said...

Nice score & hooray for Dritz! I cannot picture how the Getta Grip clips work, but if you've had a bad day at the grocery store it might be fun pinching those little faces on the clips....

The bumble bee motif looks cute. And will you STOP saying you're NOT AN ARTIST!!! I will say no more as we have had this discussion before.

Vicki H said...

Good for Dritz. I see the large binding clips have the rivets. Did they say anything about the regular ones not having the rivets? Let us all know how those getta clips work.

Kate said...

Very impressive customer service from Dritz. My binding clips have the rivets. I'm going to have to baby them since I can't replace them.

Brown Family said...

I started the Mini challenge on Thursday. I finished my 5 36 patch blocks this evening. THey were not so fun, but they are behind me. I will try to post tomorrows. I need to hit them with come steam and a bigger iron. I have my travel iron set up by the machine and it just did not do a good job on all those seams! Yours look great!

Those large clips are very interesting! I had never heard of the others, either!

Lyndsey said...

Great customer service with the clips plus they got free advertising. I love the bee quilt and the bee motif will look really good for the quilting. As a family we all love pickled beets and I must do some but it will have to wait until next month. Good luck getting all your kitchen chores finished, it will be well worth it.

piecefulwendy said...

It's always encouraging to see a company respond well. I'll be waiting to hear what you think of the getta grip clips after you use them; I've never seen them before. I know your canning adventures were successful, so I hope you have your feet up and are enjoying some tasty peach goodies!

QuiltGranma said...

love your kitties. Tiger Butter, I remember where that phrase came from! that makes me OLD! We too have haze from the BC fires, but not as bad as Portland and Seattle area are having. the peaches remind me of little cute butts! oh, what did I see?

Natureluvr57 said...

I love to hear about companies that stand behind their products because they are few and far between. I always bought Craftsman tools because if they broke you could take them back and exchange them. I haven't bought any in a long time-I hope it hasn't changed. I ordered pre-wound bobbins from Nancy's Notions and tucked them away. 6 months later I took them out to use. They didn't fit my bobbin although it was the right size and type per the package. I called and explained and they told me to return them. If they wouldn't take them back it would have been my fault for not trying the product sooner (one of my bad habits). Many companies won't let you return things after a certain time period. I don't return much to NN but they have great service too. Once I bought Fiskars scissors and rotary cutter with the pretty design on them. (I'm a "collector" or fanatic about scissors). The rotary cutter had an opening along the handle that pinched my hand every time I used it. I called and said I wanted to return it. They told me to keep it and they sent me a new set. Those rotary cutters and the blades enclosed are expensive. I did throw out the rotary cutter but used the blades with the new better cutter. I ordered yarns from Bonita's yarns and the package wasn't sealed all the way. The post man said it came like that so I emailed her and she sent the 1 skein to me that was missing. I'm surprised the other 5 and the little package of candy she includes made it. She also sent me a back ordered cake of yarn twice. She told me to keep it. That is a 16.00 cake of yarn! All companies can have a lemon but how they stand behind it determines if you ever or never order from them again. I never had a problem with Dritz but it's great to know they have good customer service. I've never seen or heard of the Getta Grips. Maybe you'll take a picture once you open it to show us how they work. Have a great stitchy, quilty kinda day.

Robin said...

I agree with Claudia and everyone else regarding your guilt.
I do like the patterns on the Bee Loving quilt. Can you tell me who sells it? Another Crabapple Hill?
You do amaze me that you accomplish so much EVERYDAY! How and where do you get the energy? I was like you in my 20-40's then I guess menopause zapped all my "go".
God Bless you for all you do and still have time for your family and computer friends. Do you get any sleep? 😺 robinsbusiness@hotmail.com

Dar said...

Glad to know that Dritz takes care of the customers and appreciates knowing when their products are not up to "our standards" since we are one of the best customers they have. I hope you show us how the bigger clips work too.