The quilting community is awesomely generous!!!  Thanks to all who have sent me scraps for making hexie flowers:


I really understand and appreciate that it takes time to sort through your scraps, selecting some that you feel might work for me, packing them to send, getting them to the post office. In some cases, you even took time to cut them into 2" squares for me... WOW! Bless your hearts!

The most interesting thing is that all the fabrics I've received so far are ones I might have picked myself, yet so far there are no duplicates. As of Oct. 19th, I have cut petal sets for about 650 flowers (from my own scraps and fat quarter stash, as well as scraps I've received from other quilters), all of them unique! That's about 90% of what I need to make the quilt, and certainly enough to keep me busy for a looooooong time. It will probably take me a year or so to baste and stitch all of the flowers, although I admit to going at it with a lot of gusto.

To be honest with you, the past two months (Oct. and Nov.) have been miserable for me because of the election campaign and results. Now, finally, the cloak of despair, the fog of depression, is lifting a little.

One evening, as I noticed the challenge kit from the La Conner Quilt Museum on top of my quilting to-do pile, a flicker of an idea passed through my brain. Then, as I awoke the next morning, the flicker became a small flame, which in turn lead me to accept an invitation to spend an afternoon quilting with some friends, which (in order to have something to work on) got me rooting through my fabric stash.

Now, quilters, beaders, and artists of all types, will recognize the phenomenon caused by physically touching your materials, supplies, and tools. Suddenly your wearisome thoughts of the election (or whatever else got you down) are gone! You fondle your stuff lovingly, and with great anticipation, you make the first cuts, fanning the flame, turning it into a nice warm fire. Ah, saved from the chilly fog, at last!

My journey out of the fog began with this vintage block from a quilt that someone, somewhere, started long ago, but never finished. It, along with many others, was donated to the La Conner Quilt Museum. The Curator, Kathleen Kok, not knowing what she would do with all the vintage blocks donated over the years, just kept them in a corner waiting for an idea to form. And form it did!

Every year the Museum has a challenge as a fundraiser, showcasing the entries at the annual Quilt Festival. For 2017, the challenge theme is "Time" and the material provided in the kit is one of the vintage blocks from their collection. The block above is the one I picked. It is just so cheerful... how could I resist? Hand pieced, it wasn't perfectly sewn, but still I fell instantly in love with it. Mine for a $10 contribution!

Of course, it was just the block. In the photo above, I have already layered it with backing and batting, and then hand quilted it.

My idea is two-fold. (1) Since the "time" theme can be portrayed by a transition from these early fabrics to modern fabrics, I decided to repeat the block using Kaffe Fassett fabric scraps left over from my shimmer quilt. (2) Feeling powerless in the face of impending doom after the election, I had to find some ways to assert my beliefs, and this quilt was to be one of them. I've long been concerned about the ever-increasing world population, about all the small, yet constant ways overpopulation is damaging and destroying the natural systems of the planet. So the title will be: Under the Quilts, Time Flies, and Population GROWS. My idea is to illustrate this concept using both color and beads. You'll see.

First though, a few words about making the modern block. At first I tried to make a pattern for the "flower/star" by tracing one of the triangles from the back side. I hand-stitched the required 16 pieces together FOUR different times, varying the seam allowances each time, trying to get it to lie down flat. Obviously, I did not correctly copy the original, because when I finally sewed it so it was nice and flat, it was also too small. Grrr.

A smart quilt friend (thanks Tori) suggested I trace a section from the right side of the block and add 1/4 inch seam allowances all around. Good idea, but there were small differences between the sections... which one to trace? Trying to answer that question, looking at the block, I finally saw how the pattern was derived! (Light bulb!!!)

It's two overlapping squares of the same size, one on point and one not. All it took was to measure the sides of the squares on the original block (which averaged 8.5 inches), cut them out of paper, fold the diagonals and sides, put a pin through the centers to join them, rotate the top one until the folds lined up, tape the two together, and draw along the fold lines. Voila! Now, all I had to do was cut out one of the half-points, add my quarter-inch seam allowances, and there was the perfect pattern for my new block. The rest went quite quickly, and below you can see the quilted result. (Note: I added quarter-inch seam allowances to each of the pattern pieces shown above to get the final cutting pattern.)


You might be wondering why I've layered and quilted these blocks. How will they be joined to form the quilt? The answer is they won't be joined! Instead, they will be bound as separate little quilts (each 11 inches square), and then appliqued to a separate "background quilt."

Here is how they look with the binding.


Notice that the over-all color of the modern block is darker. This matches my concern about over-population of the planet. Time flies, and the population GROWS, making the world a darker place for me, as many species become stressed and obsolete, as the desert lands grow and the forests shrink, as potable water becomes polluted and scarce, as crowded people war with each other. You know. If you watch the documentaries and contribute to various environmental causes, you know. Darker.

Thus, the quilt also becomes darker as the eye travels from top to bottom. Here is how it looks with the two blocks on the background quilt, the transitioning colors from light to dark, representing about 70 years in time passing (estimating the date of the fabrics in the vintage block at approximately 1946). This is an extremely tiny period of world history, but one in which world population sky-rocketed from 2.3 billion to 7.4 billion.

You can probably see the little heart beads, but if you click to enlarge the photo, you'll see them more clearly. The pair at the top represents a couple. They dive under the quilt, have some fun, and produce four lovely children (between the two blocks). These four pair up, dive under the quilt, resulting in 16 children. Under the quilts, time flies, and the population GROWS. That's m' story, and I'm sticking to it.

Now, here's a question for you loyal readers who have come so far with me on this thing.  The quilt looks really pretty the way it is. But originally, I had planned to do more beading on it.  I planned to bead several vines circling the outer border of the quilt (not the binding). Across the top of the quilt, the vines would be light green, with many green leaves, bright-colored flowers, and some critter beads/charms (bees, birds, bears, fish). As the vines trailed down the sides, they would become darker, until at the bottom they would be beaded with dark brown, black, and darkest greens, with no critters, and only a few dark flowers. The visual message (I hope) would be, "this is what happens when we overpopulate the world." What do you think... leave it like it is now or bead the borders?

Global Population Information

Think of it this way. Every single month increasing world population adds another Los Angeles AND another Chicago to the planet. That's 24 gigantic cities worth of people added EVERY year; more than 240 giant cities every 10 years. Imagine how many cities full of people will be added in your life time. Crunch the numbers and see what you think.

Evidence of heavy population demand on resources is all around us. Global aquifers are being pumped 3.5 times faster than rainfall can naturally recharge them. Eventually they will run dry, perhaps as soon as 75 years. Topsoil is being lost 10-40 times faster than it is formed.  Feeding all 7+ billion of us is increasingly difficult, impossible actually.

There is no technology solution to accommodate the increasing demand of uncontrolled global population growth. The only solution is voluntary one child per couple for a couple of generations, on a Global participation level. If all countries followed the lead of countries with the lowest birth rates (Taiwan, Spain, Portugal, South Korea, and Poland), we could reach a more sustainable Global population of 3 billion by 2100!

Please, talk about this with your child-bearing-aged kids, grand kids, students, etc. We teach environmentally sound practices in most schools, write books and make documentary films about issues like clean water, over-fishing, fracking, etc. But rarely does the topic center on overpopulation. Be proactive. Make it happen.

If you are willing to read (or listen to an audio book) to learn more about Global population, Count Down is an excellent read.

Here is a link to the previous bead embroidery pieces (and poems) I've made concerning population growth.Thank you for reading all the way to the end, and for anything you can do to help people understand what we need to do.

Alban Forcione, an internationally renowned scholar of 17th-century literature of “Golden Age” Spain, the Walter S. Carpenter Jr., Professor of Language, Literature and Civilization of Spain, Emeritus, and Princeton alumnus, died Sept. 14 at age 82.

Gilbert Harman, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, died at his home in Princeton on Nov. 13 after a long illness with Alzheimer’s. He was 83.

Daniel Osherson, Princeton’s Henry R. Luce Professor in Information Technology, Consciousness, and Culture, Emeritus, known for his  creative scientific explorations with collaborators in many disciplines, died at home on Sept. 4. 

The book joins others by Princeton faculty on The New Yorker list of the year’s best. Jarrett gives a talk at Labyrinth Books on Thursday, Nov. 3.

Hisashi Kobayashi, whose steady leadership as dean guided Princeton's School of Engineering and Applied Science through a rapid expansion of programs and facilities in the late 1980s and early 1990s, died on March 9. He was 84.

“His mathematical legacy is enormous,” said John D’Angelo *76. “Joe was among the most friendly, popular and influential mathematicians of his generation.”

Lisk taught biology at Princeton for 30 years before transferring to emeritus status in 1990.

Learn the fundamentals of finance in at our accessible and engaging lectures! Whether you want to get prepared for finance recruiting or just are curious about investing, our sessions will give you a technical education and an understanding of how investing works. Tiger Investments is Princeton’s oldest investment club. As conveyed by our mission statement, financial education rooted in fundamental analysis and equity research are at the heart of our organization. Our curriculum can be found here https://tigerinvestments.princeton.edu/education/

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers meets weekly on Wednesdays in the Yeh PDR to come together, socialize, and envision the future of the club together.

Young Democratic Socialists of America - General Meeting

Geosciences Department Lecture Series

An introduction to the typesetting system LaTeX will be provided using the online editor Overleaf. LaTeX allows advanced document preparation and typesetting of complex mathematical formulas. Overleaf offers advanced functionality like collaborative editing and versioning. Peer consultations and troubleshooting also offered throughout the semester. Visit https://libcal.princeton.edu/appointments/jfz to book an appointment.

Learn the fundamentals of finance in at our accessible and engaging lectures! Whether you want to get prepared for finance recruiting or just are curious about investing, our sessions will give you a technical education and an understanding of how investing works. Tiger Investments is Princeton’s oldest investment club. As conveyed by our mission statement, financial education rooted in fundamental analysis and equity research are at the heart of our organization. Our curriculum can be found here https://tigerinvestments.princeton.edu/education/

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers meets weekly on Wednesdays in the Yeh PDR to come together, socialize, and envision the future of the club together.

Young Democratic Socialists of America - General Meeting

William Dudley, senior advisor, Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies, Princeton University; and former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York In conversation with Markus Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics, and Director of the Bendheim Center for Finance, Princeton University Wednesday, November 20, 2024, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building, Room 399 Co-sponsored by The Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies (GCEPS) and Bendheim Center for Finance (BCF) Open to the Princeton University Community Group of 30 Report Publication, G30 Working Group on the 2023 Banking Crisis, chaired by William Dudley

Gemma Peacocke’s ‘A Strange Power’ is a 45-minute cantata about the tangled web of romance, free love, creation, and death in the early lives of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley and her step-sister, Claire Clairmont. Scored for two sopranos, clarinet, piano, percussion, and cello, the work will be performed by Sputter Box with guest vocalist Charlotte Mundy. The program also features new works for the performers by other Princeton University graduate student composers Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, Devin Greenwood, Gemma Peacocke, and Onche Rajesh Ugbabe.

Geosciences Department Lecture Series

An introduction to the typesetting system LaTeX will be provided using the online editor Overleaf. LaTeX allows advanced document preparation and typesetting of complex mathematical formulas. Overleaf offers advanced functionality like collaborative editing and versioning. Peer consultations and troubleshooting also offered throughout the semester. Visit https://libcal.princeton.edu/appointments/jfz to book an appointment.

Back for its 134th year, the Princeton Triangle Club premieres a brand-new Triangle Show: Pageant Pending! Welcome to America’s Most Wanted, the biggest pageant event in all 50 states! The lights are blinding, the competition is cutthroat, and the interview questions must be answered in twenty seconds or less. Dreams, schemes, and ripped seams are all exposed under a merciless spotlight in this new musical comedy about a series of sash decisions! Join us for Pageant Pending and discover what has made the annual Triangle Show one of Princeton’s favorite town/gown traditions for over 130 years!

Back for its 134th year, the Princeton Triangle Club premieres a brand-new Triangle Show: Pageant Pending! Welcome to America’s Most Wanted, the biggest pageant event in all 50 states! The lights are blinding, the competition is cutthroat, and the interview questions must be answered in twenty seconds or less. Dreams, schemes, and ripped seams are all exposed under a merciless spotlight in this new musical comedy about a series of sash decisions! Join us for Pageant Pending and discover what has made the annual Triangle Show one of Princeton’s favorite town/gown traditions for over 130 years!

Back for its 134th year, the Princeton Triangle Club premieres a brand-new Triangle Show: Pageant Pending! Welcome to America’s Most Wanted, the biggest pageant event in all 50 states! The lights are blinding, the competition is cutthroat, and the interview questions must be answered in twenty seconds or less. Dreams, schemes, and ripped seams are all exposed under a merciless spotlight in this new musical comedy about a series of sash decisions! Join us for Pageant Pending and discover what has made the annual Triangle Show one of Princeton’s favorite town/gown traditions for over 130 years!

Join Princeton University Glee Club for a three-day celebration of the Glee Club’s past, present and future with a festival of singing, camaraderie and concerts! The festival begins on November 15th with a performance in Richardson Auditorium by the unstoppable superstars of global a cappella - The King’s Singers, featuring a program of music curated specially for the 150th, and joined on stage by the Princeton University Glee Club for the world premiere of a new work by American composer Stacy Gibbs. *** PUGC 150th CELEBRATION - a 3 day festival! Opening Concert: The King Singers with the Princeton University Glee Club Friday November 15th, 7:30pm Richardson Auditorium, Princeton, NJ Gala Concert: PUGC - Then, Now, and Onwards! with the Princeton University Glee Club and PUGC alumni Saturday November 16th, 5pm Richardson Auditorium, Princeton, NJ Glee Club Come-and-Sing: Fauré Requiem with the Princeton University Glee Club and PUGC alumni Sunday November 17th, 2:30pm Princeton University Chapel, Princeton, NJ

Learn the fundamentals of finance in at our accessible and engaging lectures! Whether you want to get prepared for finance recruiting or just are curious about investing, our sessions will give you a technical education and an understanding of how investing works. Tiger Investments is Princeton’s oldest investment club. As conveyed by our mission statement, financial education rooted in fundamental analysis and equity research are at the heart of our organization. Our curriculum can be found here https://tigerinvestments.princeton.edu/education/

REEES/Slavic Grad Film Series Bordenlens: Queer Outlines of Geography and Gender Organized by Sofia Guerra Sponsored by the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Humanities Council, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies. All Films Shown with English Subtitles

Simon A. Levin, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University Samuel S. Wang, Professor of Neuroscience, Princeton University Discussant: Keena Lipsitz, Associate Professor of Political Science at Queens College, City University of New York

Young Democratic Socialists of America - General Meeting

The studio is developing the movie with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and screenwriter Pamela Ribon ('Nimona,' 'My Year of Dicks').

Though there are few comps for R-rated stop-motion films at the box office, 'Memoir of a Snail' is off to an excellent start.

The Oscar-nominated trio behind 'A Single Life' is back with a new dark comedy about climate change and individual responsibility.

In a world overflowing with information, the ability to discern reliable sources has never been more critical. Many individuals resonate with a moment of uncertainty—perhaps it was a social media post that seemed too outrageous, or an article that didn’t quite align with the facts they knew. This is a common experience in today’s digital ... Read more

The post How to Distinguish Between Reliable and Unreliable Sources in the Digital Age appeared first on Star Two.

Nowadays, gas barbecues have supplanted standard charcoal flame broils in numerous family units. And happiness is when you find the Best gas grills under 300.

The post 15 Best Gas Grills Under 300 2024 – Propane Grills For Every Budget appeared first on Star Two.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle by making positive changes is not always easy. It involves setting realistic goals and making gradual changes that lead to significant achievements. Generally, small positive changes are more sustainable than sudden ones. Therefore, anyone seeking to improve their diet and lifestyle should consider making minor changes that eventually have a significant ... Read more

The post The Power of Nutrition: Small Changes That Make a Big Difference appeared first on Star Two.

From the moment the phonograph was discovered, things began to move upwards, so that today, for very little money, we could have music and even find out the name of the song we are currently listening to, with one click. Modern technology has changed the ways of listening to music. Music has never been more ... Read more

The post How Modern Technology has Changed the Way we Listen to Music? appeared first on Star Two.

Glastonbury is many things to many people. For some festivalgoers, it’s all about the music atmosphere. For others, they’re there to see some of the biggest artists in the world. Then there are those who really enjoy taking a look at some of the up-and-coming acts. Sally Howell, the organiser of the Croissant Neuf area, ... Read more

The post Why the Legends Slot is so Important at Glastonbury appeared first on Star Two.

In the early 18th century, English criminal Jonathan Wild maintained a highly organized gang of thieves and long escaped punishment by posing as an instrument of justice and helping the authorities catch other criminals independent of, or rebellious to, his control. One such criminal was Blake, who was arrested after a burglary. He was tried, convicted, and hanged. What other notorious criminal—Blake's partner in crime—escaped from prison when Blake attacked a witness at his trial?

Hi! Right now we are busy with our primary project – major design update for posting campaigns editor. It will be ready really soon. But we also take time to respond to your requests and suggestions. Here is our change log for October 2018: Google+ Poster Shutting Down Since Google stops its support of Google+ […]

The post RSS Ground Change Log October 2018 appeared first on RSSground.com.

  This week LinkedIn has announced a major renovation of its Company Pages feature. You can now refer to them simply as Pages. As they say: “LinkedIn Pages — the next generation of LinkedIn Company Pages. Pages have been rebuilt from the ground up to make it easier for brands, institutions, and organizations, from small […]

The post New LinkedIn Pages Posting in RSS Ground appeared first on RSSground.com.

Hey there! Earlier this month we have announced a planned service maintenance. That was done in order to implement a new update we’ve been working on for the last several weeks. It includes user interface changes, new options and features, and some system changes. Please see the list of what was added below: Major interface […]

The post RSS Ground Changelog November 2018 appeared first on RSSground.com.

We have planned several new service updates for this year, and you will be seeing them very often. Here is the first in this season report about our development process. We have made several fixes and updates in January. See the list below: New Content Elements In YouTube Video Feeds We have added new content elements […]

The post RSS Ground Changelog January 2019 appeared first on RSSground.com.

We have finally completed the renovation of our tools interfaces. Improved and unified layouts across all of our content generators and posters. And today it’s time to introduce updated WordPress and Blogger posters. These brand new content sharing tools will make a process of automated blog posting work like a charm. WordPress Poster User Guide […]

The post Meet New Automated WordPress and Blogger Posters appeared first on RSSground.com.

We have several amazing updates added to the service last month. These updates concern both content posting and content searching tools. Below is the list of updates for the month of February: New WordPress and Blogger Posters We have completed the renovation of our main tools interfaces. We have improved and unified layouts across all of […]

The post RSS Ground Changelog February 2019 appeared first on RSSground.com.

We continue to grow and improve RSS Ground. We add new features and options, provide you with more tutorials and other useful information. And of course we don’t stop developing new tools. Read about RSS Ground latest news and updates

The post RSS Ground Changelog March 2019 appeared first on RSSground.com.

We are glad to announce a new tool added to RSS Ground collection - Instagram Feeds.

The post New Instagram Feeds Generator! appeared first on RSSground.com.

New tools, new features, new plans! RSS Ground is evolving and developing. We have a whole bunch of exacting updates released in June.

The post RSS Ground Changelog June 2019 appeared first on RSSground.com.

After a recent release of a bunch of some new popular content sources, we are glad to announce a renovated and improved Twitter Feeds generator.

The post Upgraded Twitter Feeds Generator Is On The Fly! appeared first on RSSground.com.

Some of you might have noticed that our Facebook Feeds generator can right now generate only RSS feeds of your own Facebook pages..

The post Facebook Feeds Generator Is Experiencing Problems appeared first on RSSground.com.

LinkedIn has finally approved our app! After the recent LinkedIn platform updates and long-awaited app review LinkedIn Poster is back to its normal functionality.

The post LinkedIn Company Pages Posting is Resumed appeared first on RSSground.com.