INTERNET

Hiya, perhaps you thought that I had vanished.  Heres a story.... (yep another one lol)

At Christmas Santa bought a lovely new smart TV, with all the bells and whistles you could imagine, a pressie to us from my late mother in law.   WHoo hoo did we have fun with it, Iplayer terrrific, didnt bother watching stuff, used the various Iplayers.

January came and with it the dreaded snow and ice and just after my daughter left for her travels, the Internet left as well.

We have had 2 whole months of wires everywhere, and saving up for a new router, because it must be the router must it not?
Its the connection here?
Its BT?
Its the router?

I have been going bonkers, to get on my blog takes ages and ages, so I gave up.

We got BT to check the line...twice... nothing wrong

Earlier this week we decided to buy a new router, a lovely top of the range router, surely it will be this...with bated breath and late into the night we connected everything and and and....no difference.

Today we have wires all over the place as yesterday a very nice phone engineer who was fixing my sons system at his company, suggested plugging the new uber router straight into the main phone socket

(are your eyes glazing over..... hang in there..)

No difference...grrrr...grrrr headache coming on

At tea time today my husband found a speed checker online and guess what we are receiving .2

POINT TWO...POINT TWO....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

So whilst I was cooking tea I found the AOL number & started what has turned out to be a TWO hour trial.

Ring one number... get through really quickly...go through everything,,, oh its the wrong number
mini breakdown

Eat dinner

Ring next number  Hey its a Canadian (no problem with that but boy did he talk fast) so put house phone on hands free really loud

Go through everything and I mean everything...bra size....inside leg...you know how it goes

THEN

Oh we need to check the line, so ring us back ON THE MOBILE in 15 minutes

Twiddle thumbs

Ring back and get a man whom I could not understand

(hang in.....open eyes)

My husband had to...undo the BT box...connect a wire to a test socket (in the hall behind a unit), plug in new router, plug in old router, all the time this man was rambling on with a very strong Indian sounding voice.

THEN.....

There is nothing wrong, we need to send an engineer, this will cost you fifty quid if it turns out to be at your end.  Do they think I had come up with the mushrooms?????
How would I know if it was my end or their end, they could say any old thing, I went quite politely bonkers, really bonkers, shreakingly bonkers
The man who was by now totally aghast at me, burbled something about a manager and I grunted, Ive had enough, we are leaving AOL after 18 years  POINT ROTTEN TWO...

Musiak...lalalala

Hello Mrs Folgate, please do this and that, what is your hat size and how tall are you...(grrr again)

I WILL JUST TURN UP YOUR SPEED FOR YOU

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!

What speed do you have now, after resetting everything, including passwords, oh we can ring you back, I hissed at him no b****y fear, I dont believe that you will.  You can WAIT online...(wish I had had a tune to blast at him)

12.5.............twelve point five

I thought that my eyes would fall out, rage is not the word......he TURNED it up from point two to twelve point five...just like that, after I threatened to leave and go elsewhere (to Sky with their seven)
After I calmed down he said this and I quote & this is the point of telling you this incase you ever get a similar thing happen to you

THERE WAS A FAULT SHOWN, SO WE TURNED DOWN YOUR SPEED, SO YOU GOT SOME INTERNET, INSTEAD OF LOSING IT ALL, & there it would stay forever if we had not complained.
No we didnt need an engineer at fifty quid plus this and that which I couldnt understand and yes everything would be fine now

TWO HOURS...... my husband said next time one of the light bulbs goes on the blink perhaps the electricity board will turn down our supply so we have just a little........

Normal service with pictures will now be resumed and I hope that this tale may help someone out there, i am off to watch a whole stack of Quilt shows and videos that I have not been able to do for two whole months & dream of a piece of chocolate tomorrow for Easter Day & the end of Lent

HAPPY EASTER to you all xx

COPYRIGHT

I belong to a Yahoo group Embroidery Friends & the thread at the moment is copyright, so I thought that I would look up the current rules in Britain
www.ipo.gov.uk/c-basicfacts.pdf

This link explains very clearly the minefield that is copyright or intellectual property rights with the UK

As textile artists we inspire each other, but no-one should blatantly copy anothers work, what is the point of that?  How does our creativity grow if we dont think for ourselves and see what WE can achieve.

I deliver workshops, locally & via the Internet, I am eternally hopeful that those that take the workshops use the information in an appropriate manner & credit me where possible.  Indeed I do receive requests from time to time which mostly I am happy to allow.

So the object of this blogpost is to get each of us to think when we take a workshop or buy a workshop what we do with the information gleaned

Forging forward is what we should do!!

I shall now be Forging Forward Folgate - lol

Have a good day, its dull, grey and snowing here & I am eagerly awaiting the touch down of my globe travelling family today. Thanks for reading x

PUSSEO & WEIRD WEATHER

The latest picture of Pusseo, she with the many names & not cardboard cat any more as she has a tongue & groove des res.  She is sitting on a cat quilt that I made for my lovely Auntie Mary, it is full of cat panels and my precious Aunt loved it & now so does Puss, sitting happily on my husband she still only smiles at me if I offer her cream!

I know that I am bonkers but my husband is even worse when he arrived home with this kennel, if you look really hard you can see her in her basket in the bedroom compartment, we have had 'such fun' thinking up household improvements, I am likening it to Kevin McCloud's Man Made Home!
I am sure that I will return home one day to a window, a door & a chandellier in Charlottes house, improvements in my home only extend to a new knob on the boiler room door!!

England is in the grip of weird weather, here are the biggest snow flakes that I have ever seen, okay I know that I have taken them with my phone so they dont look like flakes, didnt get time to set up the DSLR & tripod and it only lastest a few minutes, this is the pretty little sort of wilderness (Lady Catherine de Bourgh) in my front garden

 

By the time I took this running down the sitting room the flakes had returned to normal

Then today, forecast was rain (again) grey (again) cold (again) and what have we got, bright sunshine, a little heat and beautiful blue sky ALL DAY.  So I dashed off to secret lane and got stuck in the pond.  I have taken many pictures of this pond, mostly it is dry, oh I have such muddy shoes and looked very stylish with my jeans rolled up ala 1980 ish
Isnt it a beautiful photo with the reflected trees

 

At the end of secret lane is this gate, the hundred years old style was removed and this replaced a couple of years ago, this is where the beasts gather, but not today it is ankle deep in melt water.  But I liked the composition of the photo with the shadows of the blackberry bushes
Most of the trees along my way have green like moss on them and feeling the trunks (you do that too dont you?) they are sodden.  The bushes are holding onto their buds so tightly, there are a few snowdrops and a few green leaves of daffoldils, oh I long for Spring, after a rubbish summer mostly last year (escept for THE wedding, THE holiday & THE Olympics) I am eally wishing for a lovely summer.  Just two days left until my darling daughter returns from her travels, I am counting the hours.  Thank goodness for Skype, altho in many places it has been impossible.  In Tokyo it has been possible so I have had my fix over the weekend, they never cease to be your babies do they?
Much sewing has been taking place for local classes & for my creative classes.  I shall get my act together soon & post & also send a newsletter, but not this afternoon, the sunshine is still a-calling
Hope wherever you are, life is good x

BOOK OF KELLS

The wonderous Book of Kells is now available to view FREE
HERE

 

All 678 pages - mega eye candy x

DUXFORD SPRING QUILT FAIR 2013

Today 5 of us braved the envelopping fog and rain and the dull greyness, to indulge in colour, pattern & joyfullness at the Duxford spring quilt fair.  I went to the autumn fair and enjoyed it.  This time they had improved it by moving stalls around.  The venue is excellent, hard standing for the free car park, easy acces, suitably placed toilets, even labelling the gents into ladies to help the queues!

The tea area was the only downside, lots of tables and chairs, but no room for ladies, mostly rotund (me included) with bulging bags, I decided I would make people laugh by telling them it was a post Olympic event called hurdling the tables.  A bit short sighted of the organisers, but I guess they will alter it next time.  The tables were covered with black or very dark blue cloths which were awful making the space look like a wake!
A visit to Sunflower fabrics produced Essex Linen, a bought pattern as a treat, some orders from students and a bundle of bright fabrics were my booty, but the best bargain was a table for my workshop Bernina, the assistant was a bit bemused at my request to buy the table & a deal was done.  We had a good looka t the new Berninas with 9mm feet and selected an excellent 2 grand deal to add to our wish list
A look around the quilts produced many by the brilliant Hilary Beattie

and by Linda Turner, not good quality photos, taken by my phone in quite an odd light

So sorry that it is blurred

I didnt like the way many of the quilts were hung especially the small black and white ones.  We will never be taken seriously within the art world when we cant display the lovely work more effectively like an art exhibition. 

There were many fabrics at realistic prices.  The wonderful Images of Egypt had fabrics priced really well and stands of 5 pounds and 6 pounds a metre abounded.  Although some of the cheaper fabrics did not have the feel of good quality, there were many that did.  It was good to see that the prices had not risen since the autumn as 14 pounds a metre is astronomical

It is on for another two days.  Worth the admission price to see the planes in the hanger x

SHOW ME THE MONET - ALISON HOLT

A big surprise this morning whilst stuffing my porridge.  Up popped Alison Holt  the outstanding Machine embroiderer

On Show me the Monet on BBC2

 I shouted I know her! to my bemused husband, I bet she does not get though, they never take a textile artist
These are the shortsighted 'judges'

When will they ever learn?

 

Alison was so professional & resigned to not being chosen, I was livid!

Check it out on IPlayer

Alison's work is truly inspirational, these are all done with THREAD alone

Such an uphill battle for any textile artist to get recognition in the art world