In Search Of....

Don't you hate when you have something in mind but are stuck because you cannot find what you need to get started? Or when you are collecting something and you are missing that one elusive item to complete your set?
It's like being revved up to make a cake and realizing there are no eggs in the house, or in the corner store, or in the whole town! Eggs no longer exist!!!

I have been searching for a few things online recently that has led to much frustration. First up was the pattern to a block called Yankee Pride or Snow Crystal. You can see a picture of the block here and here and here.. I think this would be a great block to English paper piece. A hand project to travel with when I get sick of my baskets.

I found the pattern on the Linda Franz' Inklingo site but it's a pieced version... Harriet Hargrave's Quilter's Academy vol 4 also has a pieced version...I tend to be on the fail side for imagination and trying to fix something to suit my needs appears more difficult than redesigning it altogether, so I've decided to either use EQ7 to get the templates or just use some quad paper and draw it out. This decision was reached after many agonizing hours, days, weeks dwelling on the lack of pattern for the block.

So, I have resigned myself on a solution to item #1. On to the next item on my list... Henrietta Whiskers. Yes, I know you know who she is. Anne Sutton from Bunny Hill designs had a free BOM on her site in 2011 - Have I mentioned that I have one too many of her applique projects on my to do list?

Especially since I really don't applique!!!! This BOM was so darn cute (like everything she conjures up) I started collecting the patterns to make it. Well, can you believe that I pulled out the pdf files last month and found that I had all the block images and all the PDF files, but one? I had failed to download the instructions for the LAST block!!! Yes, I went to the site that month, grabbed the image she would post with the block and then forgot to download the instructions for that block!  Not the finishing instructions.. oh no, I made sure to grab the finishing instructions. But the last block? Nope. What for? I had the image... ARG!! Ok. Deep breath. 
I rummaged around and found that she does sell the pattern now, so I could BUY the pattern that I already have to get that ONE LAST BLOCK... but, the frugal person in me has told me that Bunny Hill has other patterns I want more (Pumkinville, anyone?) before I break down and buy the one I already have.
I am a bit twitchy on not having this pattern in it's entirety (OCD much?) but I figure that the elements in the block are very similar to the other blocks so I could create my own block to fill in the blank on the quilt.. So, after many agonizing hours, days, weeks, I am no longer losing TOO much sleep over this one... As long as I don't think about it too much, then I get twitchy again. LOL!

So, I now I get to those eggs I mentioned earlier.. The ones that no longer exist, which means you will never eat cake again!! yes. Those eggs.

Do you see how I'm a bit of a fan girl of Blackbird designs patterns? I could put it right up there with my obsession with Carrie Nelson's work, except I can actually MAKE Carrie's quilts - remember my comment above of not doing applique?. Ok, back to the eggs... Well, back in November I placed an order on Pickledish. They are the web home of Kansas City Star quilts, the distributors of Blackbird designs books as well as other wonderful books. On that particular day, they had run a special for black Friday and I was eager to take advantage of it, since I do love me those gals at Blackbird (had you already deduced that?). Come Friday I got online and placed my order. I was looking forward to receiving my book and patterns. I ordered two patterns, Welcome Home and Midnight Silhouette, and one book called You're Invited.

tick tock tick tock... Come December my order had not arrived. I was never charged for the items and outside of my order confirm from the site, I had not received any communication from them... So, I called. It seems they received my order but the order was empty.. a system fail? I restated what I wanted and gave them the order #. At this point my sister had promised to gift me the book  for the holidays, so I canceled the order for the book, but my patterns were hard to find and I REALLY wanted them... the gentleman on the phone was very nice and very apologetic. He said he would place the patterns in the mail at once and said they would not charge me anything for my inconvenience. I was very happy and settled in to wait for my patterns.... tick tock tick tock... They never arrived.

A few weeks ago I went on the hunt for the patterns again since I have resigned myself that the company could care less about their customers and has no intentions of even acknowledging their failure to get an order right. Life is just too short to hassle someone that has shown they cannot be bothered.

I was very very happy to have found the Welcome Home pattern online at 1-2-3 Stitch! I placed the order one week and the next week it was in my hands.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to track down the other pattern... Midnight Silhouette.

This pattern appears to be out of print and the only way I would ever get my hands on it is if someone already has it, made the quilt or has fallen out of love with it (I know, that last one just might be a long stretch), and is willing to part with it. I don't know why I'm obsessing over this pattern (again, OCD much?) when I have so many other ones to keep me busy for the rest of my life, but I am. Obsessing that is.

If you, by chance, run into this pattern in your journeys or have checked this quilt off your to do list and can part with the pattern, I would be happy to buy it from you. You will be eternally in my debt for saving me from losing more sleep over this one.

That concludes this ridiculously long post on the nature and status of my OCD.