Why are things so complicated?

I just don't quite get the world. Everything seems to be a lot harder than it needs to be. Shipping quilts for example. Most UK carriers simply refuse large rolled goods, where large is defined as more that 1.5m. There is no hope of shipping a bed quilt rolled. When I've managed to find companies that would happily ship a long roll, they will only ship it internationally. Of course I could ship everything to another country then back, but it seems a bit daft.

Trying to give people invitations has proved harder than I expected too. Maybe we are too used to paying for everything but being given things seems to confuse and often distress people. I really don't want to upset anyone, but I do want to share may art with other people. I've found it particularly perplexing talking to picture framers. I haven't yet found one I was comfortable enough to ask about the cost of wrapping prints and framing quilts for me. I know I need to find someone, but I would like them to be approachable. I guess I just don't look like the sort of person who would want the services of a picture framer.

I've also been trying to find place to print some of my images. On this front I've been somewhat more successful, until I get to terms and conditions. Then I find that no one will print nudes. I can understand trying to be selective but there is a world of difference between pornography and art, and surely there must be some way to distinguish in the terms of service?

I need to do some stitching, but I am not really feeling up to it. I think one of the bugs that has been striking everyone around me has finally managed to catch me. I am very poor at being ill. I get bored but I don't feel well enough to do anything interesting. So to reduce my boredom, I've been looking through some old pictures and I found these ones of my first quilt.

It's not what you would call a work of art, but I am still rather proud of it. The attempts before this were rather disastrous. It is made with the cheapest poly cottons I could get from the market (I wasn't wasting more expensive fabric on risky experiments) and polyester wadding. I made it with every speed method I could come up with, aided by the Internet. I wish I could remember how I planned the back. I think it was the same as the next one I did. For that I definitely made a very long strip the right width cycling through all the fabrics in order. Then I just used it off the roll as required. Looking at this back it could well be the same idea. I don't know if you can see but the binding was satin bias tape. I had read that the binding was meant to be bias, and I had no intention of making my own, so this seemed about the right thing. I think I was also influenced by the satin bindings on blankets. It does actually last better than I would now expect, I used it on a lot of my quilts that have been in daily use. This quilt now lives in Bournemouth, so it doesn't come out for my talks.