New paper from Princeton team challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions.

If you're a Beadlust reader, you know I worked for three years (more than 1,300 hours) to hand piece, hand embroider, and hand quilt Mama's Garden, with 4,700 3/4-inch hexies, a true labor of love. A big push this spring got it finished in time to enter into the International Quilt Festival in La Conner, WA. Hooray, hooray, the judges accepted it into the show!!!!

This coming weekend, October 2-4, all you quilting enthusiasts will find it rewarding to make the effort and get to La Conner (WA) for the Festival, where you will see an excellent selection of quilts and fiber arts, plus a variety of interesting vendors! Here is the information. Head first for Maple Hall, a huge 2-story building, filled with quilts, at the corner of 1st Street (the main drag) and Douglas Street! Bring your camera, because photos are allowed (at least in the past they were).

What do you think? After all those hours, would it be crazy to even THINK about making another hexie quilt, another one with 3/4-inch hexies? Well, then I guess I'm crazy, because the irresistible call of the hexie hooked me again. And why not re-use the same paper pieces?

This one will not be traditional, and will definitely NOT be hand quilted. It will be hand pieced, using small left-over fabrics (I refuse to call them scraps), cotton prints (but not batiks). I have no idea how I will arrange them, how big it will be, or anything else about how this new project will develop.

The first step was to cut out sets of  2" x 2" squares (6 per set) to make flower petals. So far, I've cut about 130 sets. Here are 80 of them, ready to baste onto the 3/4" paper hexie pieces.

From very small pieces, I cut single 2"  x 2" squares to make flower centers. These I've already basted to the paper hexie pieces.

After basting some of the petals and centers, I started choosing centers for the petal sets. This part is fun! I enjoy "auditioning" various centers until one of them seems right. I'm avoiding high value contrast between petals and centers, because I might want to do a color study with them (no borders).

When the urge gets really strong, I allow myself to start stitching the hexies together to make flowers.

This quilt will probably have about 650 flowers! I've cut 130 so far, each different. I cut flower petals from all of my small pieces, every one. My preference is to have all 650 flowers different.

Sooooooo, if YOU have some small fabric pieces you'd be willing to donate, I'd love to have part of you in my quilt. This is what I need:

Oh dear, I'm sorry to have neglected posting here for so long. Although many suitable topics and photos have passed through my mind and camera, there just hasn't seemed to be a nice chunk of time available for putting it all together. Today is the day to begin again!

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson of Willow City, ND (detail of border)

For the past two months, it's been all about quilts and quilting for me, with beading taking a bit of a back seat for a while. My quilt and travel buddy, Lunnette, and I flew to Ontario, California for The Road to California, which is a ginormous quilt show with more than 1,000 quilts on exhibition and over 200 vendors. We gawked (and spent all of our allotted budget) for 3 whole days, barely noticing our fatigue and sore footies.

There are several intriguing subjects to cover, inspired by our experiences there. Today's post is about traditional applique and machine quilting.

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson of Willow City, ND photo credit (for this photo only): Road 2 CA

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, detail showing back

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, detail of center

Inspired by Alice, by Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, detail of center quilting

Inspired by Alice, shown in the photos above, won the first prize of $1,000 in the Traditional, Wall, Applique category of the main (judged) exhibit! Take a moment to study the pictures, click on them to enlarge them, notice the way the applique and machine quilting compliment each other. Also think about what this might have looked like if the maker, Marilyn Lidstrom Larson, had hand-quilted her work the way Alice, her grandmother (and inspiration for the central portion of the quilt), would have done. I love this quilt, totally love it, and believe it deserved the award it received.

At the same time, it saddens me that in all the juried/judged shows I've seen (and entered) recently, there is no category specifically for hand sewn quilts... quilts which are hand-pieced, hand-appliqued, hand-embroidered, and/or hand-embellished, and finished with hand-quilting. Nope, hand-sewn quilts are judged right along with machine-sewn quilts. In my observation, machine-quilted pieces are the ones that win almost all the prizes, even in the traditional categories. Why is that? Is hand-quilting considered passe, a thing of our grandmothers' time? Is it because machine-quilting has more pizzazz in the viewers' and makers' eyes? Is it because the machine manufacturers are huge financial supporters of these shows and providers of much of the prize money? Is it because the machine manufacturers run the training programs for judges?

OK, let's look into this subject a bit more. Later, I'll tackle the subject of the influence of the machine manufacturers. For now let's consider this question:

Does machine-quilting enhance quilts that are otherwise hand-sewn?

In this talk, Graham Neubig will discuss a new frontier in AI models, vision-language models that understand the world's cultures. The talk will be in two parts. First, Neubig will discuss training of multilingual multimodal multicultural models that understand images and text, and have increased ability to answer culture-specific questions about multimodal data. Second, he will discuss work on "image transcreation", where models have been developed that can transform images to make them more relevant to a particular culture. This work has applications in a number of areas, such as cultural localization of educational materials (to accompany translated text). While these methods cover many languages, African and not, the talk will focus on examples specifically from the African context, and challenges we currently face therein.

Each episode cost nearly $14 million per episode to produce and market across its two-season, 18-episode run.

In this Oscar-qualified short, a group of friends go on a roadtrip as their car – and their country – falls apart.

"It’s wonderful to find somebody who can show us this positive side of ourselves," Yamada says of the idea behind her new film.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not only of interest on Wall Street. Who among the stars of show business and sports has already invested in digital assets and who promotes them? Bitcoin and altcoins have long ceased to be the domain of technologists and venture capitalists from California. In addition to the Forbes list and ... Read more

The post Which of the World’s Stars Invested in Cryptocurrencies and What Happened to Them? 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.

It is undeniable that TV has a huge impact on us. It also has a huge impact on how we live! For a long time, TV shows have started interior design movements or made them popular. These TV shows are the reason these interior designs were so famous! Downton Abbey- British Edwardian There is something ... Read more

The post Interior Design Trends – And The Shows That Inspired Them appeared first on Star Two.

Some things will never go out of fashion. That’s just how our world is. Some things are eternal. Just look at the Egyptian pyramids. We could say the same things about vinyl. Are you a fan of vinyl music? Yes, for some people we’re talking about a relic of the past here. But, is that ... Read more

The post What Kind of Music is Best to Listen to on Vinyl? appeared first on Star Two.

Music is an ever-present companion in the hectic student life, where friendships are formed, memories made, and emotions flow strong, setting the rhythm of our experiences. Have you ever wondered what beats speak to today’s students’ hearts and souls? This essay takes us on an enthralling journey through the diverse tapestry of music that dominates ... Read more

The post What Music Is Currently Popular Among Students appeared first on Star Two.

We would like to launch a quick survey to find out your opinion on what would you like to see next in our service.

The post What’s next? appeared first on RSSground.com.

It goes without saying that ChatGPT has become a prominent figure in today’s online community. Its impressive debut left a lasting impression on everyone, and there are numerous reasons for this. One of the key features of ChatGPT is its innovative technology, which enables it to comprehend the context of users’ messages and respond accordingly. […]

The post Meet Your New Best Friend: ChatGPT Assistant for Personal Feeds appeared first on RSSground.com.

The most-desired bike brands, what travel Pinkbike readers expect their next bike will have, and whether you're sold on mullets.
( Photos: 2, Comments: 112 )

Not everything that crosses a supermassive black hole’s accretion disc gets spaghettified, astrophysicists say.

The debris NASA’s asteroid-touching spacecraft collected could help us learn about the origins of our solar system. But for that to happen, scientists have to protect it from just about everything.

Here is how oil and heat can form a durable coating.

Sixty years ago a teenager’s homemade ice cream raised a surprisingly complicated question: Can hot liquids freeze faster than cold ones?

Venomous lionfish are taking over the Caribbean and the Mediterranean Sea, eating everything in their paths. One solution: handbags and belts.

Can one infinity be bigger than another?

Why sleepwalkers can paint, eat, or even drive when part of their brain is asleep.

How addiction works in the brain, and why opioids are so dangerously addictive.

Earwax reveals more than you might realize, from ancestry to underlying medical conditions.

The next generation of wireless communication technology is much more advanced, but it requires a lot of new infrastructure.

The absolute number of Black men enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities is the lowest it's been since 1976.

With Donald Trump's re-election, millions of federal student loan borrowers are left to wonder if this is the end of the road for President Biden's promises of loan relief.

teaser here

Thessaloniki offers visitors 2,300-plus years of history, tremendous shopping, and a Jewish story like no other in Europe. 

Director Wendy Sachs attributes the steep rise in antisemitism to social media, from where so many young people get news that has no validation.

Passengers who bug airline staff by breaking boarding protocol will be met with an alarm

Nhật Bản đã ghi nhận số tu nghiệp sinh nước ngoài bỏ khỏi nơi làm việc tăng kỷ lục trong năm 2023. Trong đó, người lao động Việt Nam chiếm hơn 50%.

Việt Nam đang cân nhắc khôi phục kế hoạch phát triển điện hạt nhân để đảm bảo an ninh năng lượng quốc gia và hỗ trợ tăng trưởng kinh tế.

Ý kiến cho rằng Nhật Bản là một nước giàu nhưng người dân không giàu của ông Nguyễn Thiện Nhân đã khơi lên nhiều tranh luận. BBC News Tiếng Việt hỏi chuyện những người sống ở Nhật Bản và các nhà nghiên cứu để cung cấp thêm góc nhìn.

Chính phủ Việt Nam đang thể hiện quyết tâm mạnh mẽ xây đường sắt cao tốc, vẽ ra nhiều viễn cảnh tươi đẹp. Tuy nhiên, liệu bài toán có đơn giản như điệp khúc “ăn sáng ở Hà Nội, ăn trưa ở Sài Gòn”?

Bhutan chuẩn bị xây dựng một "thành phố chánh niệm" và đã bắt đầu gây quỹ để khởi động dự án đầy tham vọng này.

Tổng thống đắc cử Donald Trump dự kiến sẽ bổ nhiệm Thượng nghị sĩ bang Florida Marco Rubio cho vị trí ngoại trưởng Mỹ

The following article, Maybe Tim Walz Shouldn’t Bring Up ‘That Gay Guy’, was first published on The Black Sphere.

Tim Walz is no stranger to controversy. After lying about his military record and China, people are wondering what else is he lying about...

Continue reading Maybe Tim Walz Shouldn’t Bring Up ‘That Gay Guy’ ...

Big Pharma has been deceived and has been deceiving others since its inception.  So, it’s no wonder that when they make claims about their “vaccines”, one should not trust a word they say or print.  This is true with the COVID shots, as well as their claims about COVID and long COVID. Investigative journalist Jonathan …

What a crazy, wild ride it has been.  As much as I dislike politics and, particularly the rhetoric, lies and deceit of the “swamp,” as publisher of Wisconsin Christian News, a radio commentator and TV host, I must follow the news every day and then decipher it all for you, and this past election cycle consumed much …

The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body met on Monday, November 11, 2024 to consider calling for a special session of the World Health Assembly in the hopes of adopting the proposed “Pandemic Agreement” BEFORE the end of 2024. James Roguski joins me to clarify what is actually going on and why our voices must be a loud …

Red Hat, the IBM-owned open source software firm, is acquiring Neural Magic, a startup that optimizes AI models to run faster on commodity processors and GPUs. From a report: The terms of the deal weren't disclosed. MIT research scientist Alex Matveev and professor Nir Shavit founded Somerville, Massachusetts-based Neural Magic in 2018, inspired by their work in high-performance execution engines for AI. Neural Magic's software aims to process AI workloads on processors and GPUs at speeds equivalent to specialized AI chips (e.g. TPUs). By running models on off-the-shelf processors, which usually have more available memory, the company's software can realize these performance gains. Big tech companies like AMD and a host of other startups, including NeuReality, Deci, CoCoPie, OctoML and DeepCube, offer some sort of AI optimization software. But Neural Magic is one of the few with a free platform and a collection of open source tools to complement it. Neural Magic had so far managed to raise $50 million in venture capital from backers like Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associations, Amdocs, Comcast Ventures, Pillar VC and Ridgeline Ventures.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thanks for joining us today about what the New Testament has to say about how to please God. If you missed last week’s study concerning the Old Testament, please read it now. While we wait, here is a “pleasing” song. Last week I offered my take on pleasing God which is always at the top […]

The post A Quick Bible Study Vol. 240: What the Old Testament Says About How to Please God appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Twenty years ago, people wrongly wrote off the oil industry as a dinosaur. Oil production fell after 1970, so people wrongly predicted that oil production would continue to fall ever thereafter — the “peak oil” theory. Based on this prediction, there was even a weekly newspaper column called “peak oil“, written by Tom Whipple, the […]

The post Oil is the most productive U.S. industry, debunking the myth that ‘peak oil’ was reached long ago appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

Put yourself in the shoes of the Scotland manager and pick the side and tactics and decide what your pre-match team talk would be.

A group of teenagers in Fife have been making a documentary about the impact of disposable vapes.

The next public hearings will consider how the pandemic affected healthcare systems across the UK.

One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.

A proposed law would give terminally ill people the right to choose to end their life.

As Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spend months longer than planned on ISS, three astronauts tell us what life is like in orbit.