Every Inchie Monday: letter

Hello Folks

Feeling better every day after a long stay in the hospital.

I don't have the energy to search for my Hitch Hiker's Guide, so perhaps someone else can  provide te context   I also don't seem to have a quilled inchie saved, so no quilling this week.

I'm also a little late with my letter to Santa:

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and all the best in the new year.

Every Inchie Monday: Ugly

Hello Folks

Well my surgery went well, but getting all my bodily functions working turned into a bit more of a challenge.  I  was finally released from hospital after 17 days.  But I'm home now, in time for Christmas, and improving every day.

I decided to go with  the ugly duckling for this week's word.

But in keeping with the story, the ugly duckling is really a lovely swan:

Hope everyone has safe and happy holidays.  Merry Christmas.

Every Inchie Monday: 42

Hello folks,

Well again this one is too famous to bother finding it in the book (and I admit my book has gone walkabout again).  After countless years of trying to find the answer tot he question "what is Life, the Universe and Everything"  the answer comes back as "42".

I think it was about now that I began to realize that there was some esoteric connection between the word prompts.


So my one and only inchie this week reflects something that happens in the next book - The Restaurant at the end of the Universe - where the question is redefined as "what is 6 x 9?"  No my math is not bad.

I don't have a quilled inchie this week and I may be away for a while as I am having surgery for Colon Cancer this very Monday.  Wish me luck.

Every Inchie Monday: question

Hello folks - thanks for dropping by,

I'm not even going to bother finding the exact passage where the word question comes up because the question in The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is so famous:  What is Life, the Universe and Everything?

Now you must give me a little bit of slack here for doing the obvious.  I thought I was being so clever because I made these inchies before I realized all the words were from The Hitchhiker's Guide:

And here is my quilled question:

 I think I will start working on the animals soon but I don't think I'm going to quill them this time.  I've gotten away from quilling and am into crocheting amigurumi right now.  And I can't imagine trying to quill one inch animals.

Have a good week.

Every Inchie Monday: "Lighting"

Hello Folks,

Well once again I can't find my Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (time to do some cleaning).  However, I probably would not have found the correct word because I misread the prompt for this week as "lightning" not "lighting" - lol.  So rather than re-do my inchies, I decided that lightning lights up the sky so would do for "lighting".  Here goes:

My first lighting is lightning hitting the CN tower in Toronto.  According to Google. "The 553.33-metre [1815 feet] freestanding structure gets hit on average 75 times a year."  So much for "Lightning never strikes twice in the same place".

And here is my quilled "Lighting":

So that's enough uses of the word light, and quotation marks.  Have an illuminated week.

Every Inchie Monday: wormhole

Hello Folks

I wonder if wormholes exist?  Sometimes the lines between science fiction and science get a little blurry.  If they do, they probably aren't interstellar travel hubs like most SF seems to think!

Chapter 19 of HHGG opens with the statement that "careless talk costs lives....at the very moment that Arthur said 'I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle,' a freak wormhole opened up in the fabric of the space-time continuum and carried his words far far back in time across almost infinite reaches of space to a distant Galaxy" where a war is about to start.  Arthur's words pop up across a negotiating table but it seems in their language it is 

"the most dreadful insult imaginable" and a centuries long interstellar battle begins.  The ships travel for years "and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came across -- which happened to be the earth -- where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog."

That was not easy to condense!  but it's one of my favourite images in the book.

Thinking literally, here is a worm in a hole.  It probably should be a red hole so as to be in an apple, but somehow it ended up blue.

My quilled inchie reflects how I think of SF wormholes with a big opening tapering to a small end part:

Guess the moral of Adams story is to be careful what you say, even if it seems completely innocent.

Have a good week.

Every Inchie Monday: Cloud

Well folks, I think this week I have to admit defeat.  I can't find cloud in the part of the part of the book we are at.  Maybe I missed it or maybe it's earlier in the book, but there comes a point where the search is no longer fun, so I stopped looking.

[edit - see Jenny J's comment below - she found it]

Here are my inchies.  The first is simply happy little clouds floating across a blue sky:

I included some rain with the quilled inchie because clouds are not always simple benign happy things:

I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't find cloud, but nevermind.  Have a happy week.

Every Inchie Monday:Coastline

Hello Folks -- Happy Halloween!

Had to go back a bit in the book to find coastline (tricky Trillian), but the only coastline I could find is good old Slartibartfast and his fascination with fjords -- "doing the coastlines was always my favourite,"  he says. [chapter 22]

Did you know that Canada has the world's longest coastline? -- 265,523 km, or 164,988.3 miles [conversion by Google].  The figure varies a little according to which source you use, but it is still more than twice (not far from three times) that of Indonesia which comes second.  It's all those little islands in the Arctic, I suppose, and being the second largest country in the world.  When we talk about the vastness of this land we say from coast to coast to coast (because we have three oceans).

Now what to quill for coastline  Best I could come up with is a lighthouse to guard all those many miles and the ships that pass by.  I even included a little gem for the light.

Come visit Canada some day - it is truly a glorious land.   And according to Lonely Planet it's the best travel destination in the world for 2017.  And 2017 is our 150th birthday.

Every Inchie Monday: Pirates

Arggh Mateys, 

Pirates you say, in TheHitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?  You bet, but space pirates, of course!

Ford and Zaphod are talking about their childhood on Betelgeuse, and Arcturan megafreighters.  Apparently "The Betelguese trading scouts used to find the markets and the Arcturans  would supply them.  There was a lot of trouble with space pirates before they were wiped out in the Dordellis wars..."  [chapter 29].  Nice to know space is safe from pirates now.

I drew two inchies - one of a pirate with his peg leg and parrot:

And what self respecting pirate would be without his map for buried treasure?

My quilled pirate inchie goes outside the inch a little bit.  Hope you can forgive this transgression, but  it was hard to fit my pirate's parrot into the required space,  His beak and glorious tail hang over a bit, but he is pretty

Finally, here is my latest and favourite amigurumi - Dorothy from my all time favourite movie.  

She was difficult to make because I altered a pattern for a witch (by Sayjai Thawornsupacharoen).  I had to make the body twice and the arms/sleeves three times before I was happy.  I love the sparkly ruby slippers with their teeny tiny bows and the white 'buttons' on the straps of her dress as well as the blue around her neck.  It's as close to the original dress as I could make it.  I want to find some blue gingham ribbon for her hair bows and I'm contemplating doing something like white cross stitch to give the illusion of a gingham dress.  The hair is a bit long but so far I haven't been able to make myself cut it.  I had so much fun making her.

Have a good week my lovelies.

Every Inchie Monday: Horizon

Hello Folks - thanks for stopping by.

Well finding horizon (this week's word at Every Inchie Monday) was easy because it's in the same passage as direction, so I'll just copy last week's entry:

"...Zaphod was standing and scanning the horizon, because that was how far the gold ground stretched in every direction. perfectly smooth and solid.  It gleamed like ... it's impossible to say what it gleamed like because nothing in the Universe gleams in quite the same way a planet made of solid gold does."

On to the inchies.  My first offering uses one point perspective which I used to love to teach to students.  Three little rules and instant success.  It was always so satisfying to see their faces when they realized they could actually do something that at first thought seems difficult.  We also used to let the students out of the classroom to draw the hallways which the students always loved - no way to supervise them all at the same time -- freedom!

My quilled inchie is quite simplistic with a generic sun and a straight horizon - but not too bad considering it is quilled.

Have a great week expanding your horizons.

Every Inchie Monday: direction

Hello Folks,

Well I found one example of direction near the end of the book.  It may not be the one Trillian intended because direction is a fairly common word - but here goes.

It's been a while since we saw Zaphod, Ford and Trillian and for the life of me I don't remember why they are where they are.  I don't feel like going back to re-read again so here is the passage:

"...Zaphod was standing and scanning the horizon, because that was how far the gold ground stretched in every direction. perfectly smooth and solid.  It gleamed like ... it's impossible to say what it gleamed like because nothing in the Universe gleams in quite the same way a planet made of solid gold does."

Apparently the planet is only an entry in the catalogue of planets the Magoratheans can make and is on "Sens-O-Tape."



Some of these words are quite difficult to depict!  Obviously I was too lazy to draw a map.  Instead I chose a picture of one of those GPS finders you put in your car.  I really need one of these because I've always said I can get lost in my backyard.

Now how to quill direction?  I need first to show you a picture of what I was trying to make - a signpost showing different directions:

And here is my rather lame attempt:

Looks a bit like those twirler things you use in some board games, but it does have the cardinal directions, north, east, west and south.

Hope everyone has a good week.  

Every Inchie Monday: dinosaur

Hello Folks,

Arthur is in conversation with Slartibartfast about the construction of the new Earth.  The latter notes, "It's only half completed ... we haven't even finished burying the artificial dinosaur skeletons in the crust yet....  Arthur declines a trip to visit this new Earth saying, "It wouldn't be quite the same."

My -- and I'm sure everyone's -- favourite dinosaur is Dino from The Flintstones.  Isn't he cute?

And here is my quilled dinosaur.  He's kind of cute too.

Hope everyone has a large, outstanding week.

Every Inchie Monday: dinosaur

Hello Folks,

Arthur is in conversation with Slartibartfast about the construction of the new Earth.  The latter notes, "It's only half completed ... we haven't even finished burying the artificial dinosaur skeletons in the crust yet....  Arthur declines a trip to visit this new Earth saying, "It wouldn't be quite the same."

My -- and I'm sure everyone's -- favourite dinosaur is Dino from The Flintstones.  Isn't he cute?

And here is my quilled dinosaur.  He's kind of cute too.

Hope everyone has a large, outstanding week.

Every Inchie Monday: Brief case

Hello fellow space travelers,


(Well we are on a planet traveling through space)

Briefcase: Another tricky one to find.  It has to do with Deep Thought, the smart computer built to answer the question of  'Life, the Universe and Everything'.  "On the day of the Great On-Turning two soberly dressed programmers with brief cases arrived..."  This evolves into a discussion of whether or not Deep Thought is the smartest computer ever made, which, even though it has just been turned on, apparently it isn't.  All confusing and very Douglas Adams.


I can't find anything interesting to do with briefcase.  I once found a gorgeous grey leather briefcase In perfect condition  in a thrift shop for under $10 -- It must have cost ten times that new.  I used it for a while when I was teaching, but it turned out to be both too heavy and too small.  Similar story:  I once bought a beautiful hand painted leather purse, but it too was too heavy to use on a daily basis.  I get it out every now and then, use it for a day and then put it away with a sore shoulder.

So instead of a picture of that grey briefcase (mainly because I can't find it) I've chosen to go with a briefcase/portfolio that I would like to have.  The only ones in my local art store are black and boring.

I'm a little more pleased with my quilling inchie:

On the kitty front, Kaliko is a little better.  The vet gave her some anti-depressants to  make her eat (and make her happy) and they have worked.  She is eating and has resumed some of her annoying behaviours such as walking on my chest in the early morning and knocking things off of shelves.  I really thought I was going to lose her last week.  I know she is still sick and old, but it's nice to see her happier.  If only it were easier to make her swallow those pills -- anyone have any suggestions?

Every Inchie Monday: Infiinity

Hello Folks

Well according to Douglas Adams "Infinity itself looks flat and uninteresting.  Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity -- distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless."  [chapter 24]

Another word not easy to draw.  But the first thing that came to my mind was Buzz Lightyear and his cry of 'To Infinity and Beyond!'

The only thing I could think of to quill was the symbol for infinity:

I'm a little late this week as I have a very sick kitty - she's 16, has renal failure and is not eating much.  I love my little fur baby to pieces.  That's her picture on my icon -- her name is Kaliko.  So sad. 

Every Inchie Monday: Sky

Hello Folks,

I found two references to sky (this week's word for Every Inchie Monday) in this part of the book Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.  Believe me - it was not easy.  The first is to the song Eddie sings -  "When you walk through the storm, hold your head up high....At the end of the storm is a golden sky" and the sweet silver song of the Lark (if memory serves).  This is the same song the word rain came from.  [chapter 17]

A little bit farther back in the book [chapter 16], The Heart of Gold is descending towards Magarathea  where "the suns now stood high in the black sky, the pyrotechnics of dawn were over, and the surface of the planet appeared bleak and forbidding...."

There may be another reference farther along in the book, but I couldn't find it.

When I was growing up, my father had me totally convinced that there was another colour called sky-blue-pink.  It was a sort of family joke and is very descriptive of the sky at sunrise or sunset:

Quilling skies are hard to do - so this time I have a bird flying in the blue sky with the sun, (or moon - it is a white button) in the corner.

Hope you all get the chance to see a sky-blue-pink sky this week.  They are truly beautiful and for me bring back such warm memories of my dad.

Lately I've been into crocheting amigurumi - small crocheted creatures.  They can be people, animals, fantasy, plants, inanimate objects - anything you can think of.  Here are a few of my early creations.  Most of them are for friends or family.

 Teal hungry hungry hippo with my helper.  She is eating cat food - mostly because this was the first one I made and I hadn't figured out yet how to make a heavy head stand up.

Squirrel with acorn.

Koala with green bow tie and fuzzy ears.

Purple variegated elephant.

More to come later as I get them all photographed.

Every Inchie Monday: Mice

Hi Folks,

Well everyone who's read The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy remembers the white mice.  Trillian keeps them in a cage on the Heart of Gold and they escape on Magrathea.  It  turns out that the mice are "hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings," not  "little white furry things with the cheese fixation and women standing on chairs screaming in early sixties sit coms," as Arthur thinks. 

 All this time it was the mice who had been running the experiments and who had commissioned the Magratheans to create the Earth in the first place.  The Earth was destroyed by The Vogons 5 minutes before the experiment would have come to fruition, which necessitates the creation of a new Earth. [chapter 24]


I started making Inchies this year before I realized the words were all from HHGG, otherwise I would have made my mouse white:

Even my quilled mouse is grey.  I think he's kind of cute.  I'm not sure why he has a red nose.  Maybe he's a Christmas mouse and wants to guide Santa's sleigh.

I've always wondered why anyone would think women would stand on chairs screaming, terrified of a little mouse.  Or think it was funny.  Stereotyped behaviour invented by men, I'm sure.  I was raised in the country where mice were not uncommonly to be found in the basement or garage.  I was told not to touch them but never was afraid of them.   

Now insects of any kind, on the other hand,  do have me screaming hysterically (well maybe more cringing than screaming) - I simply cannot abide bugs, or anything creepy-crawly  - or slimy!  Yup, definitely phobic.  Maybe I should be more sympathetic towards the mouse-phobic. 

On this pleasant note, enjoy your week.  What are your phobias?