Well when I had the inspiration for a quilt of colours disappearing into a black hole I didn’t really expect this to become reality. But unfortunately it has:
I thought there was plenty of time for my quilt to arrive. It was posted off on July 5th at premium rate shipping that promised to get it to America within 6 days. It arrived in the US 3 days later on the 8th of July. Since then everything has been at a standstill.
On the 14th of July I contacted DHL via their website to try to establish what was happening. I heard nothing. On the 22nd July DH went personally to the post office and filled in an official bit of paper. That evening this information appeared in the tracking data on the website. The next day I received an email asking for more information. On the 27th I received a letter with snail mail telling me that because the parcel was now no longer in Germany the foreign postal service i.e. the US Postal Service has up to 8 weeks to respond. Well thanks a lot.
There is no way my quilt Colour Vortex is going to make it for the August 11 deadline to be included in the Text on Textile exhibition at the International Quilt Festival in Houston at this rate. Not unless by some miracle it has arrived and it is only the tracking part of the process that has screwed up. I don’t really believe that for one minute though – it’s just clutching at straws.
My quilt Reflections was posted on the same day from the same post office to the UK for the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham and arrived at its destination 4 days later.
Meanwhile I am still waiting for delivery of 2 CDs of the Fiber Arts and Quilting Arts 2008 publications ordered on 4th July and shipped via USPS First-Class Mail International Package on July 17 to arrive from the US. What does this tell us about the US Postal Service and reliability? If I ever feel the urge to ship a quilt to the States in the future I shall explore other means of shipping. It can’t be much more expensive than the 52€ I paid to post a parcel weighing under a kilo.
Hi Ruth,
I just discovered your website via the Artful Quilters Rings. I am so sorry about your lost quilt. It is strange that DHL would use the US post office in the U.S. I would have expected them to use a private carrier. Personally, when I want to be certain that something gets somewhere, I use United Parcel Service. I expect Federal Express is as reliable.
I also wanted to say that I appreciate your notes on Photoshop. I am getting ready to play with some images and posterize will prove really valuable. I have the full Photoshop (old edition) and there is so much, it is difficult to figure out how to start!