First Friday Frustrations

It's that time the month again when we grab a cuppa and have a chat about something in the quilty industry that I find frustrating or irksome!

Earlier this week in a Quilt Pattern Designers Facebook group I got quite irritated by a couple of designers when a person asked if they should provide metric measures when publishing patterns in Australia. As an Australian who is more comfortable with metric measurement I have strong feelings about this!
When one the pious designers disagreed with me and then proceeded to describe her 22 years in the patchwork industry I should've just said:

No her name wasn't Karen, I'll let Urban Dictionary explain:

The first point I make is that Australia underwent metrication in the late 1960s:

Because of that I provide both metric and imperial measures in my pattern books where necessary because they are available in many countries that use metric measurement. It's hard for Americans to understand but Australian students in school ONLY learn metric measurement. Imperial measures are not taught.
Anyway, the Australian designer who doesn't provide metric measures for her patterns disagreed with me vehemently and even got snotty enough to say "it's not a textbook" I mean how childish is that response!
Oh gosh let's unpack that childish thought for a moment:

So if you are a designer don't you want your pattern to be the document with "detailed information" about how to construct your design? So it is like a textbook! FFS at least make a coherent argument woman!

So let me be clear it's about 50 years since metrication in Australia and that's about two generations of Australians that haven't been taught imperial measurement.
But that designer, is part of the ignorant, lazy and culturally insensitive quilt industry that believes adult Australians should have to relearn the mathematics of measurement just to be a quilter.

Australian designers need to lead the charge and push publishers and other industry leaders to learn to be more culturally sensitive and inclusive!
Australian quilters should be able to quilt using the metric measurement system which is the standard for their country!
Metric rulers are made, here's one:
https://www.sewvacdirect.com/omnigrid-metric-ruler-15cm-x-30cm/?gclid=CjwKCAjwqJ_1BRBZEiwAv73uwGkmX1n1LPO55VtHgo9pZFWJqWTvQttxooPCNrJ_jTriFgdZsF_6yxoCajsQAvD_BwE
Thanks Omnigrid!
So why are many Australian designers not embracing the philosophy of using both types of measurement or even just metric?
I truly believe for many it's either ignorance of their cultural insensitivity or just plain greed because America is a bigger market and uses inches. I hope eventually the Australian quilt industry acknowledges that's it's doing an injustice to quilters by not adequately addressing the fact that metric measurement is a part of the Australian culture.
I will continue to add metric conversions in my quilt books to ensure I am inclusive of all quilters and their measurement choices.
So if you are an American that's bought my books and wondered why I include metric measures, hopefully this blog post gave you some insight into the complex issue of quilting measurement!