Larry loses to the softball

Larry went to softball practice tonight and caught a fly ball with his face in the right field. His Rx sunglasses are mangled. His nose is scrunched and there is a nasty gash just beneath the bridge of his nose. On the up side, it appears the ball hit his nose straight on. This will prevent a need to have it reset, should it be broken.

I wondered out loud if there was a safer place than outfield for Larry to play. The coach asked me if Larry was allowed to come out and play again next week. Sometimes I wonder how men ever survive to become old enough to bounce fly balls off their faces.

Patched Quilt Tops

My maternal Grandma had 4 children between 1928 and 1937. She knew how to use every resource until it was not longer use-able. The sheets I remember were flat, never fitted. That way you got more wear out of them. * When the center began to wear the sheet was split and then the side edges were sewn together and the former center became the hemmed edge. * When that became too thin the sheet was cut up into pillow cases and dish towels. * When the dish towels became to thin the fabric was used for 'snot rags'. * This legacy influences me to this day.

I began saving scraps from my sewing projects when I began to sew. Originally it was every snippet. I finally set boundaries. It was every piece larger than 4 inches square. A few years ago I was intentional about gifting every sibling a 2nd patched quilt. This lead to orphaned patches that were put in storage along with the other dozen or so totes of fabric scraps. The ten sided quilt for Phil got me going again. Pre-cut strips, projects started years ago and orphaned patches have been turned into patched tops waiting for gifting with the next graduation or wedding. Here are some of finished quilt tops.


The top, above, was an attempt to use up flannel scraps. It was somewhat successful but I needed to add baby corduroy found from some of Cassie's dresses to have enough to make a full quilt top. There is a baby quilt made from the remaining patches that I did not get a picture of before I gave it away.

This is the 4 patch quilt top and baby quilt (made from the remaining patches once the large top was set). All the baby quilts ended up backed with fleece. It makes them sooo soft. The one above was given to a very dear friend. The remaing baby quilts of this posting went to a local women and children's shelter. The full quilt is shirt flannels, velour and butter suede
Below is '4' 9-patch blocks latticed together. Above is the baby quilt from the remaining patches. It is the world's supply of turtle printed flannel.
The 9-patch quilt top below was a project that has been in progress for a few decades. I pulled the patches out of storage and realized there were finally enough wool scraps to complete it.

Above is how I used up a stack of 4-patch micro ginham patches.

This baby quilt was patched from a stack of patches remaining after that sewing frenzy a few years ago and the 4-patch blocks used on the other quilt.

Phil's graduation quilt

Phil is now a Mechanical Engineer graduate. In celebration of this wonderful event I let my creative juices flow and put together a 10 sided quilt as part of our gift to our most beloved son. Yes, each one of the wedges is 36°. It is something he has been asking for since Middle School and it took until this year to figure out the details of the construction. The fabric is from things I made for him over the years. Most was from his preschool years. Surprisingly, some was very recent. There were some saved fabrics I don't remember using. Oh, the memories of the last 24+ years.
The quilt measures 120" from side to side and fully covers his bed. It is backed with a dinosaur themed fleece. Take a double click on the pics and see if you remember Phil in any of the fabrics when he was 36" tall. The person holding the quilt is Larry.

Happy Birthday Larry!!

Larry has a Winter birthday that we celebrated with a cook out. I dragged the grill just out of the garage and started cooking the sausages from the butcher in Michgan and and the local grocer. Larry and Cassie went shopping for whatever side dishes caught his eye.
The grill is on the other side of the snowbank. The neighbor had her lawn ornaments tuned on in the background


Here is the birthday boy checking out the progress of the sausages. Yes, he does like his meat well done.
Phil baked the birthday cake. He found the recipe in a magazine and decided to try a chocolate caramel chocolate layer cake. It was so tender and rich that it fell apart in his refrigerator. He brought the cake in a large bowl. It was sooooo good.

The truck got stuck.

This is one of the snow falls just after Thanksgiving. The truck got stuck. Winter in Wisconsin.



Say good bye to the truck. It was having too many problems that come with being old and I traded it in. On the up side. Until this last Saturday it started and ran all Winter including the sub zero snap we had last week and the week before that.

Early Winter 2008

Winter arrived sometime before Thanksgiving. This is our yard during one of the snowfalls. It is another record making Winters.