Here’s the quilt I’ve been talking about for months. I made it for my brother for Christmas. All the fabrics in the top are from Extra Special Fabric in Guthrie Oklahoma. And here’s a close-up. . And here is a corner of the top (before I put all the layers together) for the one I [...]

Someone on Twitter said, “This decade began with Y2K and ended with WTF.” Indeed. How the world has changed, and yet not changed, in this decade. For me, Y2K is sort of a mile-marker. (or something; not sure what to call it) Every time people start getting all worked up about the latest Imminent End [...]

Patrick Stewart is to be knighted. That’s cool; congratulations to Sir Patrick; but, as I always think every time an actor or pop star is knighted, it really doesn’t take a lot to achieve knighthood. It seems that any British citizen whom the queen likes is qualified. I guess I don’t have any particular problem [...]

For some reason, this year we do not have the usual horrifying amount of treats and leftovers. I did bake a couple of pies and a fruitcake (shut up) but the pies are gone now and the fruitcake is almost gone. The difference is that hardly anyone gave us food this year – no huge [...]

I started this sometime before Christmas. It was going to be a list of pretty things that I just happen to come across online but I haven’t been doing much surfing lately and these are the only two items I have found. Maybe later I’ll do another “Oooo Pretty!” list but right now I’m clearing [...]

Many weeks ago Andrea found this list of 30 Things Every Woman Should Have Before She Turns 30 and gave it a good and proper fisking. I was briefly inspired. Since I’m naturally the preachy, know-it-all type, and I am certainly qualified, I thought I could come up with a better list of 30 things, [...]

Here’s a wonderful science inspired child’s quilt. (Sorry, I can’t remember where I found it.) What a great idea!

Techno Bach. I suppose it’s true that Bach’s music sounds good no matter what you do to it but my inner purist says this is wrong. On the other hand, if it gets a few more people to listen to Bach…

To quote Captain Reynolds, “How come it never goes smooth?” My most expensive, and potentially most fun, Christmas gift was a USB turntable from Number Two Son. I feel a little bit bad about him having spent so much. I had thought about getting one but I have barely enough old records to make it [...]

Our front steps on Christmas Day: This was also taken Christmas Day. We stayed in most of the day but did have to take one little trip in the morning. This photo illustrates the diversity of the Oklahoma countryside. This was taken just a couple of miles away from tree covered hills, which you can [...]

I love Christmas but even I can find a few things to complain about. If I thought about it I could probably come up with as many as ten but I will limit it to these four: 1. Scrooges and any kind of Christmas cynicism or negativity. 2. Complaining that “People have forgotten the true [...]

This has long been one of my favorites but, surprisingly, I had never heard Nat King Cole sing it before. This is a beautiful video. Of course there are many more performances of this song on Youtube. This is interesting and very good.

Well, the fabric store in Tulsa did not have wool batting. They had some before when I didn’t need any so I guess I should have known they wouldn’t have it when I do need it. So I came home and ordered it immediately. The estimated delivery date is between Dec. 29 and Jan. 5. [...]

We saw Avatar Friday night. We went to the late screening with our oldest son, daughter-in-law and grandson. I think that’s the first time in my life I’ve ever seen a movie on opening day. (I won’t post any spoilers but if you’ve seen the trailer you can easily guess how it’s going to go [...]

I think I’m going to take a break from my “regular features” until the new year. I haven’t collected a single quote for my weekly “Quotes From Here and There” and “taking a break for the holidays” seems like a good excuse. As for other blogging, I might or might not be more intermittent than [...]

A rant about bad pre-cuts. I haven’t used any of the narrow strips she’s talking about but this matches my experience with fat quarters, which are often not quite as fat as they’re supposed to be. I prefer to buy a half yard of fabric instead even if it means I have too much. The [...]

There is no other version. Nat King Cole owns this. (Nice pictures too.)

Ha! I love the Internet. That’s like those ads they used to have (or maybe still have?) in the back pages of comic books. Things change and yet things never change. Via Bifurcated Rivets

I guess you could call this a “how times have changed” moment. I remember when I was a little kid – and I mean little, like five years old or so – using a Vicks decongestant inhaler. My mom (or maybe it was my grandmother) just gave me this thing to carry around in my [...]

TYWKIWDBI stands for Things You Wouldn’t Know If We Didn’t Blog Incessantly. It features all sorts of fascinating culture, history, science, trivia, photos and various odds and ends.

Paternoster-Row. The history of rosary beads. Interesting. From at least as early as A.D. 1000, rosaries, paternosters or similar strings of prayer beads have been a common accessory carried by men and women, old and young. Indeed, the small round objects we know in English as “beads” were named from this practice; the root of [...]

I guess one of the good things about getting older and losing your memory is that you find fascinating surprises in your bookmarks. Apparently, I bookmarked Blood Milk just a few days ago but I don’t remember it. It was probably something I came across and bookmarked without even really looking at it. The art [...]

Dreamweaver’s Quilts is another great quilt site. I like this one. And this. Maybe someday I’ll try something really complicated like that, but right now I need to quit dreaming and get back to my relatively simple project.

Make It… A Wonderful Life is a wonderful blog featuring all sorts of crafty things, even recipes. I like the quilts. The sock quilt is very cute and I absolutely love the abstract blocks quilt – a great way to use up all your little scraps. Here’s another lovely quilt. Being in a major quilting [...]

Here is a beautiful art site. Click on the marbles at the bottom of the screen to navigate. Many different objects. I’m not sure if they’re intended to be “steampunk” but they sort of have that vibe.