Dann Todd's 'Dain Bramage'^**

Just One Roll of Duct Tape......

Lately I've been reading about how some significant portion of the United States is theoretically "anti-intellectual". The thinking behind this belief is a bit on the specious side. I have a bit of a rant built up inside my head that I have wanted to put here......but then.....

Aw, geez. Somebody pass the duct tape.

Apparently noted economist, author, game show host, and actor, Ben Stein, was on the Trinity Broadcasting Network and offered the following bon mot:

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

Science leads to killing people? Where on earth does that come from?

Ruth has had a couple...one....two...posts regarding Ben Stein's latest movie called "Expelled". Her primary complaint is with Mr. Stein's decision to argue that evolutionary theory...and the science behind it....is only a stone's throw away from mass murder. It is a fair criticism.

One more time for those that didn't catch it....Ben Stein believes that "science leads you to killing people." Amazing. Perhaps he forgot that economics is actually a science?

Or he forgot how many children were crippled or died from polio. Or the millions that died from measles or malaria. Or how about the millions of lives saved from cancer. Or how about the recent innovations that could bring sight to the blind. What about the modern technologies that allow many deaf people to hear again.

Yup. Science = mass murder. I'll keep that in mind Mr. Stein.

I'll save my thoughts on the supposed trend towards anti-intellectualism for another day. But when I finally post it, there will be a huge farging asterisk at the bottom of it. And that explanation for the asterisk will be "Ben Stein excepted."

by Dann 

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Serial Quilter #2

I was pretty excited to get this next quilt done for a variety of reasons.

One reason is because of the material I used. The pattern of the material included a series of teddy bears, books, and smiling moons that looked a bit like a stuff set up on a child's shelf. This pattern ran along one edge. Above all the clutter was a broad expanse of deep blue with yellow stars. Then the bear/book/moon pattern ran along the opposite edge. You could fold this material down the middle and both sides looked the same.

Silly me, I took a perfectly good material pattern, cut it into strips, and sewed it back together.

The first cut was along each edge. I used those strips for the outside of the block.

The next cut was through the bears. That got used for the next strip towards the center.

The third cut went through the top of the bears. At that point, I started to get some of the stars and the night sky.

The fourth cut was mostly stars, but with enough bear head tops that I just put it in the scrap pile. That left a whole bunch of blue sky and stars from which I made the other half of the blocks.

Here's a picture of the material with the first cut already removed. I used all of the edges for the quilt. There's lots of other stuff left over.

The resulting block ended up looking like this. A close inspection reveals that I left off a couple of strips. The resulting blocks ended up being 12" x 12" rather than 14" x 14". That worked out well for the backing material.

The final result is below with the proud mama and papa to be. The border material was designed by the same person that designed the material used for the panels; Patty Reed. The blocks in the border material were almost the perfect height to provide a 2 inch border.

The second reason I was excited about this project is the stitching used to "quilt" everything together. I was getting kind of bored with just running straight lines down the seams....otherwise known as stitch-in-the-ditch....as well as straight lines across the corners.

To ease my boredom, I bought an 18" wooden embroidery hoop and a chalking tool. I used the chalking tool to trace the inside of the hoop. I then connected each of the circles by drawing in a line tangent to each adjacent circle. Once that was done, it was pretty easy to stitch the cloverleaf/Celtic knot pattern that you should be able to see in the picture below.

Here is the hoop and chalking tool.

And here's the finished quilt. Notice the material used for the back? As it turns out, Lindsey...on the left....has a new sewing machine and took a stab at quilting. Denis...on the right....and yes, I'm spelling his name correctly....brought it in for me to check it out. I noticed right away that she had used a similar material that was light green instead of light blue. I didn't draw any blood biting my tongue, but it was a close thing. And her quilt was a pretty nice looking quilt, too!

The most important reason that I was excited about this project is that it was for Denis and Lindsey. Just take a look at those two. Don't they look like they are a lot of fun. They are. Trust me. It was great to be able to do something nice for them at this special time in their lives.

by Dann 

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Serial Quilter #1

Along with other things that keep me busy, yes folks, I'm still quilting. As always, click the pic for a larger version.

This quilt was done from my nephew Cayden. We got to meet him a month early in January. The little shaver was scheduled to stay in the oven until February....which is when this quilt was completed.

My beloved bride picked out the pale blue materials. They were a pretty good match, but she was having a rough time figuring out what to put with them. I decided to go bold with the dark blue and white materials. I think it came out pretty well.

Here's a closer view of one panel.

by Dann 

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