This poor puzzle is missing five pieces (came from ebay). But it's one of my favorites. It took a long time to do only because I didn't work on it as often as others.
The next one is started already. I also discovered a 2009 Charles Wysocki puzzle at Target last week. I had heard that Mattel wasn't making them anymore. I guess that info is incorrect. The other interesting thing is that the boxes no longer say 12+ for the age, but now say adult.
18-inch blocks make up the Avalon quilt. These were aligned on the basement floor until I got a design I liked.
Each block, sashing and eventual binding are from Michael Miller's Pillow and Maxfield collection. These fabrics stopped me when I was at Fabric Shack the last time. They weren't on my list of things to buy. ;-)
It's a honeybun which is 1.5 " strips of every fabric in the particular line, this one being Hello Betty.
Dh decided to see what would happen to a green onion if he just let it grow. :) It's almost as big as a leek. Then again maybe leeks are just extra large green onions. That's how much I know about it. 
On Sunday he picked these two huge bowls full of romas. The top picture is the one I processed yesterday. The bottom picture are those that need just a little more ripening.
Out of all those tomatoes I got only three not-quite-quart-size jars. I am thankful for that much, but I'd hoped for more. I guess there are lots more out in the garden, but the forecast is for highs in the upper 50s this week, so we'll see.
The directions were somewhat challenging as they left out assumed details. Women back then probably did know what to do and how. I did know what to do, sort of, but I'm so used to having a nice picture for every step. I also discovered that I knew how to do the pocket better than the directions. When I couldn't understand an instruction, I just did what a modern pattern would say to do. So, it was certainly I "thinking" project.
Next project is the Avalon quilt, that I briefly blogged about the other day. It's made with twelve 18" blocks with shashing between and a border. It's all cut out and ready to go. I hope I get some time to work on it tomorrow.Who Butters Your Bread?
(Posted July 15, 2009)
Private & Home Educators of California
Roy Hanson, Jr. - Director
PO Box 730 • Lincoln, CA 95648-0730 • (916) 786-3523 • FAX (916) 415-9470
contact@pheofca.org
(This article is available at www.pheofca.org for your use.)
What gets bigger the more you take from it? As a kid, this was one of my favorite riddles. The correct answer, of course, is “a hole.” The more you take out of a hole, the bigger it gets. However, there is another answer to this riddle — one that seems to elude many people today.
A large majority of the voters in the United States think that lower taxes would have the most immediate positive impact on them and their families. Many think that government at all levels is far too big, taking away our freedoms and destroying the concept of personal responsibility.
Paradoxically, large numbers of people who claim to want smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom continue to clamor for their “fair share” in a plethora of government-subsidized programs. Each individual who chooses to participate in a government-funded program creates a two-fold demand on the government. First, they create a need for money to pay for the goods or services they would receive. Second, they create a need for more bureaucrats to administer the programs that are supposed to provide those goods and services. The more benefits we receive from government, the bigger it will become, the further it will encroach on our freedoms, and the more money it will need.
But, the government does not have money. All governments get their money by taking it from the people. And there are a variety of ways the government gets this money: income taxes, sales taxes, gas tax, utilities and phone taxes, excise taxes, property taxes, payroll taxes, corporate taxes, license fees, fines, etc. Every single worker in America works from January through May just to meet the government’s voracious appetite for money. In fact, the government’s biggest job has become the redistribution of our money through government entitlement programs. One report notes that the cost of these entitlement programs is actually growing faster than the economy. This means that Americans are wanting “their share” of everyone else’s wages almost faster than those wages can be earned.
Frederic Bastiat, in his booklet The Law, makes this point: “Man can live and satisfy his wants only by ceaseless labor; by the ceaseless application of his faculties to natural resources...” “ But it is also true that man may live and satisfy his wants by seizing and consuming the products of the labor of others. This process is the origin of plunder.” You and your children should read this short book.
When the laws are changed to allow the government to plunder its citizens, eventually everyone will strive to obtain his share of the -plunder (e.g. his share of the taxes). And this change of the law into an instrument of plunder creates a contradiction between morality and the law. This will cause a breakdown in morality in favor of the law. Especially when the law favors man’s natural inclinations toward selfishness, greed, and irresponsibility.
For example, God’s moral principles say not to steal, but to work with your own hands at that which is good in order to voluntarily give to others who have a need (Ex. 20:15; Eph. 4:28). Each person has a right to the fruit of his own labor as well as a personal responsibility before God to properly handle and dispose of the fruit of his labor. This is the essence of personal responsibility, stewardship, and the promotion of voluntary charity and justice.
In contrast, some of man’s legislated laws allow one person to receive the fruit of another person’s labor which is stolen by means of the government’s program of legalized plunder. This is done under the guise of a perverted sense of justice. Civil government’s God-ordained jurisdiction of authority primarily consists of “being a terror to evil doers.” This essentially means prohibiting, stopping, and punishing criminal behavior against its citizens. Taxes, which are allowed by law for purposes beyond this limited civil government jurisdiction, are essentially forcible seizure of another person’s property. However, according to Scripture, we are still required to pay these levied taxes.
The law then makes this plundered money available in the form of government-subsidized programs to provide goods and services to people who may or may not have worked to earn any part of that money. This is the essence of dependency as opposed to responsibility, and the promotion of so-called fairness as opposed to justice. It is the engine of statism in its many forms, such as economic fascism and socialism. Some have claimed that it is compassionate and charitable to have government to help others. True compassionate charity and help from God’s point of view must always be voluntary on the part of the individual doing the giving. Payment of taxes is, by law, non-voluntary and coerced.
Participation in a government-subsidized program (at least when there is a choice not to participate) contributes to a violation of the eighth commandment. It also creates a demand for the government to continue and even increase its plunder.
If we truly want lower taxes and less government involvement in our lives, we must do more than ask our elected officials to do something. They hear our voices, but they see our actions - give me, take care of me, meet my needs, solve my problems, build me a bigger and better safety net.
And for those who say we are just getting some of our money back, there are many problems. To name just a few:
(1) Only a very small percentage of people receiving government program benefits (such as government education) are getting only what they put in -- especially when considering their share of the cost of legitimate government services (such as the military, law enforcement, judicial and criminal justice system) from which they already benefit.
(2) Once the government receives your money from taxation, by law and from God’s point of view, it is no longer your money. That is unless you overpaid your taxes and then you get a refund.
(3) The government must collect several dollars to support the bureaucracy necessary for each dollar redistributed to an individual.
(4) The ends never justify the means. More than good motives are needed. The means as well as the ends must have God’s approval.
We must choose to not ask for the government’s help whenever we have the opportunity to make that choice. When we shoulder our personal responsibilities, rather than expecting the government to come to our rescue, we take a positive step toward lower taxes, smaller government and increased freedom.
(Permission given to duplicate unaltered & complete.)
Private and Home Educators of California
a program of
Family Protection Ministries
Family Protection Ministries
P.O. Box 730
Lincoln, CA 95648
contact@pheofca.org
This one is mine.
This one is, obviously Amy's.
This is Ruby's, Amy's birthsister.
Amy took a picture of all of them together. She would have rather had a line hung between two trees outside, but this worked. She's such a great daughter. :)
I'm amazed that I've done 42 puzzles since December. (It could be January, I don't remember.)
Here's the front view. While in Omaha in January I cound the main panel on sale at a fabulous quilting store. I behaved myself and only came home with a couple things.
The back view. I bought the backing and all the other fabrics locally at my favorite quilting store. 
The border.
An email I received today:
Dear Friend,
I am writing you with an URGENT request. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection has scheduled a hearing on Thursday, September 10 at 10:00 AM. The hearing is entitled “Consumer Product Safety Commission Oversight: Current Issues and a Vision for the Future.” The Subcommittee inexplicably is planning to call exactly ONE witness, CPSC Chairman Tenenbaum, to discuss the CPSIA.
I disagree with the Subcommittee on this decision. The business community (particularly Small Business) raised many legitimate and serious objections to this law and its implementation. To exclude the business community from this hearing is to distort the truth and to keep inconvenient views off the record. It's wrong.
There is something we can all do. We must URGENTLY write the Committee and Subcommittee to express our strong objections over calling only one witness. Remember, this is the first hearing sponsored by this committee since the bill passed 13 months ago. [Doesn't that make your blood BOIL?!] The hearings are set for next Thursday (seven days away, including a holiday), so this is a "today" project. Please HELP. Thanks.
Here's how to do it:
a. Prepare your letter, ideally on your business letterhead, and send it to me at HOUSECPSIAHEARING@COX.NET. We will deliver the letters to the appropriate parties by hand.
b. Format:
[Date]
The Honorable Henry Waxman
Chairman
The Honorable Bobby Rush
Subcommittee Chairman
House Energy and Commerce Committee
2125 Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, DC 20515
The Honorable Joe Barton
Ranking Member
The Honorable George Radanovich
Subcommittee Ranking Member
House Energy and Commerce Committee
2322A Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairmen and Ranking Members:
[Letter body]
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Email address or Cell phone]
The body of my letter is shown below. You are welcome to use my letter for inspiration, but it's probably best if you write your own letter.
Thanks for your help!
Rick Woldenberg
Chairman
Learning Resources, Inc.
Vernon Hills, Illinois
Tel 847-573-8420
Email: cpsia@learningresources.com
Follow my blog at: http://learningresourcesinc.
******************************
My letter:
"Dear Chairmen and Ranking Members:
I am writing in regard to the Committee hearing set for September 10, 2009 in which the Hon. Inez Tenenbaum, Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), is scheduled to testify on the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).
I am very disappointed that no small businesses impacted by the new law have been invited to share their experiences in testimony before the Committee. The business community has been actively calling for hearings since the passage of the CPSIA because of the draconian effects of the new law. Our family business makes educational products for schools and has an exemplary 25-year safety record because of our hard work to assure high quality and compliance with law. Yet the innumerable, onerous provisions of the CPSIA have had a devastating impact on our ability to conduct business. These issues need to be explored by the Committee based on the testimony of real companies suffering real pain.
The problems caused by the law are myriad. The overly broad definition of “children’s products” swept in many products incapable of harming children from lead or phthalates. The CPSC itself has been hobbled by the CPSIA’s strict new rules that prohibit risk assessment. The agency has no flexibility to exercise judgment and as a result, have issued impractical guidance and unworkable regulations. In addition, the exemption process under the law is both very limited and very expensive.
The severe penalties under the law are not scaring companies into compliance – they are shooing companies out of the market. Even the CPSC’s own guidance to resale shops advises stores to consider the option to stop doing business in children’s products.
The deck is stacked against small business under the new law. Ironically, while crafters are left to puzzle over how to “ascertain” co-hort information on their products, the new law awards a freebie to large businesses who seek to test their own products.
I strongly believe that the perspective of businesses like our company is essential to a complete picture of the problems caused by the CPSIA and its implementation. Thank you for your consideration of this important matter.
Sincerely,"
The fabric I found first is the middle one. I'm pleased with it and I'm happy it's done. :)
Here's one the quilts leftover from the craft room clean-up. It and a few others had been on the back of my chair for months. They kept sliding off. So, I thought I'd better get them quilted. This if the first to get finished. I love the fabric, but the quilt itself I don't love. At my favorite quilting store they had one last winter made from the blue color way, rather than the red. Their color choice blended better than this one. I'm certainly not disappointed in it, but I think it could be better. 
Who Is King Click to see original.Who is King?
You’d better get the answer to that question right. The difference between right and wrong means the difference between everything from sin and salvation, to freedom and bondage, to liberty and tyranny. For all the problems we’ve read about so far, the answer to this question either causes them or begins to solve them.
Christ has all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), has ascended and set down at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33–36; Heb. 1:3, 13), and shall rule from that throne until all His enemies are vanquished (1 Cor. 15:23–26; Heb. 10:12–13). He is the “King of Kings, Lord of Lords” (Rev. 19:16), and the “prince of the kings of the earth” (not just a heavenly king, Rev. 1:5). At His name every knee shall bow and tongue confess—in heaven and in earth—that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:9–12). Nothing escapes His control and Lordship, and He upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3). There should be no question to any Christian of any denomination, Christ is King—King now, King forever, of heaven and of earth.
As faithful Christians, then we must submit to His word, His edict. We must strive to bring every area of life under His law. This obviously causes tensions in areas where man’s desires and laws ultimately conflict with Christ’s: Christians must choose which King they shall serve in that situation. This does not mean that no other King has legitimate authority: God sets up earthly rulers as His ministers. But it does mean that no other law-order has legitimate authority; when an earthly king usurps the areas of life that God has designed and decreed for the individual, the family, or the church, then that ruler has departed from His calling as God’s minister, and has denied God’s law. When such tensions arise, Christians must make every lawful effort to remain faithful to Christ.
If we answer this question properly, we at least position ourselves to reap the fruits of liberty. When we recognize, nationally, that a King exists who transcends mankind, before whom all men, even our leaders, are created equal, and to whom all mankind must submit and give account, then we have stripped the machines of tyranny to their barest skeleton (we can never permanently eradicate them in this age), and have lowered the potentate to the same frailty as our own frame. In this case, God gives man rights, and we can call the State to account for its deviancies and infractions.
But if we fail this answer, and instead assume somehow that the State is the giver and judge of rights— that some men are born to rule, that some men somehow deserve to rule, that some charismatic personality, vaulted to status by public clamor, should rule, or that men should rule because of their wealth, connections, promises, SAT scores,[1] education, etc., etc.—then we have already denied the reign of Christ, and accepted humanism in one of its various forms. In this scenario, we have declared that man has no ultimate recourse beyond the highest of his peers—we have greased the rails of tyranny, and shall give account, nationally, to the exactings of a fallible human being.
Rejecting God as King
God Almighty, via the prophet Samuel, warned and pleaded with the Israelite nation not to accept a human king. But they argued with Samuel: “Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam. 8:3). They wished to abandon their status of self-government under God which had so distinguished them among the nations. They wished now to be “like all the nations.” God told Samuel, “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them” (1 Sam. 8:6).
So God forewarned them of what an earthly king would entail:
This will be the procedure of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and of fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers. And he will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. And he will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards, and give to his officers and to his servants. He will also take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys, and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his servants. Then you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day (1 Sam. 8:11–18).
As missionary and scholar R. J. Rushdoony notes, this prophecy describes the God-rejecting State with at least six distinct features:
1) Conscription of sons for military service
2) Conscription of youth for compulsory State service
3) These conscriptions will include young men, young women, and animals
4) Expropriation of property in land and wealth by the State
5) Taxation at the 10% level God ordained for the Church
6) God’s refusal to answer prayers during this judgment.[2]
It is not hard to find these characteristics in the history of Israel that followed, but the Christian should also recognize them as the hallmarks of our allegedly free society today. In some cases the “procedure of the king” far surpasses the tyranny of Israel (10% tax!), or even the tyranny of Egypt for that matter (20%, Gen. 47:26). Consider some of the ways in which our “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” includes the features of the God-rejecting Israel:
Firstly, military conscription. The U.S. has a well-known history of military conscription that lasted through several wars—even Elvis had to go!—until 1973. Even though the draft ended, contingency plans remain in place, and thus every male 18–25 years old must register with the “Selective Service System” so that the king has you on a list in case he needs to reinstate the draft. In its own words, the SSS exists to “provide our Nation with… the most prompt, efficient, and equitable draft possible, if the country should need it.”[3] Failure to register (your duty by law) remains punishable as a felony including up to five years in prison and up to a quarter-million dollar fine.[4] The only exemption is for those already serving in the military! In short, you cannot legally avoid military conscription in this country if the king wishes you to fight.
| The American Vision on Facebook |
Secondly, labor or service conscription (subsuming both numbers 2 and 3 above) is under serious discussion. While such compulsory service does yet exist, some leaders and rulers have plans to institute it as soon as they can. In a July 2, 2008 campaign speech, Obama emphasized his desire for people to be servants of their government. In the construction of a dream of government lordship, repeating the word “service” some 35 times, Obama famously departed from his written, prepared speech[5] to say, “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”[6] For starters, he promised to expand AmeriCorps—a government funded program that essentially trains young people to become government servants—from 75,000 slots to 250,000 per year, a 333% increase. Then he aimed for those who refuse to join voluntarily: “I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you’ll have done 17 weeks of service.”
Just so you’d know this wasn’t just campaign fluff, once in office he appointed Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. Emanuel is now famous for favoring compulsory national service of all youth in America, as he said in a 2006 book, The Plan: Big Ideas for America:
It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service....
Here’s how it would work. Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They’ll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we’re hit by a natural disaster. These young people will be available to address their communities’ most pressing needs.[7]
Just to make sure you realize he means full compulsory conscription, Rahm ridicules that “Some republicans will squeal about individual freedom.…”[8]
Compulsory national service will enforce the God-rejecting, God-replacing State’s belief that it owns its people and can demand their service and sacrifice at will. This is especially true of the youth, and is the long-held belief of the liberal-leftists, who wish to impose military-type conscription as an every-day, peacetime policy. See William James’ 1910 essay “The Moral Equivalent of War,” where he says, “We should be owned, as soldiers are by the army, and our pride would rise accordingly.”[9] The Corporation for National and Community Service (the parent-government organization to AmeriCorps and others) considers James’ vision as part of its foundational “national service timeline.[10] Obama signed the so-called “GIVE” Act, H.R. 1388, also known as the “The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, an Act to reauthorize and reform the national service laws,” into law on April 21, 2009. The bill increases the federal budget for such programs ten-fold, and expects to spend $6 billion on “mandatory” “service-learning” programs in schools and other organizations over four years.
Following James’ vision, the current administration, and leftists in general, believe that the State “owns” its people, and that it can mandate their service at will.
Thirdly, the State confiscates property and land almost at will. Aside from the general fact that any property tax essentially represents rent paid to the State, and that the State uses “eminent domain” laws to grab any land it wishes for its purposes, as long as said purposes can somehow be argued as “in the public good,” the king has very clear means of taking property for himself. Just this year liberals rushed through the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009—a conglomeration of dozens of conservation and environmental bills that resulted in the confiscation of two million acres of land as wilderness, and over 1,000 miles of river, among other things. The State believes it owns the land, and the State takes it for its purposes at will.
Finally, the 10% tax I have already hinted is a mild tyranny by modern standards. In the modern industrialized, civilized world, the lowest level of taxation as a percentage of gross domestic product is still over 20%, the average being closer to 30%, and some nations pushing 50%.[11] The 10% tyranny of Israel and even the 20% tyranny of Egypt would represent radical steps toward freedom in today’s world. As God demands a tithe (10%) of his people, the modern State considers itself two to five times more deserving than God, and as a result we stand more cursed than ancient Israel to that same degree.
Even if none of these things existed in the Unites States, even if the few not fully in effect now remain that way, the mere fact that some people—some leaders—believe these things constitute the ideal society and work tirelessly toward that end, should rouse every freedom-loving individual to action. In terms of freedom and liberty, this type of society is a tragedy. In biblical terms, this tragedy is the judgment of God upon a God-rejecting State.
Part 2 to Follow...
