Night Music

 I think most people are aware John Wayne’s real name was Marion Robert Morrison, that Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortensen, and that Cary Grant was really Archibald Alec Leach. But did you know Cher is short for Cheryl Sarkisian and Sonny was really Salvatore Phillip Bono? Vin Diesel’s real name – Mark Sinclair – makes him sound like such a milquetoast. So does Whoopi Goldberg’s (Caryn Elaine Johnson) and Elton John’s (Reginald Kenneth Dwight). Post Malone sounds like the kind of guy who’d cover himself with tattoos. Austin Richard Post does not. When Katy Perry started her singing career, she adopted her mother’s maiden name, because Kate Hudson was already taken. David Tennant changed his name from David McDonald at age sixteen, because there was already a British actor by that name. Albert Brooks’ parents named him Albert Lawrence Einstein in 1947, even though the other Albert Einstein had been world-famous since 1919.

Sixteen 2026 Challenge Blocks

 

I’ve followed the Riley Blake annual quilt block challenge since 2021. (I could have used a quilt block challenge the previous year, when all my in-person block-of-the-month classes disappeared forever. Better late than never, right?) So far, all the challenges have involved sets of sixteen 10” quilt blocks with patterns released almost every week – there’s a break to catch up the last week of each month – between January and May. At the end of the challenge, we’re given a finishing plan to use the blocks. Sometimes I use their plan, and sometimes I make my own. I usually make extra blocks. The most elegant 10” blocks are designed on a 4-patch or 5-patch grid. Anything else just ends up looking clumsy. A couple of this year’s blocks are prime examples. I do hope there will be a quilt block challenge in 2027. But it might be time to consider a different block size.

Eight Split Four-Patches

 

When the game Monopoly first appeared, it didn’t have tokens. Players used buttons, coins or whatever was on hand. The game was purchased by Parker Brothers in 1935, and the tokens were a battleship, a boot, a cannon, a thimble, an iron and a top hat. I don’t play it much these days, but I could be convinced to try if you let me pick the Scottie dog. I’m not an enthusiastic Monopoly fan because it’s the opposite of what a board game should be. It doesn’t bring people together. And that’s by design. Its whole purpose was to teach the evils of unregulated capitalism. Once a player pulls ahead, he’ll just get richer while everyone else slowly goes bankrupt. The winner is usually the most ruthless player. That guy who always insists on being the banker? Yeah, him. If you’ve ever seen a game of Monopoly end in tears or a broken friendship, now you know why.

Fourteen Kitty Cats

 

In patchwork quilting, the most important skill to learn is the scant quarter inch seam, meaning you sew slightly less (the width of two threads) than a quarter inch from the fabric’s edge. The word “scant” is there because when the seam is sewn and the fabric is pressed, the fold “eats” a tiny, almost imperceptible amount of cloth. If your seam is ever so slightly off in either direction, your finished block will be “off.” It will cause no end of frustration when you try to set it with other “off” blocks in a quilt. One way to check your seam allowance is to cut three pieces of fabric exactly 1.5 inches wide. The length doesn’t matter, but three or four inches will do. Stitch them together, then press and measure again. If the width is 3.5 inches, bravo! If it’s wider, your seam allowance is too small. Narrower, the allowance is too big.

Grandma's Dishes

 

“In the perilous times in which we live, the rising generation needs a defense and refuge from the storm. We can contribute to this effort by investing time and teaching. There is no greater need and no greater return on this investment than when it is made with Primary children, young men, young women, and young adults. President Uchtdorf has promised as we do our part in teaching, nurturing, and then trusting in God to work His miracles, ‘the result will be more beautiful and more stunning and more joyful than anything you could accomplish just by yourself.’ How do we do this? By motivating, teaching, and encouraging young people to receive the holy name of Jesus Christ in their hearts and minds, to joyfully take up the cross of Christ, and to walk in holiness as His disciples and emissaries.” – Elder Gary E. Stevenson

July Star

 

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.” – Albert Einstein

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” — John F. Kennedy

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.” – Ronald Reagan

"Just found out that every Fourth of July, the British celebrate, ‘We Dodged a Bullet Day.’" — Conan O’Brien

Friendship Star

 

Some of my favorite movies are hiding bible verses:

National Treasure: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” – Matthew 6:21

Footloose: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, a time to heal; a time to break down, a time to build up; a time to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

San Andreas: “God is our refuge and strength.” – Psalms 46:1

Steel Magnolias: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.” – Job 1:21

Ben Hur: “He was wounded for our transgressions.” – Isaiah 53:5

Pay It Forward: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” – Luke 6:31

Titanic: “The Lord is my shepherd.” – Psalm 23