Calling all Dull Quilters!

Due to us trying desperately to save money for our sons eye surgery, I am stooping to advertising on my blog for work. Here's the scoop

Quilters love these very sharp rotary cutters and use them all the time. However the blades go dull, or get little nicks in them and need to be replaced. The standard size ones (45mm) cost about $6.50 or if you buy them in a ten-pack, about $5.00 apiece.

I have built a machine that I can sharpen these blades now. Even take out the small nicks! It is not one of these little blue plastic sandpaper jobs, it involves a bench grinder, two machinist spin jigs, two clamps that I turn out myself on my dad's lathe, and special wheels for the grinder. I have been working with the local quilt shop to perfect the technique and am ready for all takers.

I charge $2.50 per blade for the 45mm blade and $3.00 per blade for the 60mm blades.
Since these blades are so thin and easy to mail, people can mail them to me and combine shipping with their friends. If they send me 10 or more at one time, I will pay the shipping back. If they send 20 or more, I will reduce the price by $.50 per blade. I do reserve the right to say that a blade is not able to be sharpened because the nick is too large. If that happens, you will not be charged for that blade, and it will be disposed of here.

All blades must be sent in a case of some sort, preferably the original one. Some of the cases enable you to stick up to 10 blades in them and thus save on shipping.

If you would be so kind as to pass this on to your sewing friends, I would greatly appreciate it. Also if you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to let me know as well. Here's my address;

A Stitch In Time
28957 Birchmont Beach Rd. NE
Pennington, MN 56663


Or if you wan to call me, CLICK HERE and an email will open up with my phone number in the subject line. Thanks and have a great Day!

My Christmas Blessing

In this day of self-indulgence, may we remember the magnitude of the gift given us, and respond with equal generosity back to Him who we love. It is our greatest gift, it is our greatest debt! Thank you Jesus!


Quote of the day:
His diaper is fine but his head needs changing!
-my brother, who is going to become a father this spring, commenting on my youngest sons peculiar odour and found it was not his diaper, but his sweaty head.

The Murderous Blanket

I have a creep in bed with me!! Before you think I am calling my wife names, I will explain.

When we got married, some well-meaning individual, knowing that we would have snow for at least six months out of the year, got us a king size, vellux blanket. This thing is the creepiest thing I have ever seen! It has hundreds of thousands of little feet that never stay still but spend the whole night walking across the bed. I am convinced that if we died and have lain perfectly still all night, the blanket would still be on the floor at one side by morning!!

It gets worse! When you flip the blanket over, it, like a lot of ladies I know and love dearly, changes it’s mind! It then decides that it likes the other side of the bed and proceeds to carry all the blankets above it off the other side of the bed till morning! Finally I thought I had figured it out. I would turn it so that it would walk towards the head of the bed so that all the covers would stay tucked up around our chins. Now wasn’t that using my noggin? The crazy thing tried to suffocate us by piling up around our heads! Seriously, it was all scrunched up the way women do with their socks around their ankles.

So I have taken to sleeping with one eye open lest the little creep gets any more malicious ideas in its little head, err... feet,… or wherever it gets it devious nature.

Funny thing, my wife hasn’t complained?! Maybe it has to do with the fact that right now the little feet are walking her way and so she never wakes up at three in the morning to a 60 degree room and just a thin sheet for comfort. Hmmm… I shall have to keep an eye on her too.

Of Departures and Arrivals

Yesterday we got up early to see our Malaysian students off to their homes for a visit.  The one group left at 7:00 in the morning, and the other group didn’t leave until 10:45.  We hadn’t told any of them that we would be there and they even told us that they didn’t expect us to be there since it was so far to drive in their opinions.  We were able to see them surprise them and express our love for them as they left.

There where several things that stood out to me through the morning.  The one girl was leaving and would not see the others again, maybe ever.  She was very tearful and it tore my heart to realize that she has no hope of seeing them someday in heaven as we would with our loved ones.  Another girl, who has been more quiet and withdrawn, was doing her best to keep back the tears as she eagerly kept pressing her hand against the glass that separated the passengers from the visitors.  You could see the questions going through her mind.  Will I see them again?  What will home be like now that I have been gone for a year?  Will I get to come back and finish my degree?  I had to choke back a few tears myself as I longed to see them fulfilled in Christ as I have been.  I longed to extend the balm to their aching hearts but they had chosen, at least for now, not to accept it.

The other thing was this.  Up at the little airport there is no motorized causeway to cozy up to the plane and deliver the passengers through its heated hallways to the terminal.  Instead the passengers must walk down the steps to the ice and snow covered concrete, and through the 0 degree air to reach the open door of the building.  Inside, where we were sitting, there was a crowd of people, waiting for their Christmas company.  It was fun to watch the faces of the people as they strained to catch a glimpse of their loved one.  They kept watching, did he make his connection in Minneapolis? Would he have changed much?  Oh, it’ll be so good to see him again!!  They’d bend their heads to the left and right, straining to see past the passengers who were getting off first.  Finaly, YES!!  There he was!!  I watched as 70 year olds turned into 8 year olds as they kind of hugged themselves and pushed past people to be as near the gate as possible.  It was a joyous reunion as they met, he glad to be home safe and sound, they, to have him back in their companionship for the next number of days.

  I thought about what it will be like in heaven.  What a welcome home party that will be!!  And right now there is the anticipation, the longing, to be with the one who loves us more than anyone else.  To see Him face to face for the first time even though His presence has been in our hearts for some time, that is the desire of our hearts.  Every time God takes one of His loved ones home, there is a welcoming crowd and there is Jesus, eagerly watching for that first glimpse.

But there might be others watching, wondering, did he make it?  Did he turn his life over to Christ before it was too late?  Where they victorious over their besetting sin and finally break through?  Or where they able to hang onto the young faith they were left with?  I am reminded of a song called I Dreamed I Searched Heaven for You, where it tells of a person searching for the one they loved amongst the throngs of heaven, only to find him not there.

Our finally journey will end either joyously or grievously, the choice is being made now, by you, and by me.  What will the homecoming be?

Do I hear you Smiling?

Our son just warmed our hearts again this evening with his smiles and laughing at the smallest things. I am so thankful that they don't remember all our mistakes as parents!!! Read the post below if you wonder what I mean :-)

I'm jello, He's the Rock

Well I know I should write but what?  I could write about the 2x4 that God used to get thru to me about how much of Japheth was still in control of Japheth.  Or I could tell about how finally I obeyed that weird prompting in my spirit and went to see a guy for no real reason, only to find that he was at the end of the rope, so to speak, and even that was beginning to fray.  Or I could tell how that God protected my son during his roller coaster ride down our basement stairs.  He rolled more than he coasted and praise God, except for a few bruises and an hour of heart wrenching sobs; he’s none worse for wear.

In all of this the thing that gets to me more than anything is that in spite of ourselves, God is still in control.  We can blow it big time, like I did when I forgot the gate at the top of the stairs for only a few seconds, and God is still in control.  Sure, bad things can happen, but Gods hand is in them just as much as when everything runs smooth!  He never lets go unless we tell Him to.  He is still using the things of this life to bring us closer to Him.  He never wastes pain or grief, but instead uses them like disinfectant in a wound.  They hurt worse than a bloody nose to a six year old but we know that with it comes the knowledge that it is cleansing our hearts of the things that shouldn’t be there.

That’s what I shared with my friend who felt that life had no purpose or reason for living any more.  That we may feel like life is a whirlwind around us and see no light at the end of the tunnel, but God wants us to stare into the darkness and say “God no matter what, I know you are in control and tho I cannot see you and do not understand what you are doing in my life, I choose to trust you.”  …though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!

On the other side, Jeremiah is POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!  And good news with even better is that Loraine is starting already and she’s not yet two years old.  I don’t know what it would be like to only have one in diapers! (at least for a couple months ;-)   We haven’t had that for over three years!!  Japheth Jr. is already reading sentences with three and four letter words.  Ya know, the more my family grows up, the less I know!!  I should have had my children when I was 20 or 21 and “knew” how it should be done!  Now I look at my family and realize my ineptness and lack wisdom to lead as I would like.

I just keep falling back on the one person that never changes, who always picks us up and rubs our bruises, and set us back on our feet for the next challenge.  Thank you Jesus!