Monday, March 08, 2010

By the power of Castle Grayskull......

I spent my son's early years tripping over picking up action figures and listening to all of the little noises he made when he made his "guys" fight a battle. We had the typical superheroes.... Superman, Batman, Spiderman. We had every single Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ever made, and duplicates of several. My son also went through a He-Man phase. He had a wonderful sense of balance; he had a "good guy" toy in one hand and a "bad guy" toy in the other at all times.

When he was three, we visited my sister for Thanksgiving. My son was in his grandfather's car playing with He-Man and Skeletor. The car hit a huge pothole and Skeletor went into my son's eye. He fussed as a 3-year-old would but soon calmed down. When we got to my sister's house in the evening and turned on the lights we realized what had actually happened: Skeletor had scratched my son's cornea. We found a nearby emergency room. My son was treated and given an antibiotic and an eye patch. We were told to take him to our eye doctor when we returned home.

We had only lived in our town a short while and had not yet found an eye doctor. I knew that there was an eye doctor next door to the post office and decided to check him out. This doctor was wonderful! He told us everything would be fine (this was our only child at the time and we were typical overwrought parents) and teased Kevin about how the "bad guy" had hurt him. The doctor then teased us about how life-altering it may have been for our son to have been injured by a "good guy"! My son recovered quickly and probably doesn't even remember this incident. I'll find out the answer to that soon, though, since he reads my blog.

We're grateful that this ended well, and we're grateful to have found a wonderful eye doctor. He's been our doctor for 20 years and our friend for nearly as long.

This doctor annoys me, though. He shines bright lights in my eyes, blows air into my eyes, and asks me hard questions. The hardest questions he asks are these: "Which looks better? One? or Two? ..... One?...... or Two?" I usually make something up because I can rarely see a difference.

I'm going to ask you, dear readers, the same question. Which looks better?

One:

I'm going to make all of the sashing out of 9-patches and the applique blocks will be featured in between.
or Two:

A simple every-other setting.

So, which looks better? One? or Two? Make something up if you can't see any difference
Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

19 comments:

Diane said...

At first I thought 2-cuz I'm boring traditional but after going back and forth I think #1
It's so close I'm not sure if it's better here..or..here!

Diane said...

me again-had coffee now. I will be hearing "by the power of grayskull...I HAVE THE POWER..." all day now :) or until the dang Canadian N Anthem sneaks back in (leftover from the Olympics)
My oldest is 27, and we too have every He-man and TMNT toy ever made.
Ok if I come back here again, I'll just lurk.

Unknown said...

I vote for # 2- I guess it is more what one might expect - but sometimes traditional & simple is best. I like the greater amount of white space that is created with this setting - NOW - how are you going to quilt this one?

j said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
j said...

#2 is my pick, love scrappy 9 patches and applique

Unknown said...

If it were mine, definitely #2, cuz if I were going to do anything with the "A" word, I would want to be sure it would show well. I would be afraid with the nine patch sashing, the pretty applique flowers will get lost....

Quilter Kathy said...

I vote for #2 also!

Judy D in WA said...

I vote 2 also---I had one very similar to this on my wall a few weeks ago but took it down and put it away again. ;) Yes, we had the superheros at our house too. They tormented Barbie and her friends all the time. The good ole days, I miss them.

Linda said...

I like 2, I just don't "get" 1 but 2 is very calming.

lj_cox said...

Two, definitely, but I am a dyed in the wool traditional quilter. I like the colors of the applique blocks nestled up to the bright nine-patches.

Kim said...

O Canada........
poor Diane is having an Olympics hang over! ( sorry I thought this was funny).

Darn, missed the super figures we had all the Star War characters instead ...may the force be with you!

I like the applique placed a little more randomly but since this is such a traditional quilt and pattern ....you should do whatever pleases your eye.
Hey wasn't that helpful??

Happy Sewing

Unknown said...

I vote for number 2 as well. Having the nine patches all together, as in number 1, overpowers the applique

The Calico Cat said...

Mom (Ahem Debby)
(My step-brother was seriously into He-man - without the toys...)

While I know exactly what you mean about the eye doctor (I survived the puff of air, etc. just last week) I much prefer the first one. It is "Different." For me the second one is almost trite...

And after a quick perusal of the other comments, I can see that I am in the minority - but I can support my choice all day long.

Darx said...

I like 2 :) And I had no idea where that story was going. Way to build suspense :)

Anonymous said...

I prefer setting #2. It's going to be a lovely quilt.

Shout4Joy said...

I like #2 just a bit better...but I like them both :)

Vivian said...

Going to caste a minority vote here...I much prefer #1 for the same reason others like #2 - I think that layout emphasizes the appliques better. To me they stand out more surrounded by the sea of nine-patches whereas with #2 they are "just another alternate block".

However this is strictly IMHO and I think the quilt will look great either way you go.

Brenda said...

I find #1 very busy and #2 more fun. Bright, happy, ready to go our and play were #1 is like most of my days - "where am I?? What am I doing??? What?!? I am doing what??? Ahhh, okay, uhmmm....what was I doing?????..."

but it's not my quilt. Which setting do you like?? and get that air out of your eyes!!!!

Bonnie said...

Two, two, two. I like the extra space to rest my eye -- or so I think.

I was wondering where you were going with all the eye stuff. I hate the what is better part -- last time I did this I did not get the better part!