Ted’s essays

handrail from scraps

I have had a number of requests for a handrail. Silly. It is only three steps down. Even an old guy can hop up or down three steps. Still, some womenfolk think they need a handrail for those three steps. Okay. Okay. It is on my list. Just a long ways down in a very big list of things I wanna/gotta do. That is to say, “unlikely any time in the near future”. Well, that was before Mama arrived a few days ago. She wants a handrail. She gets a handrail. As do the rest of the requesters. Today Mama and Missy let me know it was important. I still don’t have my truck out of the shop, so am […]

recent PatchWorks designs

This is all available at the Patch Works.biz, along with nearly half of our design inventory. The rest will be loaded online as time permits. Click on any of these images to see them fully. Most of these are .jpg images created by the computer-aided-design (CAD) program that runs our embroidery machines. There is hand work that we do after the machines finish to cut threads, seal them and dress the patch edges. Thus what you see is not quite as clean as what you get. The CAD program also doesn’t have the same color backing as what we physically load into the sewing machine. In most cases it is quite close, but sometimes the reality is significantly better (to […]

radio, reloading bench

I am more than a little surprised today to discover I never shared my finished product here. Ta Da! One of the endearing bits of me as far as the Missus is concerned is my role as “Shelf-Meister”. I have squeezed just about as much shelf space into this (and prior) homes as imaginable. Of course they are STRONG, but also functional and suit the spaces handsomely for us. The white shelves to the left were TEMPORARY with those metal shelf brackets that everybody uses and scrap lumber that happened to be somewhat close to the right shape. Lots of putty and paint later, they are as temporary as the rest of the house (and probably nearly as strong). The […]