Last January my much loved brother-in-law died after a long and gallant struggle with a powerful illness.  He left this world while surrounded by his wife, his children, and his deeply loved grand children.    My sister, the grandmother of these children, wanted to give them some token to hold his memories.  We came up with the idea of using Papa's shirts to make quilts for each child, incorporating a pocket into each one so that small tokens could be tucked in, or little surprise gifts.  This is the first of the quilts and I am making them in order of age -- oldest to youngest.  I just finished making up the top and am now ready to move onto the quilting phase.  I'll update the blog as I go along but this is a long term project -- there are nearly a dozen grand children.

Here is the after photos of Popeye the Sailor man after his spa day.  He has been destuffed of sawdust, washed, some of the worst spots have been removed with Hydrogen Peroxide and soap, his clothes have been washed and repaired, and he has been restuffed with non-sawdust materials.  Also his expressive eyebrows and anchor tattoos have been renewed with a black sharpie.  I thought about doing something about his eye -- see the photo below and you can tell that one of them is not like the other.  But once you start toying with a Sailor man's eyes he begins to take on another character and to look like someone else.  And the whole point of this procedure is to give David the 80 year old man the same Popeye guy that he dragged around by the heels, head and arms when he was a boy of 5.  The earlier post that shows Popeye looking like he has been living in an attic for the last 75 years (which he has) is at the bottom of the page.  You see what a little soap, water, mending and restuffing can do for a guy.

Let me introduce you to Popeye the Sailorman.  He was given to  David Goldrup in 1933, who received him as a Congratulations on Being Born present from his grandmother Anna Pettingill Libby.  They are both about to turn 80 on July 20th.  My friend Gayle was looking for pictures in the attic for her father's 80th birthday when she ran across this Sailorman looking a bit the worse for wear.  He was an active participant in David's adventures for the first 5 years of his life which introduced him to some hard knocks, mud puddles, physical accidents and other rough treatment.  This probably explains the woeful lack of stuffing in his arms, and the elastic band bandage to his left arm to slow down the regrettable sawdust stuffing leak.  He has been hanging out in various attics for the last 75 years, when David took up a passionate and lifelong interest in fishing, and Popeye got sidelined.  Gayle asked me to see what I could do in the way of cleaning and repairs to Popeye so that he can make an appearance at the upcoming Birthday Festivities restored and renewed.  That is my project for the first of this week.  I'll update the post with the after pictures once I have worked my magic.

I think you'll agree that there is a lot of meaning in these threads.