A Sad Day

For about the last 7 months Clyde has been having some odd health problems. It started with him limping on his rear leg for unexplained reasons. Xrays showed the hip was dysplastic.  He pretty much lost the use of the leg.  Shortly after that he was having trouble with a painful back.  He is long and low, so we thought it was the bigger dogs pushing him around. We also don't really know how old he is.  He came here as an adult rescue, but just how adult we don't know.  We put the ailments off to old age catching up with him all at once.  He was put on medication for his back and hip pain and once we got the dosage right, he seemed to feel much better but did a lot of sleeping.  Old dogs sleep alot, right?  One day last week I was giving him his medication and noticed terribly swollen lymph nodes.........off to the vet............ aspirate one of the lymph nodes.  Results came back today.   My worst fears have been realized.  He has lymphoma, he has meds to try and take down the swelling and we will take each day as it comes.  He's my happy little guy who has a wag and a smile for everyone and never knew a stranger (except the guy who tried to break into the house when we were all home) For that act alone, my little rescue guy had a home here forever. 

Kaffe Fassett

This is my version of one of Kaffe Fassett's quilts. This quilt was a class, I used some of my Kaffe fabrics, but the majority of the fabrics  are just what I had in my stash.  I really like the fabrics, my layout could have been a little different.  Don't ya just love how crooked these pictures are. I took them a while ago with my old camera. 

More UFO's

I planned on doing some sewing for my Red Sky At Night today, but I'm still playing catch up with sleep and work because of the puppies.  They still need a lot of watching to make sure mom doesn't lay on one accidentally, I find myself just sitting there watching them sleep,  it's mesmerizing.  I thought I would post some of my past mystery quilts, retreat quilts and group exchanges.  The top two quilts are now quilted and bound, just waiting for me to sew the binding down The top one was a group exchange, the friendship star was a block I started for an exchange and used the wrong black. I finished it and it will go to a friend who loves the colors. The bottom lone star was a retreat project several years ago. I haven't decided whether I want to make it longer or not. 

Twister Puppies

It's been a busy day around here. Got some weeding done this morning, around noon the thunder, lightening and rain started. Then around 3pm after the thunder and lightening moved on, Twister decided it was time to have her puppies.  In over 25 yrs of being a breeder, this is only the second litter that was born during the day. The amazing thing is it took her less than 3 hours to have 8 puppies. The 9th was born about 2 hours later.  For a first time mom, she's being wonderful.  This isn't a very good picture, but she's taking very good care of her new little family. All are strong, healthy, wiggly and quiet.  We've got 6 girls, 3 boys. Two of the girls and one boy are brown, the rest are black, all are wavies.  I will be updating as they grow.  Now to see if these old bones can handle sleeping on the floor next to them for a day or two till they get a little bigger. 

Dog Yard Art

I saw the little mounds in the grass, figured the moles were back. I put down the grub stuff,  still more mounds running through the yard. Then the grass in on those mounds started to die. That's when I realized I didn't have moles, it was voles.  I treated it again for voles, no more tunnels in the yard, but I guess they didn't leave. The dogs found those tunnels, followed them and dug up every one of them. I have trenches all over the yard. I sure hope those voles never come back. 

Yup, one of the tunnels lead to a young Maple tree and they dug under the tree looking for that vole.

RED SKY AT NIGHT by Judy Martin

This is a Judy Martin pattern from her book Yes! You Can Make Stunning Quilts from Simple Patterns.  It took me several weeks to figure out Judy's method of assembly. I'm not following her method, I'm strip piecing instead of sewing each piece together to make the strip. There are almost 140 strip sets to assemble before you can start to put them together. I've got 22 done so far.

I've seen the quilt finished and it's beautiful. It looks complicated, but if I follow the directions to assemble it, I'm hoping it will turn out just like the picture. Unless I've assemble one of the strips incorrectly.  :-)). This is for sure a long term project for me. 

The EWWWWW Factor

I've been asked what a June Bug is. Well, it's a beetle. It's out for a short time in June.  It's the adult form of your white grub.  They are attracted to the lights at night. Mostly the males, as the females are burrowing to lay their eggs for the next season.  I guess it's different colors in different areas.  Here it's brown hard shelled on top and sorta furry on the body. It's got 6 legs that look like they're barbed. If they get in your hair, they stick. ICK!! ICK!! ICK!!  They don't bite, they're just creepy.  I found a picture of the "June Bug" we see around here. 

Debi's Dog Show Ring

I got a call from WI Debi yesterday who's been training some young dogs for the show ring.  Several novice people were coming over for some handler training classes. She thought it would make it easier for them to understand the ring pattern by 'drawing' it on the grass. Well, let me tell you, her way of 'drawing' the ring pattern was quite unique.  

She took a flat section of her property,  used her tractor mower and 'shaved' the grass! It probably wouldn't have been too bad with the moderate weather we've had but as soon as she did this, the sun came out, it got really hot, muggy and burned the shaved grass and that flat spot was their front lawn. LOL!  Her daughter is out on the 'diagonal' working with one of the younger dogs.  Hopefully it will rain soon enough to grow the grass back before it goes dormant for the year and she has to look at the show ring the rest of the summer.  Great job Deb!!! I'm still laughing. 

We have a lot of friends named Debi so we have nick named them by the state they live in.  WI Debi has a great sense of humor so the ring pattern in the lawn is just one of many things we've laughed at over the years. 

One Terrified Kitty, Clyde, Twister and Mr. Big

I found this little kitty in the back yard between the fences. He looks to be only about 10 weeks old. I'm sure his mom is the old Ma cat across the road. She's ferrel and so are her kittens. She has several litters a year. She's got to be at least 8 or 9 yrs old. I feed her in the winter, have tried to catch her to get her spayed, but she won't come close enough to humans and is way to smart for traps. This little kitten is really mean and terrified. I'm sure the dogs scared him and I couldn't pry him off the fence. He was spitting, biting and scratching so I just left him there hoping he will leave during the night. 

Clyde is my little Corgi/Chow mix that was a rescue dog. He's feeling much better now that we have worked out the right medications for his back. 

We are waiting for Twister to have her puppies. They are due on the 4th of July. We will be sticking very close to home for the next few weeks. I'll be working on  some UFO's while we wait. 

Many have been asking for pictures of Mr. Big and Marnie. It's hard to get good pictures of either of them because they insist on following very close to me making it hard to get pictures of them. This is one I got of Mr. Big tonight when he was out with Clyde an Twister, his two favorite buddies. 

Ewwwwwwwwww, they're outside eating June bugs!!!!!!!!!

Sunday Scenery

While I was ironing and cutting fabric around noon I got a call from a friend asking why we were under severe thunderstorm warnings. HUH??? I guess I didn't know. Sure enough, turned on the TV, we were under severe thunderstorm warnings with the chance of hail. I guess that would explain the thunder and lightening while the sun was out.  I walked out to the driveway and saw this to the northwest. Pretty as a picture.  To the southwest, I could see dark skies and possible rain coming but it was going to miss me and most likely hit the city where Molly was. We really could use some rain, it's been a couple of weeks and the crops need it. Just a nice all day slow soaking rain would be nice.  Well, the dark sky went over, no rain, it went east of us. Sun is back out, it's a beautiful, cool summer day. 

ORANGE CRUSH

I put my Orange Crush together tonight. I got so lost in all that orange, I took off the edge and changed it to a simple bright yellow. I'm going to put a small border of the lime green around the outside of the yellow but not sure what else if anything. I know for sure it won't be any more orange. It doesn't look that bright in the pictures, but boy is it ever blinding in person. The yellow sorta looks like a butter yellow, but it's a bright.  Looks like my Orange Crush has turned into Orange and Lemon /Lime Crush. 

MR. BIG AND MOM

Mr. Big and his Mom are sharing a small spot on the love seat. He's getting a real hair cut tomorrow. He'll look like a real Portuguese Water Dog by tomorrow night. 

LAZY SHAKESPEARE AND BOW TIES

I've always wondered how this was done. I had no idea it was so easy to get those little circles by making the bow tie blocks. This still needs another border, which I already have cut but need to find the time to put it on. Maybe if it rains again this week (and we don't loose power again) I will get a chance to finish it. 

 The other is my Lazy Shakespeare In The Park I made with some scrap fabrics. It still needs borders, but I ran out of blue fabric so was lucky to get this much out of it. It was only going to be one block, but that seemed like such a waste, so I finished up the blue.  Those blocks are 24" square. 

CAROLINA CROSSROADS

I put the borders on my Carolina Crossroads too. It's all set to send off for quilting. 

AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN GET DONE

I've been without a computer for about  a week.  I now have a new Apple laptop.  I'm trying to find my way around without too many headaches.  The keyboard on the laptop is soooo small and flat. It's like typing on a piece of paper with little squares drawn on it for keys. I had to cut my nails because they kept slipping off the keys. There's a lot of other things like finding the photos. I have no idea where they should be I've got them all over. 

While I was waiting for my new computer I worked on some UFO's. This mystery was supposed to be one quilt. However, I didn't pay attention to how I laid out the second set of blocks and guess what.......Yup, I put them together wrong. I didn't realize it till I went to sew the two pieces together.  I now have two smaller quilts instead of one big one. They will work for everyday couch quilts.