Memorial Day

Memorial Day has special meaning for me. I consider it a day to honor not only those who sacrificed their lives in service for their country, but a day to remember those who continue to serve. I can't really say it better this year than how I said it last year. The only difference is that our son is being deployed this year. Not only is this a true concern for me, but I am so very much more proud for what he does and what he stands for.

Thanks Aaron, I know others are thanking you also.

All Better

Our little Maggie is all better from her spare rib incident. I kept a close eye on her, gave her extra love and she's back to her old silly self. Owning a Scotty is not for the faint of heart, but your heart will become so filled with love that any little bump in the road will be worth it.

Now I have to get back to putting the binding on this quilt. "Maggie, you are going to have to move!"

Miss Maggie's Latest Adventure

This is a "Maggie Post" but I wanted to put in my token garden picture. "In The Garden" and all, doncha know.....

The little bird dish sits in my yard and fills with water when I water the plants. Maggie has adopted it as her outside water dish, which is ok with me.

"Mommy: Let me help you with your chores. You always do too much."

"I'll help you shake the rugs from the kitchen"


"Shake, shake, shake, shake your booty!" "Did I do a good job?" "Yes, Maggie, you did a fabulous job!"

*You may not be able to tell, but she is actually shaking the rugs.

Here is a picture of our newest family member meeting Maggie. This is Little MacDougal. He actually barks! Becky and I went to Sacramento yesterday and stopped in at one of my favorite quilt shops, Bearpaws and Hollyhocks. Gran works at the shop and she actually had to climb a ladder and crawl into the front display window to fetch him. She didn't mind, though and Becky and I have new friends in Gran and the shop owner, Lindy.

"Mommy, I'll have to get back to you if I like Mac Dougal. I'm supposed to be an only child!"

Now the stressful part of my Maggie post. Sweety had eaten some bar-b-que spareribs for his lunch yesterday. He wrapped the ribs in a napkin and turned his back on them. They were sitting on a tv tray, about three feet away from his chair so he thought they were safe for a minute. NOT! Scotties are aspiring mountain goats. From what we can figure she got on her hind legs and dragged the napkin with the ribs onto the carpet. Then she ate them!!! She ate the ribs!!!!! Cleaned the plate down to the shine!!!! That evening while watching television she started to throw up. Once I figured out what was going on I called our local vet who luckily has advise service until 11:30 p.m.. They said not to panic and that she should be fine but to bring her in for x-rays in the morning (with directions as to what to do if she got really sick). The fear is that she would have bones lodged in her stomach. The x-ray showed that the bones had all travelled further down (no graphic information needed here!!!) into her system. He gave her some mineral oil to help lubricate the bones and told me what to watch for if there was a problem. Otherwise he said she should be fine. $135 later......

Let me tell you, I was really upset! I don't know what I would do if anything happened to her. Never, never, never give your dogs bones for any reason!!!! If they get into bones by accident, like Maggie did, call your vet. If they get into chicken bones, take them in immediately as they splinter and can cause perforations.

Whew! There's never a dull moment when you own a Scotty. Or I should say, when a Scotty owns you.

In a Bind

In my previous post I mentioned how much I hate prefer not to sew bindings on my quilts. Well, I have angered the binding gods!!! I've been cutting out the bindings for the five, count them, five quilts I have to bind. So today I started on the binding for the quilt that I'm giving to my dear friend . Now who could that be? Hmmmmmm. Thankfully I had just started sewing it on and hadn't gone far. In fact I hadn't even turned a corner yet. I was sewing it on the wrong side!!!!! I know better than that!!!!! Luckily I didn't have much to pick out and my machine length was set at 3 so it didn't take me long to take it off. See my little white well-used seam ripper. Can't live without it!



So I'm off to the showers to cool down, I'm taking a pill for my headache, I'll make my peace with the binding gods and start again.

Good grief!

Speed Quilting

I mentioned in a previous post that our local quilting class through Adult Education was being cancelled. I've heard from others that this is happening in your local area as well. It's a sad state of affairs indeed. Unless a miracle happens, Thursday will be our last class. So what do you do when you are faced with this? You get as many quilts quilted as you can.

I spent the last week quilting. For hours. On my feet! Ouch!!! I managed to get these five quilts finished. One is for my sister, one is for a dear friend and three are for myself. From now on I'll have to either quilt my quilts at home on my small machine, send them to a professional or rent space on a long-arm.

Now all I need to do is add the binding, my least favorite part of quilting. (*Added: Making the binding and sewing it down by machine. I don't mind the hand stitching part once you flip it over.) What is your favorite part about quilting? What is your least favorite part? How do you get your quilts quilted? My little inquiring mind wants to know!

Let's Have Some Music....

It's the weekend! Get up and dance!!!

My friend has been teaching quilting at our local Adult Education School for 25+ years. With the state of the economy the way it is, we are losing our funding. The State is letting the school districts funnel Adult Education funds into the regular education coffers. It looks like the only classes left at the Adult Education level will be those that are geared towards students and all the adult enrichment classes will be dropped.

On one hand, having worked for 22+ years in school district finance, I can understand their need to do this. On the other hand, having paid my dues as a taxpayer and as a student of the class, I, along with the other students, are heartbroken.

No longer will we be able to meet once or twice a week in the evening to make quilts like this and increase our skills.

No longer will we be able to have access to a very expensive long arm quilting machine where we can quilt our own quilts for just the price of the class ($25 per quarter).

No longer will we be able to make new friends and fellowship over pot lucks.

It's truly sad indeed.

*I'll keep you posted as to the status of the class and also what the district intends to do with the long arm machine. If it is to be sold it, by law, has to go to auction. It would be stored until that happens and we know from experience that stored items are not always taken care of! It could also be put in a student home economics classroom. Since it is a sensitive and expensive machine, there is a lot of damage that untrained and under supervised students could do to it. There isn't a way that it can be purchased outright by any of us. Sad, sad, sad!

Happy Mother's Day

I wanted to wish all of you out there with children, a Happy Mother's Day. A special hug to all those Mother's who can't hold their children in their arms on this day.

I also send my pride and admiration to all of you single mothers out there who do it all. You get up every day, take care of the children, take care of your job, take care of your home and still take the time to keep score at your child's little league game! Good for you!!!

Spring

While we were on vacation to Denver we missed this in our yard.....

.....and this

......and most of this.

But I can still look forward to this...

.....and then we'll do this!