Sister's Choice Quilts

Feeling Fragile

My husband and I are still feeling quite fragile over the loss of our Ozzie. He was an older dog, going on 16 years, but he was always so lively and healthy, his sudden demise took us quite by surprise. The evening before he passed away, we enjoyed a really nice family time with Sara and Eva. Ozzie had plenty of cuddles and ate a good supper. There was no sign that he was unwell.

In the morning we found him collapsed on the floor panting and in distress. We took him immediately to our veterinarian, a few minutes away. She said he was critically ill and she suspected his heart or some internal organ failure was the cause. She recommended that we put him down. 

Everywhere we look, we expect to see him. On the couch, in my favorite chair, on the porch in a patch of sunshine. And of course underfoot in the kitchen or anywhere else the family is occupied. 

This is going to be a huge adjustment for us to carry on without him. So many of you left the kindest comments and I appreciate it so very much. It is obvious that you have experienced the loss of a beloved pet yourselves and know the pain.

Please bear with me over the next little while as I find my way through this.

National Dog Day: My Dog

Did you all enjoy seeing all the cute dog pics on Instagram yesterday?  It was National Dog Day. Everyone with a cute dog (and some not so cute dogs) posted pictures of their pets. Well I have a cute dog too.  Ozzie.  He has been with us for 13 years and those years have been a wild ride.  Ozzie was a mischievous puppy and nothing has changed. He loves attention and will stop at nothing to get it.  Nothing.

If I am too long at my computer, he will go find some personal object of mine and caper around with it, pretending he is about to devour it until I stop what I am doing, chase after him and confiscate it.  What a fun game right?  We have been playing it for years. Often it is a hair scrunchy or clip.  Sometimes my eyeglasses.  Sometimes it is something of a very personal nature. Ahem.

Here is a trip down Memory Lane.

Here he is with an entire unfinished quilt top out in the back yard.

With my brand new layer cake. 

The time he buried a rawhide chew toy under the pillow in the guest room.  Just before the guests arrived.

With my new knitting project.

With my new $30 Christian Dior lip gloss.

For a few years he had a thing for expensive orange shoes.

See what I mean?

Then there was the issue with him being jealous of my sewing irons.

That went on for a while.

He has mellowed out after all these years, but I have to say, he's led me on a merry chase. He won't let me forget he's around, that is for sure.

Now that he is Old Dog, he lazes around a lot more.

Ozzie on my favorite chair.

Ozzie in my favorite spot on the front porch.

He may have slowed down, but he's still my guy.

 

 

Binding

Every week on my To Do/Planner I write "Bindings" in an effort to complete the massive pile of bindings that I need to sew onto my finished quilts.  I just do not enjoy sewing bindings.  I know, lots of people love doing it.  Well, I wish they would come sit on my porch with me and sew mine while I watch.

This week, I decided I really mean it this time.  Really. Mean. It.  So dragged out a quilt that needs to be displayed from May through August (it has flags on it) and started in.  And would you believe that on the second corner I came to one of those dreaded situations that sometimes happens to us all?  Yes, the seam on the binding was perfectly lined up with the corner of the quilt so there was no way to turn the corner neatly and perfectly.  Arggghhh.

Luckily I still had some of the binding fabric leftover and could actually find it.  It meant taking off a big section of the binding and cutting it and reattaching a new strip with the seam falling anywhere but on the exact corner.  My mission was definitely sidetracked, but I persevered.

It still isn't all sewn down, and Ozzie certainly does not give a flying fig, but it's all ready for me to complete today while I sit out on the porch.  There are worse things to have to do.

Speaking of Ozzie, can you all believe he is going to be 13 on June 21?  Some of you may remember puppy Ozzie.  Gosh, he was a mischievous dog.  Still is, as a matter of fact, but at least he isn't destroying shoes and irons anymore.

Here he is back in 2008 after tearing some knitting project or other off my knitting needles.  He killed that for sure.  Thanks Ozzie.  If you want a smile, click on my right hand side bar where it lists "Categories" of my posts.  Click on "Ozzie" and it will take you on an entertaining journey you won't soon forget.

Have a great weekend everyone!  It is the weekend, right?

 

Great Get Away

This little trip up to the mountains has been the best getaway.  We have had some wonderful weather, some great hikes, and some really lovely time together.  It was such a good idea to bring Ozzie along with us, as his enjoyment of the outings has given us a lot of joy as well.

It has been a lot more exercise than he apparently is used to, and he is spending a good deal of time recovering from the activity.

On the last day of our trip, we relaxed.  I did some hand sewing, my husband did some computer work, and as you can see, Ozzie continued his nap.

I attached the binding to a couple of small table quilts, and have finished two books and started a third.  The fall color has been so enjoyable.  Did you know ferns change color with the seasons as well as trees do?  Isn't that a pretty sight?

I hope you will all have a good weekend.  Looking forward to sharing some book reviews with you next week.

 

The Adventure Continues

Ozzie is, if anything, more excited than ever to have been included in this fun road trip up to Lake Tahoe.  He can't believe his good luck in experiencing all the wonderful smells and seeing all the new sights.

I can't even believe I took this picture, it turned out so well.  We were walking around at Sugar Pine Park and discovered this little lake that feeds into Lake Tahoe (you can see the big lake in the background).  It was such a beautiful sight, framed by the large pine trees.  Look at the reflection of those trees...

We hiked around Taylor Creek, which is a dog-friendly place, and were mesmerized by the quiet beauty of the marshlands.  The salmon were running, which was a pretty amazing sight as well.  Can you see them swarming away under the water?  Now that was a sight.

The fall color is so pretty.  This is definitely the best time of year to be in Lake Tahoe, in my opinion.  You skiers will disagree with me, but I love the cool weather, the gorgeous color, the ease of driving around and the lack of crowds!

Ozzie had to be dragged down to the Lake.  He saw all that water and wasn't having anything to do with it.  I carried him down to the water's edge to show him it was all good, but he was pretty reluctant.  He finally explored it a bit, but whenever a teensy little wave came up onto the sand he was done.  Right now he is asleep on the couch and looks down for the count.  A good measure of the day.

 

 

Ozzie Turns Twelve

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while are familiar with my mischievous dog Ozzie.  Ozzie is a 25 pound Welsh Terrier who has definitely made his mark on our family.  Ozzie has been creating various degrees of havoc in my life for twelve years as of today.  He has mellowed the tiniest bit, but is pretty much the same scamp at 12 as he was at 2.  I caught him on the back porch sunning himself just before I sat down to write this post.  It is 92 degrees, so why not sit in the sun, right?

Ozzie has gotten himself into numerous scrapes over the past dozen years.  Here is a trip down memory lane.

As a youngster he had a penchant for destroying my favorite shoes.   

He was particularly fond of orange shoes.  The cuter, the better.  Thank goodness he outgrew that habit.

Then there was the phase he went through when he believed he must destroy my irons.  He did this to FOUR irons.  He would pull them right off the ironing table and chew through the cords.  A couple of times the iron was on and I had just left the room for a moment.  It is a miracle one of them didn't bean him on the head.

Then there was the time he took my knitting right off the needles and wrapped it all around him.

On another memorable occasion, we were having houseguests and he buried his slimy dog chew under their pillow.

Of course I must mention his habit of snatching some personal object of mine that he should not have and capering around like a lunatic until I chase him down and retrieve it.

My new lip gloss.  Great, now it comes out both ends.

My dish brush.

A rolled up layer cake.

The more personal the item, the better.

And an entire quilt top.  That was fun, chasing him all over the back yard to get it back.

Here he is, literally in my face with his dog toy, begging me to stop sewing and play with him.  Even though he constantly craves my attention, you have to admit, he is pretty cute.  He has been a loving and annoying loyal pest companion over the years.  Here's to twelve more...

 

What's Going On At My House

I know.  Is that pathetic or what?  Ozzie has been through a bit of "stuff" lately.  I am about to rant and rave a bit, so if that's not your thing, stop reading now.

He had a little growth on his lower left eyelid, which was successfully removed just over a week ago.  You can see how they shaved around his lower eye area, giving him a peculiar piratey look.  He got through that procedure with flying colors.  By all appearances he was completely unaffected.  He had great energy, his usual enthusiastic appetite and was just as mischievous as ever.  No eye patch, no "cone of shame", just some eye ointment.  I was prematurely congratulating myself on how we had sailed through that experience.

And then Friday rolled along.

There is someone in our neighborhood who uses his home near us as a vacation home.  He and his family use it maybe once a month for a weekend, if that.  The problem is, he brings his gigantic 160 pound Newfoundland, who resembles a bear more than a dog.  He named his dog Rover.  Seriously.  So, on the infrequent occurrences that they are staying at their house, this neighbor allows Rover to roam all over the neighborhood off leash.  The houses in our neighborhood don't have fences typically, so he goes in and out of folk's yards.  We do have a fence to keep Ozzie in and other critters out, but we are the exception.

Rover is calm and friendly and seems as dumb as a bucket of nails.  He doesn't do anything while wandering around.  He just strolls wherever he pleases, unsupervised and off leash.  And that's ok because he's a "good" dog, right?  No one is accompanying him, so anything he leaves behind is going to stay where it drops.

Well, Ozzie hates him.  Whenever he sees Rover on the other side of our fence (which is a split rail style covered with chicken wire) he becomes hysterical.  Never mind that Ozzie weighs 24 pounds to Rover's 160, Ozzie thinks he is a threat.  Because the fence isn't solid, Ozzie can see Rover just fine and runs up and down the length of it barking his head off in a complete frenzy.  Ozzie doesn't spend much time out in the back yard, but I do let him out at least four times a day to do his business and get fresh air.  If I know the people are at their house with Rover, I don't let Ozzie out.  But this time, I had no idea the people had come for the weekend and that their dumb dog was wandering along our fence.

However, Ozzie figured it out right away.  Ozzie saw Rover and started barking and running up and down the fence.  Before I could get to him to put a stop to it, Ozzie pitched himself at the wire fence in his hysteria, and caught his ear on something and tore the tip of it off.

It was a mess.  There was blood all over his head and face, and I couldn't tell at first where he had hurt himself.  I managed to get him into the car and take him over to our veterinarian, who luckily was still open.  It was around 5:10 on Friday afternoon.  He was still bleeding profusely and we caused quite a sensation when we arrived.  The doctor determined the cut was on the end of his ear and cleaned and patched him up.  Because of the location of the wound, he required a head wrap and the plastic cone.  $118, and over an hour later, I was back home with Ozzie who was now trembling and shivering with the ordeal of having his damaged ear folded back, a tight wrapping around his head and neck and the plastic cone flapping around his face.

We had our grand dog Remy with us for the weekend, and as you see by his expression, he is deeply concerned for Ozzie.  I was totally shook up with the ordeal and didn't calm down for ages either.

We keep our dog in a fenced back yard.  When I take him out front for a walk, he is on a leash.  We pick up (and dispose of properly) any excrement he may produce.  The only trouble we have ever had during the twelve years we have had Ozzie is with neighborhood dogs who are allowed to wander around unleashed.  Frankly, I am really tired of the thoughtless mentality that just because someone owns a "good" dog who they trust not to run off or be aggressive, that keeping them off leash is ok.   They may think they know how their dog will behave, but they sure don't know how other dogs may respond.

Ok, I'm done.

Time to Fish or Cut Bait

Before I fish or cut bait, I just want to let you know everyone is doing better.  Ozzie is almost himself again, Eva's wrist is pretty good, and my dad continues to think his eye is getting back to normal.  Thanks for all your kind wishes!

So, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.  I have at least six, no seven, projects that have all the blocks made, but need to be sewn together.  This is not a time to stop and start a new project, right?  

You all know how much I love this latest fabric collection I have been working with, Rachel Remembered by Betsy Chutchian.  I made the Windmills blocks you see on the right and they are ready to be sewn into rows.  Then I wanted to do something with all my leftovers, and assembled the units for the table runner on the left.  Then this happened:

See the little quilt at the lower right?  I decided it would be a really good idea to make that with the rest of the leftovers.  I have seven of the nine stars made, and will put this cute little thing together soon.

My plan for the rest of the week and the weekend is to 1) sew the blocks together for Windmills, 2) sew the leftover Windmills hour glass blocks together for the table topper, 3) put together the little patriotic table topper.  Then, it is definitely time to assemble the blocks for my blue and brown Nine Patch quilt, finish up my red and brown S'Mores top, and heaven help me, sew my Moda BlockHeads blocks together.

No more new projects.  Time to finish up what I have in progress.  So that's my plan and I am sticking to it.

 

 

 

Windmills Blocks Finished

I have finished the 169 pinwheel and hourglass blocks for the Windmills quilt. 85 pinwheels and 84 hourglass blocks.  And a mess of flying geese for the border, but I didn't count them.  The original pattern that inspired me is called Windmills and is designed by Bonnie Blue/Red Crinoline Quilts.  I kept the block size at 4 1/2 inches, but added rows.  I also had a very intentional plan for the color layout, rather than the scrappy random layout suggested by the pattern.

There was considerable fretting and switching up of blocks for this project, and I am happy with my finished result.  There will be one more solid brown outer border, so the quilt should end up being somewhere around 72" square.  I will be working on sewing those blocks and rows together this week.

Since I remade so many blocks, I had a ton of hourglass blocks left over for a table runner!

I also have a little extra project to use up the red and blue leftovers for a Memorial Day/Fourth of July table topper.  I will share that with you this week once I get my pieces cut out and a block or two made.

In other news, Ozzie got sick.  He is going to be 11 years old this June, and in his entire life, he has only been sick one other time.  Oh, he has been to the vet with injuries, but this time he was laid low with some bug or other since Wednesday.  The only thing that comforts him is Eva's Elsa blanket.  Luckily it is washable.

This is a dog who is so active.  It was very disturbing to have him not eat, not drink, not bark at the mailman, not get excited when the front door opened, and just lay on the floor still as could be.  The vet did $500 worth of tests and it looks like he may have a urinary tract infection.  We won't know until today (Monday) if he can have antibiotics.  Isn't that strange?  At any rate, he is somewhat better as I write this.  He ate some white rice and boiled chicken, has been drinking water and has been out to pee etc.  Poor Ozzie.  It is so sad when your pet is unhappy and looks at you wondering why you don't fix it.

Around the House

Not too much happening around here.  I had a virus, which I am pretty much over--only a bit of a hacking cough and a big cold sore indicate that all was not well last week.    I am scheduled to work both days this weekend, so any sewing that happens this week is going to have to take place Thursday and Friday.  Never fear, I plan to dedicate myself to the cause.  I have at least six Jacobs Ladder blocks cut out and ready to stitch together.

The photo above is one I have been saving for one of those days when I have nothing else to share.  Ozzie, the scavenger, got hold of a box of Eva's goldfish crackers, that she had carelessly left laying around.  He stuck his muzzle into it, in order to lick up every powdery crumb, and what do you suppose?  He couldn't get the thing off his face.  

He wandered around, not particularly troubled with the fact that he had a box stuck on his face.  After all, there were still a few crumbs in there to distract him.  At some point however, he did tire of having this new appendage hanging off his nose and started to try to shake it off.  I swear, I only left it on long enough to take a few photos, then rescued him.

That dog, I swear, it's always something.

When we were at Disneyland, we boarded him at our local veterinary hospital.  We got a call on the last day of our trip, from a veterinarian, informing us that Ozzie had developed a cough.  He sure did.  He's been on antibiotics and anti inflamitory meds and still is hacking away.  A $60 boarding bill turned into a $375 bill after medications and blood tests and x-rays. My theory is, he barked so much while he was in the kennel that he gave himself a major throat irritation.  Our house sounds like an infirmary, between me and the dog.  I am sure we will both get over it.