Five, count 'em, five, part 2

By the way, here's the EQ image of what I am making for my great-niece, which is at the quilter's right now: Did I say how much I love EQ? LOL

Five, count 'em, five

Never to do anything in a small way, I have embarked on a major project. During the past two years, I have made a quilt for my brother-in-law, my brother, my mother, my brother-in-law and his new wife, my brother and sister-in-law at their anniversary, my nephew and my niece. Whew! The one part of the family that's been left out of this gift-y barrage is my other nephew and his family who live in Germany. He last received a quilt from me 20 years ago, and his kids got baby quilts, but nothing for quite some time. That is about to change.

He has three children, two girls and a boy. The oldest is, oh my heavens, going to be 14 this fall, the middle girl is 10 and the youngest, the boy, is 4. I want to make a quilt for each of them, including my nephew and his wife. This idea started out as making a quilt for the family and then grew. My first idea was a black and white "propeller blade" block (what is it really called?) quilt like this:

They have more modern taste than I do, and it seemed like something they would enjoy. Plus, I have been seeing a lot of black and white quilts on blogs and chat groups lately and had never made one. So, I started collecting fat quarters of black and white prints. I also found a great lime green and black/white/lime print for the border. So far, so good.

Then I got to thinking while I was making a star quilt out of a layer cake of Moda's Frolic collection that it looked like a great pattern and fabric for a kid, and the younger great-niece might like it. But if I made her one too. . .

You see where this is going. Now I'm making five quilt. The star quilt is at the longarmer, the second one for my nephew's wife is completed and in the drawer waiting to be quilted, and the third for the oldest girl is in process. I'm using patterns from the book "Schnibbles Times Two" because they are attractive, the right size (around 75" x 75", good for a second cover on the bed or TV snuggling) and showcase great fabrics with larger patches. It was the source for two of my last projects.

There isn't a rush to finish these because they live in Germany and I can't give them the quilts until their next visit, which may be later this year or next, not sure when. Or, I can send them over with my brother when he goes to visit the grandkids (I'll pay the extra baggage charge). No way will I ship them. Not after having a quilt lost in the mail once. It just about killed me! I sent a wedding gift quilt to Atlanta last week, FedEx next day delivers, sign for the package, and I was a nervous wreck until I heard back that it had been delivered safely. So mailing them to Europe? No way.

However, I'm one of those people that jumps into new projects with both feet, so even if there's no hurry I want to do them NOW. I have no patience!

What it lacks in size it makes up in numbers

Our Early Girl variety tomato plant is amazing. The fruits are small, not much bigger than cherry tomatoes as you can see, but there's a lot of them. These were picked this morning, along with one Rutgers. I'm having trouble keeping up with the harvest. I mean, I like tomatoes and everything, but fourteen in one day?

Windmills of Provence

I just finished adding the last border to this Project Linus quilt, which I would call Windmills of Provence if I could name it. Unfortunately, Project Linus won't let you label your quilts. Sometimes I think that's a shame, because if the Project Linus quilts are still around in the future people won't know who gave their time and love to make a quilt to comfort a child, and quiltmakers are anonymous enough as it is. It isn't a "grab the glory" thing, it's "credit where credit is due". This is made from a couple of charm packs of "A Breath of Avignon", a yard of the blue/white fleur de lis plus some white and red from the stash. It's about 46" x 55".

I started out modeling it on the Schnibbles pattern "Dulcinea" but after I had made the windmill blocks I decided the colors were too busy to put the blocks side by side. The small red spinner blocks were just the ticket to separate them and add another design element.

What's next? A blue and yellow basket quilt, probably. And a lot of binding! I have a backlog again.

Puppy news

Well, last night my neighbor's younger son told me that she had called the local animal shelter to come and pick up the puppy, and this evening I peeked around the fence and didn't see it anywhere, so I guess it's gone. I know that puppies are adopted at a much higher rate than older dogs, and he was very cute and personable and friendly, and had a good temperment, but I am so scared he will be put down before someone wants him. The local shelter is a low-kill, not a no-kill, shelter, but there are so many animals there right now.

The other bad outcome would be if he were adopted by someone who wanted a pit bull dog because of their reputation and trained him to be mean. He's a big love bug right now but such awful things could happen. Please pray that he finds a good home. I'm going to have nightmares about this.

Flashback

The car tag renewal form came in the mail today. I keep getting flashbacks of my husband's car being inspected -and it flunking. Flunking is not an option for my car - we're down to one and it has to work. Nor do I want to spend a bundle on it right now. Nothing seems amiss, but like that tells you anything. I didn't know there was anything wrong with my husband's car. The check engine light wasn't on - because the check engine light had quit working! Mercy. My Subaru's seven years old. Please think good thoughts for me.

Puppy trouble

My neighbor, owner of the two "rat dogs", the miniature pinschers about which I have written, has taken to feeding a stray puppy. It's a pit bull mix, perhaps part retriever of some sort, caramel tan brindle with the most striking gray/green eyes and white toe tips. He's a young dog, probably less than three months, but obviously going to be big when he's grown. Her daughter is calling him Caramel, in fact. He's an attractive animal but I'm hoping that she doesn't keep him.

Her twenty-something son, according to her youngest daughter, is in favor of keeping the puppy and finding a new home for the min pins, a difficult task because they are over 10 years old and not reliably house broken, and she doesn't want to split them up. When you think about it, the son's preference is obvious, though. What pet would a young man want - a pit bull mix or a couple of yappy rat dogs? But none of the family seem to be very pet-oriented past the "have a dog out in the back yard" level. The min pins were the late husband's dogs, and my neighbor has already said that she's only keeping them because he liked them so much. She's a self-admitted non-dog-person. The youngest daughter is even allergic to dogs. No one in the family seems to give them a lot of attention, although they get good treatment - food, water, shelter, vet care. It just seems that they don't get much interaction, socialization or love. I feel sorry for them and try to fill in with love and attention with I can. They were both consummate escape artists and were constantly slipping out of the fence and roaming the neighborhood. Neither dog has any road sense at all and were in danger of being hit by a car. Thank goodness it seems that the neighbor has finally solved the escape problem because neither has been outside of the fence in several weeks. I go to the corner of the fence to talk to the poor dogs and toss dog biscuits.

The puppy and the min pins aren't getting along - the pup's already bigger than they are and very rambunctious, and the other dogs are older and probably don't appreciate rough play. If she is going to keep this puppy, she needs to instigate some rules right now or the min pins are in danger of being harmed. The male min pin has hip issues an the female dog is very small and fragile. Even unintentionally, the puppy could hurt them. I don't discount pit bulls out of hand, but I have known several people with pit mixes, and while they were great people dogs, they were intolerant of other animals.

Since my neighbor and her son work a lot of hours, and the daughter goes to school and is allergic to boot, I can't imagine that this puppy with get the attention and training that he's going to need to start him out right and make him a good pet. I envision an awfully lot of barking and car chasing in the future, as well as unmannerly behavior and possibly aggression. So it's kind of a mess. I've already started my "the neighbor lady is really nice" training this morning with petting and dog biscuits and also trying to instill some manners by discouraging jumping and clothes tugging, and making him sit down to be petted. It's only smart to be on this dog's good side if he's staying. Hey, it's worked for years with other neighborhood dogs. Haven't met a dog yet who couldn't be bribed with a cookie.

In the meantime, the local shelter probably isn't the place to take a stray dog right now because the Humane Society yesterday raided a pet store in the local mall and carted off all the puppies and other animals because of substandard treatment. This has contributed to the city Animal Control's chronic overcrowding issues. I'm all for this raid because the puppies in that pet store looked sickly (products of puppy mills), but there is only so much room in the shelter. While it's not a no-kill shelter, it does keep the animals longer than other places I've seen and has a pretty good placement record. They try to only put down animals that are non-adoptable due to aggressive behavior reasons or bad health. But, if you look at their "Pet Parade" program of dogs available for adoption on the cable On-Demand channel, almost every one there is part pit bull. It's obvious. So this little guy may not have a good chance if he's taken to the shelter. It's a mess, all right.