The Gift.

Cathedral Windows quilt pieces

Years ago, when I was still making quilts, a friend gave me this huge partially finished quilt top. It's called Cathedral Windows, and some of the fabric in it is very old calico. Lots of it is from the 60's and on down the years until about 1995, when it was gifted to me.

I was cleaning things out in the SR, and came across the box it was in, and fell in love with it all over again. The problem is the same as before though. It's not all sewn with the proper threads. Huge areas of it where sewn with invisible thread - that nylon fish line sort of stuff that's just a nightmare.

So, I'm not in any mood to take it all apart to do it right. What I will do with it is make smaller things out of it. Table runners, some pot holders, covers for appliances (sometimes I hate spell checkers) in the kitchen.  Are there really Alliances in the kitchen?  Would those be between the refrigerator and the kitchen sink faucet?  Or maybe one exists between the mop and the broom?

Anyway, back to what to do with this buried treasure rediscovered.  Perhaps some throw pillows for our green loveseat will come from this, and surely some prezzies, too.  I'm thinking I'll use some of these quilt squares for making valances for the sewing room windows and use the very smallest squares to edge matching café curtains. "Sew" many possibilities have presented themselves.  Tote Bags!  How could I forget about Tote Bags???  Life is good.

Tort Report:

The tiny boy, Button, is eating again and doing very well.  His shell is starting to darken.   I call them all "he" sometimes and "she" sometimes, and this is because there is NO way to tell whether they are male or female until they are around 14 years old.  Lucky, their great big sibling, displayed his maleness (curved under shell in the back and big "tipping" horn in front) when he was that age.

Button - 43 grams

Button and his much bigger brother, Milagro, were both hatched in September of 2009.  Milagro is at least 3 times as big as Button.  He is also a champion eater!  The other brother, Dusty, is the same size as Milagro but was shunning the light the day these snaps were taken.

Milagro - 218 grams

In about two more years, after letting them stay outside more, we can let Dusty and Milagro go into semi-hibernation.  Desert Tortoises don't go into full hibernation anyway.  They just go into a sort of torpor, like hummingbirds do overnight.    One bad thing is that we didn't find Poko Ono's nest this year.  I can't imagine what we will do with a half dozen or more new babies.

Wolfie really missed his daddy when DH went to Yosemite back country with three of our daughters earlier in the month.   He is still rather clingy, and sits by the door a lot if DH goes outside.  He's willing to sit by me for hours if I'm sitting still, however.

He sleeps on our bed.  He's little, but that's where he wants to be, and if you have ever had a small, short-legged dog launch him/herself nearly three feet in the air to scramble up the last few inches to the top of a tall pillow top bed, you wouldn't deny that (s)he'd earned the right to sleep with his or her  "pack".   But last night, just as I was going to sleep at 2:20 am, Wolfie planted all four of his feet into my sore back, and pushed to get me to move over.  I was about to drop off to sleep and BAM! I was awake!

I tried to push him away with one hand behind my back, but he pushed back, so I rolled over on top of him and stayed there until he started squirming.  Then I sat up, and grabbed all his feet and dragged him down to the bottom of the bed.  Climbing back into bed, I noticed that he was inching his way back up between DH and myself, but definitely staying on DH's side of the bed. 
I fell asleep about 5 am.


To all my readers who just went through the horror of Hurricane Irene angst and actuality, I hope that you are all as well as possible,  and not too much damage was done to your property.  It wasn't as bad as expected but it certainly was bad enough!