The Great Chicken Dogs Ride Again!

I was woken up this morning at 5 AM! to the dogs barking.  I was semi-alert and knew right away what I needed to do.  I grabbed my pillow off my bed and headed down the stairs to the couch just as a streak of lightening lit up the windows and an extremely loud clap of thunder erupted resulting in more barking.  I have the worst chicken dogs there are in the world! 

 As soon as I lay on the couch, Taegan jumped up and snuggled with his head on my shoulder turned into my neck and was wiggling and wriggling trying to get as close to me as he could.  His fear of thunder and lightening goes way back, many, many years when we had a large cell sit over the house one night.  He and Irish were only dogs then and slept upstairs in my bed with me.  When all of a sudden BOOM!!!  So loud that it shook the entire upstairs.  It scared me, woke us all up and put the fear of thunder into his bones.  When it begins to even sprinkle around here (which doesn't happen often) he starts quivering and waiting for the thunder.  He knows they often go together. 

Then up came Finnagan.  He comes by it naturally, too.  I found him running in the streets about 3 years ago after a major thunderstorm.  He was sopping wet and would not get out of the street to let my car go by.  I finally got out, said, "come here." and he ran and jumped into my arms.  He was sopping wet and scared.  Poor baby.  He doesn't like to get wet and has a major fear of storms, also.   

I think their fears have rubbed off on the other two.  My nervous Nelly dog, McCallum, doesn't need much to get him going and he is the one doing all the barking at the storms.  Usually the only one.  The others are too scared to even bark.  While I was snuggling with the other two, he was having a hard time settling.  He would sit on top of the boxes covered with quilts and then jump on me to the back of the couch.  Then use me as a springboard from there back to the quilts. Then it would thunder and he would bark and watch the back door and would start all over again.  Fiona, on the other hand was sitting on the arm of the sofa by my head.  Not quite touching me most of the time, but just within reach in case she needed to. 

As the rains moved on, so did the dogs onto other parts of the couch snug up next to my legs or back or on the floor right by the couch and I finally caught a few more zzz's.  I woke up with Finnagan laying on top of me and snoring.  Him, not me. 

When I got up, I tried to take them outside - it's not raining at this time - and open the door to the back porch and it's flooded!  The water is about 5 inches from the back door.  This shouldn't be like that, so I wade out and look over the fence to see what is happening with the lake and it isn't flooded.  Just my back porch.  I kennel all the dogs, go back out to the porch, unlock the back gate and whoosh, the water all begins flowing out the doorway.  The bottom piece on the fence had gotten waterlogged and swollen so the water couldn't run out off the porch.  I swept it out the rest of the way, re-locked the gate and made note of the full to the brim flower beds (minus the flowers) and forced the dogs back out onto the porch.  Of course this took some doing, but they all came out and two (Fiona and Finnagan) immediately went to the chair - the not getting wet thing includes the feet!

It has been a busy morning since then.  I zested and juiced all the limes I got in my bountiful harvest basket, (almost 2/3 cup of juice - frozen in 1 T. cubes and am drying out the zest for future dishes) Cut up and froze most of the pineapple.  Made a variation of Mimi's Mini Cini's - delicious and not as much work, but I still love the mini cini's.  A couple cups of coffee, a load in the dishwasher and now it's time to work on adding binding to a couple of quilts. ( I look out the window and notice that all that water in the flower beds has been absorbed our ground here is so thirsty it soaks up any rain we get quickly.)   I finished the binding and label on a quilt for my aunt last night (pictures next week when I can take them up at school) I hope to get the binding finished on these two other quilts this week, also.  Here comes more rain!! 

These last few weeks have been busy ones.  I made a pillow cover, a mug rug and two blocks for the KF Block exchange (I really need to re-do those) and learned to tat - I need a lot more practice on this new skill. At school we catered a luncheon, made 14 dozen cookies for one order, made appetizers for 300, had another order of 13 dozen cookies and 5 pound cakes and planned our last catering of  cake, punch and finger foods for about 40 - that will be made Tuesday and Wednesday) WHEW!!!  I will be glad when things slow down for that last week of school, except it won't be real slow, we will be pulling everything out and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning oh, yes, planning for next year's program  and taking a test, also. 

I am looking out the window at the lake, the sun has come out in the last 30 minutes and the sidewalks - which were all wet when I started this post and got rained on while I was typing - are now 90% dry.  There are only a couple of small puddles on them.  Wow!  It's going to be a hot and muggy day today - another rarity along with the rain. I predict that within the next couple of hours - if it doesn't rain again - any current standing water (flower bed, streets, sidewalks, etc.) will be all gone.  This parched land is just sucking it all up.  Yea!!  We needed this rain.

Dogs and What Else is New

Sometimes it's better to just type first and then add the pictures in second. I have the hardest time trying to add type after I have the pictures in place. I wanted to share with you the newest pictures of three of my dogs. I was sitting on the couch downloading pictures from my phone to my e-mail so I could up-load them at school (and here) so I took a few quick snaps of my dogs. Taegan wasn't in the mood so I left him alone.   Below is Mr. Finnagan.  He is my only non-gray Shi Tzu.  He is also a foundling - found running in the streets after a major rain storm a couple of years ago and when we had thunder and rain the other day, he and Taegan (another one afraid of thunder) were my constant companions. 





Finnagan

Next up is Miss Fiona.  (a foundling)  She was found by a neighbor who thought it was one of mine and to tell you the truth, I thought it was mine, also until she turned her head and looked at me.  

Miss Fiona

 I wasn't going to keep either one of these, but after searching for 3 months and no flyers, ads in the paper or anything, I kept them.  Due to the oilfield traffic, we get people who just up and leave the apartments a couple of blocks over and put their dogs out on the street when they can't keep them or don't want to keep them.  It's sad, but unfortunately part of life.  Last, but not least, is Mr. McCallum.  He is my Yorkie and is a handful sometimes.  He is smart and inquisitive and gets into trouble all the time.  (mostly by climbing over the baby gate on the stairs and taking the squeekers and stuffing from Finnagan's toys.)  this was his second picture.  He moved in the first and I told him we had to take it over and he posed so pretty for me. 

McCallum

 What am I currently working on?  That is a good question.  Last weekend was a semi-quilt-in (only 2 days) for our group and I didn't know what I wanted to work on, so I followed in my mom's footsteps and pulled an unfinished project out and decided to put it together.  The blocks are from a color challenge over at 15 Minutes Play.  I had made 13 of the blocks before I got busy and had planned on coming back to make the other 3 later, but then decided I was finished.  16 didn't go together as well as this 13 did.  I found this fabric in my stash - it's a Terri Mangat fabric - and it is perfect for this quilt.  I plan on adding a small dark brown border (background fabric for the blocks )  and then I am calling it done. 

Color challenge quilt top in progress

 I took a journaling class at the Ogallala and below is my start of the journal.  You take two pieces of muslin and fuse them together.  Then using red and blue thread, you stitch the lines to make your fabric look like a sheet of paper.  I painted the letters and pig and then free-motion stitched around them, added the spider, web and words.  I plan on adding more words and pictures on this one and then I will make several more and put them together in book form.  This was fun and interesting. 


Journaling with the machine

Retreat Quilt and Weekly Ramblings

Whew!  I have been busy!  Since we got back to school from Thanksgiving we have been cooking up a storm at school and living through a couple of ice storms that have blown through here.  That first week back to school, we cooked for the restaurant and for our open house.  It's a good thing I had a premonition that we wouldn't have school on that Friday and made everyone work really hard and try to get the majority of the items made early.  Well, as it turned out, the ice came in early and I only had one class on Thursday.  The district deemed it not safe for the kids to travel to our building and kept them all on campus the rest of the day.  That meant I had to have restaurant for those that chose to get out and drive in the icy cold all by myself.  My principal said they would come and help me (when she told me I wasn't getting any more kids) but we sent her home early since she lives in Midland so I didn't have any extra helpers.  I ended up serving  it home style where everyone had to come into the kitchen and serve themselves.  Home style worked since everyone that came were mostly friends and "family".   There were a few with reservations that did not show up, a few teachers that had reservations that we sent home early, since they don't live in Odessa and the roads were getting bad and a lot of extra people/teachers that didn't sign up, but didn't want to leave the building for lunch and wanted food.  We had only made enough to serve about 28 since I knew it was a last minute restaurant and I was late in letting anyone know we were even having a restaurant that week.  However, everything went wonderfully and a good friend even helped me wash some of the dishes before she left.   So, it went very well.   I got to go home early (only about an hour earlier than normal) and we didn't have school on Friday - ice, ice and more ice. 

On Monday, we had to scratch a couple of things off the menu for open house due to time constraints and added an easy item that my first year students could easily make.  Then Tuesday was open house, we call it Merry Mingle.  We had lots of great food, drinks and wonderful decorations and even though I took my camera, had my tablet and my phone all there, I didn't get one picture!  I usually take at least one and sometimes have my students walk through and take some just to get their perspective. Unfortunately I didn't do any of that this year.  We had a great turnout.  Lots of our usual  people came by and mingled with us and we had a lot of new people.  Fun was had by all.  It's hard work, but a lot of fun.   We had a bit of leftovers so the kids were really happy and they dug in on Wednesday (after cleaning up a bit).  Thursday we set up for a surprise birthday party for our director.  My kids hung decorations, set up tables, decorated tables and made the punch for the party.  They didn't get to participate, but we did have punch leftover so they were happy.  Now, this next week they have to get down to business and prepare for the final (either on Thursday or Friday)  It has been a fast and furious first semester and we are already having requests for caterings for next semester!!  So, that is looking like it will be another full semester, also.  Which is good.  It keeps everyone on their toes and makes it more fun. 

So, needless to say, I have been really tired when I get home from school, so not much sewing has been going on.  Last night I did put two labels on some quilts and did the binding on a miniature.  That feels good to get those finished.  Now I need to make the binding for about 5 quilts and put them on.  Then labels, and then deliver - finally - to the people that the quilts were made for to begin with.  I need to get moving on that, but yet here I sit typing on the computer.  LOL  I did finish one quilt top that I don't think I posted so I will post that now.  thanks to my students that held it up so I could get a good picture. 

 



This is the quilt top I worked on over the Thanksgiving holidays and is the example for the retreat quilt I will be teaching in February at our retreat.  It is a simple pattern called Disappearing 4 patch and comes courtesy of Jenny Doan of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  My mother had seen this pattern in a magazine and suggested it.  I had seen it on-line in a Youtube video from the Missouri Star and since I didn't have any other ideas and it is really simple so my newbies can do it AND since it can be done with charm packs (newbies don't have stashes) I decided that this would be the project.  I made mine a little different from the magazine/video.  I only had a bit of fabric that I was going to use for the background, so what I really needed to do was determine how many 5" squares I could get out of it and leave enough for a float border.  I decided to make 25 blocks (I could get 50 squares from the background fabric) so, I pulled 50 squares of prints from my box of pre-cut 5" squares.  It really comes in handy to have squares and strips already pre-cut when you are making scrappy quilts.  I think I have spoken before about my boxes I have put together full of my own stash pre-cuts.  After putting together my blocks and a float border I decided it need a really wide border (8 1/2") for some fun. Turns out, mine is 60" square while the original is only 52" X 60" with only a float border.  Hmmm. Not bad and I really like the red border.  I ordered some charm packs to make the original and will make up a few blocks from them and leave a few in progress so I can use them in the demonstration while teaching this quilt, but I really think I will order some yardage of that print fabric so I can put a border on it if I want.  Or I could order another set of charm packs (print/background) and make it much larger.  Hmmm.  Something to think about. 

I guess I should get going on something and quit typing around and playing games on here.  I plan on trying out a new recipe and need to make my cookies for our cookie exchange on Tuesday (might put it off and make them Monday night), but in order to do all of that I have to go to the grocery store.  I missed my usual time of 8:00 this morning.  I was up, but I was too busy snuggling with my dogs.    I don't really like to go when it is so busy, even though I see my friends there, so I am not sure if I will get out now and go.  However, this cake recipe (crème of coconut cake) that I got off the internet is calling my name.  I like to zoom in, zoom around the store and zoom out.  Not have to dodge carts that are being driven by children who don't have their cart licenses yet, by people that are texting and driving and by bored husbands that don't pay attention to where they are or think that we are all playing bumper carts.  Ugh I may have just talked myself into waiting until the morning to go shopping.  I think I will have some lunch and think about whether or not I want to bundle up and head out or take a nap and snuggle some more with my dogs.