Dog Bed 9

My goal of getting a photograph of the receipient dog on the dog bed every time I give one away seems to be impossible to fulfil. I have been holding back pictures of dog beds I gave away several months ago, hoping finally to get the pictures so I could post them with the beds, but have decided to give up. If I ever do get the pictures, I can always post them then.

After all, the important things are that the dogs got their beds and that I recycled the fabric scraps; right?
This dog bed, number 9, went to my very dear friends Denise and Kenneth Thomas, and their dogs Spanky and Katie. Denise and Kenneth are salt of the earth people who are probably the hardest working people I have ever known. Kenneth is the farm manager of Bright Farms, where I live and where Steve grew up. He has worked on this farm since he was a boy. He worked for many years with Steve's father, and when Bob got sick and eventually died, Kenneth took over the operation and has continued to run and take care of the farm. We could not do it without him. Not only does he take care of the farm but he takes care of all of us, all of our homes and everything that needs taking care of. There is nothing he does not know and nothing he cannot fix.

His wonderful wife, Denise, whom he met and married here on the farm, is equally capable. Though she is not a farmer, they do a lot of repair and yard work together, and she has worked for people in the family for many years as well. She was particularly essential in the many years of caring for Bob when he was declining and she stepped right in again when Steve's mother broke her hip a few weeks ago.

Whenever I leave town, they care for my old dog Jesse. He loves to go to their house and is probably more spoiled there than he is at home. He absolutely gets the royal treatment and it is such a treat to me as it could otherwise be hard to leave an old dog to run off to quilt retreats or for several weeks in Denmark. But I know he could not be in better hands with Kenneth and Denise.

Dog Bed 11

This dog bed, number 11, the biggest one yet, went to my friend Cheri Carbone, Danville and Boyle County's dog trainer extraordinaire! I have been so fortunate to get to know Cheri over the past year and have learned so much from her.

Cheri does all things dog here locally, and it is a treat just to watch her around dogs. She is not only extremely knowledgeable and experienced, but she is truly a natural. She makes it all look so easy. The dogs just want to do the right thing around her.
Over the past year, I have been working as a volunteer with the Danville Boyle County Humane Society's Mutts with Manners program, at Northpoint Training Center a local medium security prison, where dogs are trained by prisoners. It is a wonderful and greatly successful program due, in large degree to Cheri's efforts.

We take five dogs at any given time, selected by Cheri from among those scheduled for euthanization. These dogs stay at the prison with the handlers, two to each dog, in the dormitory where all the handlers and dogs live together. The prisoners who work with the dogs are selected by the prison administration. The dogs remain at the prison with their handlers until they are fully trained and ready for adoption, usually 5 to 7 weeks. During that time, the handlers work and live with them full time, socializing them, teaching them basic obedience and often some tricks as well. By the time the dogs leave they have passed their Canine Good Citizen tests, and the dogs who were on death's door step are as attractive and adoptable as the best shelter dogs ever.

It is wonderful for the prisoners, who have something meaningful and practical to do, and it is amazing to see how every single one of those dogs who would have been put down becomes a wonderful, well-behaved, lovable pet. There is not a single one of them I would not love to live with.

Cheri also owns, trains, and boards dogs at her house, so I gave her this dog bed to use for all the dogs who are at her home.

Sweat Shirt Jacket

Way back when I was in high school I bought a sewing machine and actually made a few pieces of clothing for myself, and when I first started quilting and again got a sewing machine, I also made a few loose pairs of pants and some really easy tops and dresses. But since I've really gotten into quilting, it's been as if I don't really want to do anything else. Occasionally, I'll see something, like a tote bag, a jacket, or some other little thing which seems really cute and easy, and I'll be tempted to make it.

I know I can do it, but invariably, I'll get half way through and then have the hardest time finishing it. I just don't have the interest or drive to finish it the way I do with a quilt, and it'll end up hanging over my head like a dark cloud of guilt, sometimes for years, before I finally MAKE myself either finish it or give it away to somebody else who will.

And so it was with this little sweat shirt jacket. Years ago, I saw and bought a pattern for making these jackets. I thought they were really cute and they looked so easy to make, so I immediately bought sweat shirts to make one for each of my four nieces and nephews in Denmark.

At that point, my now almost 13 year old niece, Anna, was probably about 7-8 years old, and I started out making a jacket for her because the red fabric I had was at the time her favorite color. But, I only got about half way and then got stuck, lost interest, and the project was put away. Over the years it nagged at me and I occasionally looked at it, thought that I REALLY ought to get back to it, finally gave the other sweat shirts to children who could use them etc.

But it was only now - inspired by two years of Michelle's Closer Club - that I finally made myself finish it.

While it was much too late to give it to Anna, she had long out-grown both the size and the style, it happened to be a perfect fit for my Little Sister, Marisela! So perhaps this time, my procrastination wasn't such a bad thing after all?

Small Change

I had some fabric left over from the quilt I made for Lauren and Michael as a wedding present, see http://zebraquilter.blogspot.com/2008/10/excotic-honeymoon.html, so when they had a baby, I thought I would be fun to use that for the baby quilt. I used a different pattern so the quilt looks very different.

I hand pieced the top, and quilted it on my own machine, which I managed because it wasn't that big. The name of the quilt refers not to my guess that Maya would only bring a small amount of change to the lives of her parents - in fact, though she was small and cute (see photo below!), I know for a fact their lives will never be the same and that she is probably the biggest thing ever to have happened in their lives. Rather, the pattern used in the quilt is a variation of the Chinese Coins pattern, and the name derives there-from. Since nothing else related to the quilt is Chinese, I thought it would only be confusing to leave that in the name.

I hand delivered the quilt on a visit to Atlanta when Maya was about a month old, so I got to hold her and get a picture of her on the quilt - one of my favorite things! She looks pretty good on it, and as it is folded, it clearly is big enough for to grow a bit!

Kitties

I have to admit that every now and again I get just a bit tired of making baby quilts. Of course, I have loved making them for my nieces and nephews and for children of close friends. But, especially since moving to Kentucky, it's been a little harder to continue to be equally excited about making baby quilts for all the friends in Atlanta who are having babies when I'm so far away, not at all present for the pregnancy and often don't even get to meet the baby after its born.

I often joke that at my age, and since I didn't have any children of my own, it doesn't seem like I should know that many people who were having babies! But, of course, I'm quite happy to know and have friends who are younger than I am, and I am glad and reassured that the bright, creative, and loving young people Steve and I know are among those who are choosing to contribute to the next generation!

In this case, however, the parents aren't exactly youngsters. Baby Lila's father, Rob McDuff, is a long time friend of both Steve and myself, and an old-timer in the poverty law business in the deep South, who just happened to be very late in finding the love og his life, Emily, and in becoming a father!

It was such surprising and happy news that I was excited to make a quilt for this baby, even though she lives in Jackson, MS, and/or New Orleans, LA, and I have no idea whether I'll ever meet her.