Working...working...

Just some of the new batch...

Profound gratitude

I've been privileged to know and love a lot of dogs and cats in my life. As with people in your life, you're closer to some than others, but I've always felt that dogs and cats have as much individual personality as any of the humans I've known. And then there are the extraordinary ones--the ones that you can't even use the word "pet" with. They're friends. And in Levi's case, a friend of the heart and soul. When I was happy, he was joyful. When I was unhappy or upset, he was inconsolable. (And would go to get other family members to come and "fix" whatever was wrong with me.) He would give me a kiss every night before we went to sleep. Sometimes four or five kisses. When I came back from six weeks of taking care of my dying father, he kissed me over ten times--lying down and then coming back for another and another. I'd missed him, too. He developed liver and pancreatic cancer this summer and we had to put him down on August 1st. Nobody has been more loving or loved, no matter what their species, though, and we all still miss him and talk to him all the time.

I've been working on Christmas presents, so didn't have time to make a postcard that was as good as Levi deserved, but I wanted to make sure that my gratitude for his life and his love was documented during this holiday. I'm thankful for so many things, but this year, Levi was at the top of my list.

Thank you, Levi. It was an honor to know you.

Woman-Heaven 2009

My friends, Susan and Linda, and I have had a tradition (for the past four or five years) of going to the quilt show in Spokane in October and then going somewhere for a short quilting retreat to sew and talk and laugh and eat. This year was the best one yet--so good that we've started calling it "Woman-Heaven". This year, as we did last year, we went to a vacation rental house on Newman Lake, northwest of Spokane. We did a lot of sewing, an incredible amount of laughing and we're all still recovering from the fabulous food.

The first thing I did this year was a postcard for a monthly postcard challenge on Vicki Welsh's fabulous website . The theme was "If I woke tomorrow with absolutely no obligations I would _______________". For me the obvious answer is reading. I can give up almost anything except reading.

If you can't read the quote, it's, "People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading."--Logan Persall Smith.

And here is what the lake looked like outside our window. There was mist or fog every morning when we woke up, but this just made it more beautiful.


Proof that we were doing what we set out to do. We need a bigger table.


And, oh my gosh, how can you beat mini-eclairs. We were all hooked. But we "balanced" it with grapes and guacamole. Yeah--"balance", that's it.


You can see how hard Linda's been working by the threads on her legs.

The weekend gets better (and, well...longer) every year. I couldn't have two better friends.

How Barb Got Her Groove Back

We had to put our wonderful puppy, Levi, down right after we got back from vacation. More than a pet, Levi was a member of the family and losing him really knocked me for a loop. On Sunday afternoon I realized that I needed to do something to start moving again. There's nothing that gets me kick-started like making something pretty. I don't know what I'll use these fabrics for, but they make me happy.

I'm back!