Bloggers' Quilt Festival

It's the 11th hour (almost literally) and I'm joining the Bloggers' Quilt Festival organized by Amy of Park City Girl. I can't say this is my true favorite quilt, but it has to be one of my very top three. Or five.

The pattern is Cat's Cradle or Tennessee Puzzle, and I originally blogged about it here. After our mother died we found several tops in her house that our grandmother had pieced. Grandmother made quilts to keep her family warm, and all of the quilts that had been quilted had worn out! The tops were in pretty good condition. Mom had always intended to have them quilted, but never did. I had done a small amount of piecing at the time, and a stitch -and-flip-machine- pieced-and-quilted-at-the-same-time quilt but never hand-quilted. My sister took a couple of tops home and I took a couple, this one and a Bow Tie that I love. One day about 10 years later, I just decided to figure this hand-quilting thing out. I first quilted one of my sister's tops - a Sunbonnet Sue. Then I did this one. I was hooked.

Check out the almost 600 quilts in the festival. Amy promises to do another festival in October. I've never been in a "live" quilt show, but I'll bet lots of people who have been have never been in a virtual show!

A Garden Collage

Tomorrow's Menu

Cranberry-Orange Salad
Green Enchiladas
Pinto Beans
Mexican Rice
Mandarin Mousse

Ok, so it's not your basic ham and potato salad. The cranberry-orange salad I make for every holiday. I haven't made green enchiladas in years, but I've really been hankering for thems. If you are going to have green enchiladas, you must have rice and beans, right? And the mandarin mousse I can make nearly fat- and sugar-free, so that's a bonus.

The chicken for the enchiladas is boiling now and next I'm going to make the tomatillo sauce so I have less to do tomorrow.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Happy Easter, All!

Chester 1995-2009

We're saying good-bye to Chester tomorrow. He's been our friend, family member, pet and pet peeve (sometimes) for 12 years. For a long time I'll come in the back door at the end of a long day and wonder why he isn't running to meet me. I'll drop a French fry and no one will be there to grab it.

At the risk of getting all Marley and Me, I'll never forget how he...

...once got a little too close to a neighborhood skunk. The vet tried bathing him in tomato juice, but needed extra because he drank so much of it.

...with lightening speed, after watching my daughter open it once, moved across a room and in one motion opened the parakeet cage with his nose, snatched Jazzy from her perch and tore down the stairs with her in his mouth. Maybe tomorrow he'll be racing around heaven looking for her to play with, or maybe to apologize to.

...chewed through a chain link fence. So not kidding.

...snuck on the bed day after day after day, thinking I wouldn't notice or hoping I wouldn't care.

...stole sack lunches from the construction workers building the house across the field. Tin foil and corn husks (from the tamales) soon littered the yard.

...knew how to hug. Sitting close to him, you could say, "Give me a hug, Chessie," and he'd flop his head onto your chest and leave it there, now again lifting his head and making the kind of eye contact that says, I understand every word you're saying.

Which he didn't, of course, he was just a dog. But he did understand:

"Walk," and "Walk?"

"Leash"

"Go"

"Car"

"Cat"

"Do you want some food in your bowl?"

bu most of all, he understood

"Good dog!"