Paducah Day 3 & 4

Shopping, Sewing, Shopping & more Sewing! That's how I've spent the past few days. It has been a great trip. Although many of the vendors and classes got moved to different locations, Mom and I did not have any trouble getting around. AQS did a good job of providing buses so there were not as many cars on the roads as I had anticipated. Mom and I were able to drive to each venue and never had trouble finding parking. 
The quilts of course were beyond amazing..and I just loved being immersed in a learning/sewing environment for multiple days. For 4 days I thought of nothing but sewing...no bills, no feeding the dogs, no work..just fun and sewing.  But now I'm ready to go home. I can't wait to sew in my own studio and play with all the fun things I bought!

Put a Bird on It

As soon as I saw Joel Dewberry's bird pin cushion pattern on The Diy Dish, I knew I had to make it.
One change I made, was to put batting in the wings so that I could free motion quilt them. I also put a strip of easy fluff chenille on the wings. Cute Fuzziness!!  A girl in my sewing club suggested using marbles in the bottom to help the bird stand up.  It turned out to be a great tip.
  Over all the pattern was easy to follow and fast to sew. And you can never have too many birds.

Paducah Day 2

Today Mom and  I walked around historic downtown Paducah. The architecture is soo pretty. We went into many cute shops, and saw some fun things.

I'm fascinated by the flood gates that have been put up. The water is very high, but still pretty.

I can see the appeal of being on the river, especially since all we have in WI right now are gray sky's and barren trees.  This town is very pretty, filled with history and warmth. I'm enjoying my stay and looking forward to doing more exploring. Each day is a new adventure.

Paducah Quilt show - day 1

Day one of the AQS quilt show in Paducah, KY was a blast. The weather was rainy, but the river behaved and did not flood the city. The show was moved around to new locations with in Paducah because of the water issues, but that did not stop anyone from having a good time.  The highlights of my day today were as follows:

I met Quilt Man.

 

I met Ricky Tims.

I saw amazing quilts with georgous stitching.

         (I only hope my free motion quilting is 1/2 as fabulous some day.)

Can't wait to see what Day 2 brings! 

Road Trip

Mom and I made it down here to Paducah, KY for the AQS quilt show. The drive down was mostly filled with farm field, after farm field. But here's a list of interesting things we did see along the way:
*34 UPS trucks
*74 FedEx trucks
*61 JB Hunt trucks
(yes we play a game counting the semi's. I had UPS and lost the game)
*1 stopped train
*1 prison
*two sheep
*A few windmills
*2 random carnival rides
*I gigantic multi story crucifix
*1 huge Abe Lincoln statue
Next up...lots of shopping and quilts!!

Spiders

I hate Spiders. Let's just leave it at that. So naturally my mother started mailing me an annual spider on Halloween. Some were cute and filled with candy. Some were not. I hate spiders.
 Slowly this Halloween prank morphed into a 'spiders can appear at any time' game. And I started fighting back.

We went on vacation together. I left sequined spiders in her make up bag.

She put a giant fuzzy spider with glowing eyes inside my dark closet.

I mailed her a spider book for Christmas.  You get the point.

As I type this, Mom is on a plane on her way out to visit me. On Tuesday we are headed off to the AQS show in Paducah, KY. So of course I had to make a spider for her pillow. I thought a zipper spider was appropriate since we are going to a Quilt show and all.

Adopted!!!!!!

For the past five months my husband and I have fostered a 3 year old boxer dog named Scooby.

     A little background info on Scooby Doo, he has pancrentitis and his owner was an older man who could no longer care for him. Scooby was surrendered to his vet..who in-turn contacted Green Acres Boxer Rescue to see if they could take him in. We volunteer with Green Acres and that's how Scooby came to live with us.

We picked him up in early November...intending on giving him a good home until we could find his happy-forever home. What we did not expect was that instantly our oldest dog George would not like Scooby. They fought and George ended up with 15 stitches.  Scooby and Cali (our other dog) got along great...over time she taught him how to play with other dogs...and the two of them had many play dates in the backyard, without George.

We had to gate Scooby into our kitchen so that he and George would not fight. This meant separate potty breaks...separate play times..and a challenge to get everyone into bed at night.

It was a long 5 months.

George became stressed out, and extremely grumpy. He started fighting with Cali. He was afraid to walk past the kitchen where Scooby was gated in.

It was a long 5 months.

My husband and I did a lot of soul searching and while we really wanted to help Scooby we felt that we needed to put our own two dogs first. With tears in my eyes, I asked the rescue group to place Scooby in a new foster home. Unfortunately as often is the case..the rescue group just didn't have enough foster homes...all the home were filled.

We faced each day as it came, doing the best we could to keep Scooby and George apart. DH took George on many car trips. I think this time alone with DH helped to assure George that he was not being replaced and is very much loved.

I brought Scooby downstairs with me into my sewing studio every time I went down there, and that gave our two dogs time to play together without the stress of Scooby hanging over them.

It was a long 5 months.

Eventually I learned a few things:
#1. Even if the dogs had gotten along, I don't think I can handle three dogs. DH travels a lot and I often struggled when he was away. I've let go of my dream of owning one boxer of every color simultaneously. (Boxers are usually white, fawn or Brindle and I've never had a brindle one).

#2. Dogs really do just want too love you and be loved in return. It's easy for me to see this with my dogs...they are mine. They sleep in our bed, they are well fed, warm, happy and super spoiled. It was another thing however to see it in Scooby who spent most of his time gated into my kitchen, and was not allowed to sleep in our bed. Every chance he got, he snuggled with us. He followed us around and was never mad at us when we had to gate him into the kitchen away from our dogs. He simply nestled down into his doggy bed and waited for the next time he could have attention.

#3. As challenging as this was...as soon as his new family met him and those kids smiled, I was instantly filled with a new happiness. I was making a difference. Scooby is a perfect fit with that family. I realized that I'm definitely where I'm supposed to be. It'll probably be a while before we foster again (George needs a break), but we will foster again. I want to keep helping to make a difference in the lives of these dogs.

This past Sat we placed Scooby in his forever home. And it was such a great feeling, I can't put it into words. This is what it's all about. Those children will always remember their first dog...they will have so many fantastic adventures together. Scooby now has a happy life, surrounded by lots and lots of love.  And I had a part in that.

For more info about Green Acres Boxer Rescue please visit: www.gabr-wi.com