Quilt Expo is Coming Soon!

You can register for the classes and lectures that will be held at Quilt Expo in Madison, WI, September 11-13 online by clicking on the link below:
http://www.wiquiltexpo.com/
If you want to take my rust dyeing class on Saturday from 1-4, sign up for class # Q09HPA-S, cost is $55.

If you don't want to get your hands dirty sign up for the Power Point Presentation, Thursday September 10, 2009, 10:00 am Class # Q09BH-T or Friday September 11, 2009, 10:00 am class # Q09BH-F, cost is $10.
If you are just not that into rust dyeing there are 144 lectures, 24 hands on workshops and 36 sit and sew classes to choose from. So be sure to check it out and sign up for something that you will enjoy!

The picture of the day is the trees fabric because that is the kind of fabric we make in the class. I also demo 4 other techniques.

Batavia, IL

I will be vending at the Quilt and Textile Show in Batavia, IL this week-end. Actually the show starts Friday at 1pm. I will again bring my quilt, Ground Zero. If you have only seen this quilt on the internet and you live in the Chicagoland area. This is your chance to see it in the cloth.

(Which is soooo much better.) The picture of the day is from 2007 when my quilt, Ground Zero, was first displayed there.

Here is the link to the Batavia Quilt Show, so you can print the $1 off admission coupon:

http://bataviaquiltshow.com/

Sound Bites

Yesterday I was cleaning up the chinchilla cage to move the now vacated cage, to the garage, as I vacuumed the rug I realized I would never hear that noise again. After 15 years of vacuuming up little hard chinchilla poops, I got used to hearing the plinking noise as they ran up the vacuum hose. I will hear it again this winter as it is the same noise made by vacuuming rock salt from the rugs in the winter. It will make me remember the happy times when the girls all lived here and the house was filled with laughter and the call of, "Chinchilla on the floor".

Chinchilla's are great escape artists. And Willy was always trying to make a break for it. It usually took all five of us to catch him!!!

Winter will bring another great chinchilla memory to me. Every year at Christmas time we put them in the Christmas tree before we decorated it. The picture of the day is Gigi 2006 Christmas portrait.

Thursday was a Sad Day

On Thursday we had to have our 15 year old chinchilla put to sleep. We had two chinchillas. They we born in the same year. Gigi came to live with us two years after Willy.

They are immortalized in the center block of "Our Pets" a wool wall hanging that will hang in our dining room, whenever I get it finished. That is Willy on the Left and Gigi on the right.

Another reason I have not had time for rust-dyeing is I have been feeding her for the past three weeks with a syringe, 3-4 times a day 20-30 minutes a time. On Wednesday she was having trouble swallowing. She had a massive growth just below the jaw. The vet said they are finding that many chinchillas in captivity are succumbing to jaw problems. Willy died 4 years ago from an infected abscess in his jaw.

The vet said Gigi and Willy will be together again in the great dust bath in the sky. If you have never seen a chinchilla take a dust bath, you are missing out on one the joys of having a chinchilla. Click here to watch a 25 second one of a chinchilla that looks a lot like Gigi and is the same kind of bath house we had...sigh...

No Rust Dyeing This Week!

Our Middle Daughter will be home for the summer. She said she would like to repaint what we always called the "girl's bedroom". I said, "Great, I will have it drywalled." Since this project started, last Monday, I have not been able to do ANY rust dyeing...sigh...

This shot shows the yucky green color and the cracked plaster the girls lived with since we moved into the house 22 years ago.
Here is that same wall after the plaster was removed. It shows the old electric wiring. The cable on the left is a network cable that comes up from the basement next to the heat vent.

Here is the new electric. DH added 3 outlets and put the network cable and a phone land line in a box. In this picture you can see the network cable is still loose and laying in the heat vent. Here are the two young guys who hung the drywall. They were moving soooo fast I could only catch them as a blur with my camera.

Here is the same wall as the first picture with the dry wall hung and the first coat of mud waiting to dry.

I only wish I could have afforded to do this before our three daughter's left the nest.