This quilt is finished even though the owner gave me permission to not quilt it if I had other priorities. I decided to go ahead and quilt it to call an end to the 2010 quilting schedule. Now I'm all set to do the end of year paperwork with an empty slate for 2011.
It's a dog theme quilt so I did paw prints on the outside border. I did a swag design on the inside border to jazz it up a bit.
I did dog biscuits on the setting triangles.
This person prefers minimal quilting on her quilts. I did line dancing on the pieces and simple outline around the dogs of the solid squares. I can always add more quilting but it's very hard to take away quilting if it's too much.
December 2nd would have been my son Derek's 47th birthday. He committed suicide when he was 40. I spent a good deal of time thinking of him on his day.
I mentioned that I had mice (or maybe rats) in my house. Living in a poorer section of the city means we get these critters regularly. Every time there is a house torn down or set on fire the rats scatter to near by homes. It always creeps me out! It makes me feel like my house is filthy. Also, lately I've been feeling like I'm a borderline hoarder. Yes, as pointed out to me, I am a collector not a hoarder. But I still feel as if my collecting could get totally out of control if I don't do something about it.
I'm also a clean cook. I scrub and clean my kitchen counters every weekend. I scrub and clean before I start cooking or preparing foods to be eaten the coming week. Well, the past weekend as I started cleaning I found this behind the stuff on my kitchen counter. Yikes!! Double yikes!!
This set me into a panic big time. Immediately I felt dirty. My house felt dirty. Everything in sight felt dirty, including my quilting and craft stuff. Right away I got out my cleaning supply stash and started scrubbing. First with bleach, a second time with peroxide, and twice more with disinfectant soap. I scrubbed cabinets, appliances, dishes, pot & pans, silverware, counters, floors..... everything in the kitchen except the refrigerator. I'm going to clean it today. I'm tired of take out foods.
The kitchen still feels dirty even though I know it's not. I went through a whole bottle of bleach, peroxide, and soap on the kitchen alone. This weekend and in the next couple of weeks I'll be cleaning the studio, the bathroom, and everything else I can get done. I hope all the mice (or rats) are dead. I'll know their not if I find anymore traces left behind.
Thankfully, my foods were in glass jars. The jars got a good scrubbing and nothing will be stored on the counters anymore. If there's nothing on the counter then the varmints can't hide there. Inside the cabinets is a different matter. The counter is where I prepare foods. I want to know it's absolutely clean before I ever do any food preparation.
Well now that I've let you know the dirty side of my life, I'm also starting to work on the 6 charity quilts I want to finish by the 12th.
4 comments:
Anita-- have you considered borrowing a cat from a neighbor? There are cats who get along fine with small dogs. My cat Katie (who passed away) used to kill rats and mice for the whole neighborhood.
I don't know anyone who owns a cat and the neighborhood feral cats have disappeared. I think maybe the roaming pit bull dogs have either killed all the cats or the cats moved to safer places.
I remembered an old time remedy my Grandmother used to get rid of mice and rats. Peppermint. I'm giving that a try. I wrote about it on my hints blog this morning.
Loved the dog quilt. I've been wanting to make one for a long time and I have been collecting dog related fabric for years. I have enough dog fabric to make several now! Peppermint is an excellent idea, never heard of it before. Safe and smells good especially this time of year. A cat is a good idea, too, but I never liked to see what they did to the mice once they caught them. ewww Just borrow the cat. I had a few, loved them all, but didn't like the cat hair all over even though I tried to keep them out of my sewing room. N
That's sad about the stray dogs killing the cats-- no wonder you're overrun with mice. I wonder if animal control could do anything about it?
You could also try borrowing a jack russel terrier-- my daughter has one, and this dog can catch anything. They were bred to keep the rats and mice out of the horse barns.
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