Update on our Beloved Mrs. Gray

 

Those of you who have been with WIFCaP from the beginning in 2011 and most of the following years of our TNR journey, know and love Mrs. Gray.

She is the heart of the organization.  She and her little family of five were the ones that spurred me to dive into TNR and begin a quest to help community cats.

Pictures and stories of her and her sweet son, "Z" graced our Facebook page nearly every day for years.  They along with Mr. Nelson were key to our engagement with our donors and supporters.  

In 2016 when it I had retired from WIFCaP and began spending winters in Texas, it was impossible for the cats to stay on my porch.   We were so happy when we found placement for Mrs. Gray and in turn, "Z"

Fans of the kitties inspired me to write a little book about Mrs. Grays life and so I did.  At the end of the story,  Mrs, Gray says: "So if a fairy tale is learning about love, caring, nurture and trust, then my life is a fairy tale, and for me, my life is a 'happily ever after' tale."

I wish that was the end of her story and that happily ever after was in fact the case. My hope for her was that she would grow old wrapped in a little circle of gray fur, with sweet dreams of the red porch swing and bringing me an occasional mouse as a gift.

Her story has taken an unforeseen turn.  The family that took her in, in reality was not adopting her.  They were hoping we would find permanent placement for her.  I don't know how everything regarding that played out, in the form of agreements or plans, as I was no longer working with WIFCaP and not kept in the loop.  I had several chances to visit Mrs. Gray and she seemed happy.  It is a busy household with small grandchildren present and other foster animals.  This is not something Mrs. Gray was used to, but things seemed fine.

In April of this year, I was contacted by a supporter asking how Mrs. Gray was doing.   I asked and was informed that Mrs. Gray was no longer at April's.   They had begun to allow her to go outside and one day, she didn't come back.  The plan was to keep an eye out for her and once she presented herself, WIFCaP would take her in and find new placement for her.  She has not been seen since late January.  

I held on to hope that I would get a message that Mrs. Gray had returned. But when two days ago, another faithful supporter asked how she was doing.  I feel it time to let her followers and fans know what is happening with her.

WIFCaP's response to the question on Facebook: "As far as we know, Mrs. Gray has moved to a different colony in April's neighborhood. The neighborhood has many generous feral cat feeders.  The last time April saw her, she was fat and happy and her normal confident self.  April has an eye out for her and when we see her again, we have plans to place her in a different home."

I can't really even put into words how I feel about this.   We don't know where she is.  We don't know if she is alive or dead.  Is she being fed?  In a few short months its winter again and she again will be outside on her own.  Maybe someone took her in?  So many questions.

I am sad and angry that this happened and there is nothing we can do.  

I know rescues do the best they can for each and every animal they oversee.  And when things happen that don't go the way they should, I always hope that note is taken, and new policies are put in place to prevent the same thing from happening again. Let's hope that has happened in this case.  

WIFCaP has done a wonderful job with TNR but I feel like we failed Mrs. Gray.  I take some of the blame for not keeping closer track of her.  In my attempt to step back and allow Lois the freedom to run WIFCaP her way, I neglected Mrs. Gray and for that, I feel guilt.  I own it and I ask God to forgive me. 

My final words on this:

My sweet dear Mrs. Gray,

I am so sorry!  My prayer is that you are fat and sassy, sleeping on someone else's front porch or better yet, inside on an overstuffed chair with a blankie all your own.   I hope somehow you know how much I love you and that you know there are hundreds of others that love you too.   I watched you rear your children all alone in a dank and dark basement of an abandoned house.  I saw the fear in your eyes when we first met and watched those green eyes soften as you grew to trust and know that I would not hurt you. I promised to take care of you, and I failed.  Please forgive me.  Wait for me at 

The Bridge, if that's where you are.   You'll know my voice and you will see my tears of joy. I will know you by your velvet green eyes and your stubby little tail. What a happy reunion that will be.  I just know there is a red swing there waiting for us to sit, share space and reminisce.  And if by some miracle, you are alive and we find you, I WILL make sure you have a home.

Wildflowers and Wild Ideas



Perhaps one of my very favorite things to do is to drive through the TX Hill Country in the spring and see the Bluebonnets and other wildflowers specific to this area. I took a short trip up there last week with 3 friends. Quilt shop hopping was the goal, but I was not so secret in really wanting to see the flowers. Good memories for me, as many visits to see my parents in the San Antonio area included a drive through the countryside to view these beauties.

Another goal was NOT to buy fabric, but I failed in that one. I picked up some fun fabs for next year's challenge quilt. but pretty much kept a handle on buying stash fabric. 

I did, however, gain about a thousand new ideas.

One from my friend, Jenny is this most beautiful Lucy Boston Quilt Block.(photo taken from pinterest) All hand pieced in the English Paper Pieced Method, right up my alley. I'm already pulling fun fabrics from my stash and my eyes are open to more! This one goes on the back burner until I get a little tutoring from Jenny. Stay tuned. 



I continue to try to stay focused and get a couple of my lap quilts enlarged to twin size so I can offer them to Sleep in Heavenly Peace before I start anything really new.  This one is finished except for quilting and binding. I think Dave approves.

This green crumb quilt was completed in Omaha before I came down, but now I want to enlarge to twin.  Instead of taking all the borders off (mainly bc I don't have any more of this green background fabric), I decided to make stripy borders and add those. I'm finding that making these fun and scrapy borders is using a lot of my strips from my 27 pound bin of strips. And that's a good thing. :) Stay tuned for final look. 

How's the Weather? Temperature Quilt

 I'm just going to go ahead and say it ...scrap quilting feeds my personality!  I was tempted to say "disorder", but I think it's more my creative personality, not a disease or addiction.   I don't know about you, but I have about 5 projects going at once and then another few enter the brain, and I can't stand it until I at least put a few pieces of fabric together to test it out.   

This is a Temperature Quilt idea that I decided to start on my birthday, February 26th. Take a look at Pinterest and do a search on them and you will see all kinds of ideas.

I'm using the very simple exploding square method, so each day only take 2 - 3" squares of fabric.

 There will be a block a day for a year.  Each little block signifies the high temp and the low temp for the day.  Because I live in two places, I'm making 2 quilts.  The little blocks are 3 1/2" each so the little quilts should end up a good lap size.  It will be fun to see the difference between Omaha NE and Mercedes TX.  

I'm always on the lookout for a good use of the mountain of scraps I have in both my sewing rooms. 

I'm currently on Day 14 of my year's journey making these tops.  I am making it a habit to make both little blocks first when visiting my sewing shed each morning.  They are quick and easy.  Each row will be 18 blocks wide and there will be 20 rows.  That leaves 5 left over.  Liks the example on the web, I've decided to use the five extra blocks on the back with the label and the color chart.  I will reserve Easter, Jeff's wedding day (June 3) Thanksgiving, Christmas and News years Day for the five on the back.  Special days for sure!

Here are the first 12 days for each row.  Omaha is top row; Texas is bottom row.  I'm so excited!

Take Me to Africa, Please!

 

Well, a year and a half later, this baby is done.   I had such fun designing this and putting all the pieces together.  The vast majority of the fabrics are authentic African prints.  The black accent, the background, backing and binding is not, but the colors are all African except for maybe 2.  I even found a skirt at the thrift store with a wonderful print from Africa!

It was, however, a journey.  After designing and piecing, I decided to 'big stitch' quilt it.  The piece lived in my living room in Omaha on a card table all summer of 2022 and I stitched along with reruns of Law and Order, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

This fun quilt took a 1st Place Award at our 2023 Quilt Show at Llano Grande Park for "Pieced and Hand Quilted by One Person. 

Did I mention I will be redecorating my Omaha bedroom when we get back? 

PS: The kitty anointing my work is Calypso, a foster kitty from S.O.L.A.S.  I had her for about 2 months last summer.  She was found stray, skinny and an injury to her eye, among a managed colony in Council Bluffs.  I got her fattened up, medically treated (eye was removed) and of course, spayed.  She found her forever home and is now living the sweet life she deserves. 

When You Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

Triangle blocks complete...now to fill in the open areas!

In only two weeks we will be packing up for our journey to our winter home in the Rio Grande Valley of TX.  An entirely different lifestyle and routine.  We are eager and ready.  

This summer has been peaceful and quiet and I've been able to focus on my goal to complete many unfinished projects, use up some scraps and make some fun quilts for charity..

My plan for the last several weeks still in Omaha was to relax, organize my sewing room, and prepare for leaving.  But, as is usually  the case for me, I got distracted, sidetracked, unfocused....(who me?)   

My good friend Pam (did you say Pan??")  and I have been drooling over African Print Fabric and over the last year I've collected a nice little pile of unique and colorful designs from there.  We had seen a very simple shadow box type quilt made with them at a quilt shop in Lincoln, NE.  So clean and nice. Not only a wonderful way to display these awesome fabrics but a quick and easy way to do it.  We found just the right background fabric at "Around the Spool" quilt shop in Louisville NE.   I bought it, and also the black for the shadows and then promptly got stuck in the mud.   I just wasn't thrilled with the shadow box look.  Clean and nice, but maybe too simple?  So my pile was relegated to the corner and there it sat, waiting to be elevated once again. 

How the triangle blocks will look on the background fabric

Thanks to Pinterest, I saw a method of piecing that I liked and somehow on the web of live links and clicks I got to Craftsy.com and found a tutorial on how to make inset isosceles triangle blocks.  I had to go so far as paying to join ($4 special for the year, woot!)  An awesome way to show off these prints...a simple pattern using only seven triangles of different sizes.    I made the blocks...but wait, 7 is not enough to make a quilt of a size I could really use.  This one will not be donated.  So I made 11.  Still not big enough.   The remainder of my African stash did not include pieces large enough to make additional triangle blocks nor did I have enough background fabric to do so.  My head was now spinning with ideas to make alternate blocks and inserts to make it all fit together by using what I had on hand.  

So I got out my graph paper, grabbed more coffee, lit a candle and away I went...for two days! I've now created 15 different panels and inserts to make my African quilt large enough for my king sized bed.  I still haven't figured out if I need a border. Most of the fun comes from figuring it all out as you go along.

Graph paper, pens  and (thank God) an eraser!

I don't think I will finish by the time we are ready to leave but I'm going to work on it!   I sit here at my laptop wondering why I couldn't have left well enough alone and make the simple quick and beautiful quilt as the pattern taught.  I could have enlarged this quilt top by adding plain background blocks, but how fun would that have been?  I could have decided to design one insert panel and use the same for each space, but would that be boring?    My heart is singing with excitement to get started on my designs.  I'll start with the one with the largest pieces and then I will use the smaller pieces to make the more detailed ones.

Time to get started!!!

Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted!  

Masks on Parade

 Covid19.   It's been around for nearly two years now and not going anywhere fast.   We are now facing a 3rd booster shot and new vaccines coming out every day.   Up until recently Ive had few friends and family experience this virus.  Today I know six people that have it.  Some are vaccinated and some are not.  They are sick. 

In the thick of the lockdown last spring and summer, my sister Kris and I jumped in with a group in Omaha making masks for local organizations, companies, hospitals etc.  I made over 2000 masks last summer.  I greatly reduced my stash, which was a welcome relief.   The act of sewing masks was also a welcome relief from the stress of the lockdown and lack of social interaction.  

I had scraps left over.  Last winter, at the end of January I came home from TX for an emergency visit to help my dear neighbor when she lost her husband, tragically to suicide.  My one week visit turned to 3 weeks due to weather, both here and in TX.  First extended long freeze in TX in over 100 years,  knocked out the electricity, froze all water sources and cancelled flights.  In Omaha it was  certainly cold outside and snowy, but my house was warm and my sewing machine plugged in.  :)   So, I sewed.   I took out the mask scraps and began this little quilt.

This summer I was able to finish the top.     On to the quilt machine with this one!  

The Sweetest Sewing Buddy

 Lucy is my sweet kitty who has been with me now for over 14 years.   She is the best cat ever.   She has lived with up to 3 other cats and now that she is the solo feline in the house, she is flourishing.   She enjoys being an only cat and is in every definition "catty".   

She is as passionate about quilting as I am.

I hope you will indulge me when I share an occasional pic of her amidst my projects!

**Please note:  When I made this post, I neglected to note that Lucy was ill.   She had a tumor in her nasal cavity, and she was having increased difficulty breathing, eating, swallowing.  Our vet prescribed a steroid injection that seemed to help for a little while.  She got worse and sadly on September 25, 2021, I held her as she gently crossed the rainbow bridge.   To say I miss her would be an understatement.  This sweet little soul has been my friend for a very long time.  She is the last of a string of kitties that occupied my life and my heart for 15 years.  My house is empty without a cat...but I'm not ready.  Lucy still takes up too much room in my heart.