Poor Artie

We returned home yesterday from 4 very relaxing days in the Lincoln/Omaha area.  Unfortunately, we knew something was amiss when we opened our garage door to the sight of broken glass.  Here's our tale.

The night before we left, we heard a loud noise in the garage.  We looked at each other and commented that something must have fallen.  Don't think we even bothered to open the door to investigate.  The next morning at 4:00 a.m. my husband heard another loud noise coming from the garage.  He opened the door between the kitchen and garage, turned on the light, and saw something scurry under the car.  He opened the garage door to let "it" out.

We left at 6:00 and "it" was the topic of conversation for most of the day.  Was "it" a opossum?

Sorry to all those opossum fans out there.  I couldn't find a public domain photo of a cute little opossum!

Or was "it" an armadillo?

I know it probably looks odd to see one right side up since they are commonly seen right side down along the side of the street.

Or was "it" a bunny rabbit?

By mid-morning, I'd convinced myself it was an armadillo..........oh.......and we'd named him Artie.  We thought about him a few times during the week but had other things to think about.

Flash forward to our arrival.  There sitting by the rear tire of the car was ------- a bunny rabbit.  Poor little bunny must have been so frightened and thirsty.  He ran from side to side under the car, not wanting to leave the garage.  Hubby unknowingly left the door to the kitchen ajar as he went in the house to get the car keys.  So here I am trying to coax Artie out while not stepping on broken glass and fabric he'd managed to find and wanting to make everything OK. 

Somehow I lost sight of Artie and by now realized the kitchen door was ajar.  My first thought was that he'd slipped in the house.  Oh my goodness!  So many wonderful hiding places in a fabricaholic's home! 

I spent the remainder of yesterday looking under the vehicles thinking I'd spot Artie.  Every time something rustled in the house, I jumped to investigate.  Hubby came home with a terribly sore throat and runny nose so between caring for him and worrying about Artie's condition, I was worn out. 

I haven't seen any sign of Artie today and expect (hope, hope, hope) he is fine.  It rained yesterday so any grass he ate should have been nice and wet so he's probably rehydrated and feeling much better. 

We have to call the garage door people this week.  Artie was so desperate to escape he chewed a good portion of the rubber seal.  The glass jar he broke was on a shelf 5' off the ground.  Poor little guy must have been beside himself with fear when the jar shattered. 

So.  Moral of this story, if you hear a sound in the garage you'd better investigate thoroughly.  Mom suggested I keep a pan of food and water in the garage every time we leave for a few days.  I may just have to do that!

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving

We decided to do something a bit different for Thanksgiving this year. We loaded the car and headed north. Yes north. Everyone who knows my husband knows he hates cold weather ..... but he loves me more so indulged me when I mentioned I'd like to go to the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

The Elegant Geometry exhibit closes Jan 8. If you haven't been and can squeeze a trip to see it in your schedule, you will be glad you did. Yvonne Wells also has an exhibit of some of her works. The current issue of Quiltmania magazine also has an interesting article about her. 

The center has a catalog of the exhibit. Santa is bringing me a copy. 

This quilt was amazing. All those tiny pieces!  The center allows non-flash photography in all their galleries. 

 

After the exhibit we drove to Omaha and spent several days there. We are both retired from the Air Force and enjoyed staying on the base. Did some shopping. Santa is also bringing me some running shoes. Hubby doesn't know Santa shopped for him this afternoon. 

The Just Cross Stitch Christmas in Williamsburg seminar begins soon. If you're going, have a great time. I have very happy memories of the times I attended. 

Fun and quick wool project

In between working on some "secret" projects, I put together this wool pumpkin.  Wool is attached to a cotton base and then embellished with crazy quilt stitches.  The nice thing about the stitches is how perfect they look.  No!  I'm not a perfect stitcher - the pattern includes pre-printed transfer ease.  How fun is that?! 

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is next week.  How about you?  Does it seem like it was Thanksgiving just a few months ago? 

Back to the salt mines.....errrr......sewing machine.

Christmas came early

Actually, Christmas and Thanksgiving and every other reason you can think of to be thankful came.  Mom and I heard the words her oncologist doesn't get to say very often: "You are cancer free."  I expected she would be scheduled for 3 month follow ups (6 at the best) but was very pleased when he said we will see you in a year.  It's been a year since her ordeal began and now has officially ended.  We were always close but this has brought us closer. 

I'm not sure why the fall makes me want to cross stitch but it does.  I was looking at old posts and ran across the post where I had high hopes of finishing this by Halloween 2010 (last time I checked I am still working on it and Halloween 2011 has passed!).  Uh oh!

I did stitch (and finish!) this little piece by Shepherd's Bush.  It was a fun piece to stitch and really easy to finish. 

Just had to share the good news.  Back to sewing!