Month: December 2018

Turkey Tracks: AC’s Cold Sunday

Turkey Tracks:  December 18, 2018

AC’s Cold Sunday

AC Slater is 9 months old this month, and I’ve had him since September 1st.  In 3 1/2 months he has come a long way in terms of training, growing bigger and shedding puppy ways, and learning about cold weather in Maine.  He’s shedding like crazy as he is growing a Maine winter coat now.  (He came from Arkansas.)

He has a ton of terrier energy, so on a recent Sunday when it was really too cold and icy out to be tramping through the woods, he figured out ways to amuse himself—in between trying to get me to play with him.  No No Penny, in the face of being confined inside with him, hunkered down in her bed and tried to ignore him.

I tried to sew, but AC kept finding things that were “dangerous” and needed my immediate attention.  The front-load washing machine for instance.  The turning clothes and noises had to be checked out AT ONCE.  (He’s a good watch dog.)  A roll of new quilt batting propped against a wall, waiting for help to load it on to the long arm carrier fell over, and it became an object of suspicion for some time following.

AC has recently gotten really vocal.  Here he is with a squirrel we trapped—one of the dreaded red squirrels.  And he’s taken to making these noises when we ride up to the dog park, which he loves.  Yes, I rehomed the squirrel a long way from my property and not near other properties.

Ac and the squirrel

And here he is trying to steal Penny’s treat.

AC stealing treat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey Tracks: Slaty is MOSTLY Jack Russel Terrier

Turkey Tracks:  December 3, 2017

Slaty is MOSTLY Jack Russel Terrier

My family has a long history with rat terriers, like my No No Penny and my Miss Reynolds Georgia, the latter has been waiting for me at the rainbow bridge for two years now.  I didn’t know anything about Jack Russel terriers, except that they have TONS of energy and, as a result, need an owner with a strong hand and a fair amount of dog experience.  And then I saw one on a walk one day…

As you might know from earlier posts, I fell in love with AC Slater’s picture online, and in due course, brought him home.  He was billed as a terrier/hound mixture.  I started reseaching Jack Russel terriers.  Mom was the “hound” mix, and Dad was the “terrier” mix.

Here’s a picture of a JR from an online JR image website.

Look at the dark-ringed eyes and the markings on the face.

Here’s AC.  The eyes!  His ears may be bigger, but it’s hard to tell with them in alert mode.  I had mentioned the “treat” word.

Here are pictures of JR body types from online.

 

Here’s AC, with his tail down as he’s not quite sure about what I’m doing on a rainy day with the camera in my hand.  You’ve seen other videos that show his fabulous tail, from which you can tell EXACTLY how he’s feeling at the moment.

AC is making a lot of sense to me now.  JRs were bred to chase foxes through the woods.  You should see this dog in the woods.  Nothing stops him—underbrush, water, rock walls, fallen trees—he’s under or over or through in a flash as he runs full speed.  And nothing makes him happier.

He tries so hard to work with me.  He comes, with joy, every time I call him, which allows me to walk him off leash through our woods paths.  He carries prey with a “soft” mouth.  He’s fast and smart and so much fun!

AND, he has webbed feet.  I’ll have to research that with JRs.  I suspect this summer he’ll learn he can swim.  He’s already fascinated with water.

He gulps his food—a JR trait.  He is relentlessly “drivey” in our yard.  He hears every leaf that falls outside and wants to investigate.  With his “pretty collar” on, he can go out on his own.  None of the small animals in the yard are allowed.  I hope he has good sense about skunks.  No No Penny and Reynolds did.  They could each trigger a skunk, but did not get sprayed.  Best I have the washing ingredients on hand in months to come.

He’s great with both other dogs and people.

BUT, he’s not fully housetrained yet.  He goes long stretches with no poop accidents, then…  And at 8 months he’s not fully reliable about chewing the straw basket that holds his toys downstairs.  I’ll have to replace it with a metal one, which I can get at Renys for $10.  I have spent a small fortune on treats that he can chew without demolishing them in 2 minutes.  Did you know dog stores now sell pieces of antlers as chew solutions?   They work.

I can’t wait for my grandchildren to meet him.  And some of them are coming for Christmas!!

 

 

Turkey Tracks: “Bee Warm” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  December 2, 2018

“Bee Warm” Quilt

It’s done!

This quilt is done with Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s herringbone braid method found in her book MODERN QUILT MAGIC. And the fabrics are all Cotton+Steel low volume.

This quilt has been what seems to me a long time in the making—mostly because I had other projects with higher priorities.  So, this one became a kind of leader/ender project, which I started back in May 2018 at the Coastal Quilter’s retreat.  It took some time to get in the rhythm of this method—it’s not hard, just different.   And I had a little trouble figuring out how wide and long the braids would be.  I went back and added more length to the braids when I realized the quilt was too wide for the length.  Next time…I will know.  And I suspect there will be a next time, for I really like the texture of this quilt.

I started by going through all my Cotton+Steel low volume warm fabrics and ironing each one enough to cut the 2 by 8 strips.  (I prewash all fabrics when they first come into the house as the chemicals in them bother me.)  So I had a big bag of strips and had a great lot of fun choosing which ones to use when as I sewed.  I had this kind of selection because I had a monthly C+S club order from Pink Castle Fabrics for about 2 years.

I’m assuming you know by now that C+S will no longer have the 5 original designers who have now moved to Moda and are named the Ruby Star Society.  Their first fabric offerings with Moda will be in the spring of 2019.  I will also say that some of the new designers under the C+S name are interesting, especially Emi Oka, who is from Tokiname-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan.

Anyway, here is a close up.  I used the “Grande Hyancith” pantograph by Patricia Ritter.  I’ve been wanting to use thisl pattern again.  It’s curvy and dense, and it is adding more lovely texture to this quilt.

I love the bee fabric on the back.  Its from the Sarah Watts collection, Magic Forest.  Bees are beloved in m;y family.  My DIL Tami Enright runs the Bee Cause project that originated in South Carolina and that seeks to save the bees by placing them in places where they can thrive or where people can observe them and learn about them.  She now has hives in all 50 states.  See thebeecause.org for more information.

The binding and label are done in this lovely pinkish fabric, which is as soft as the quilt and which is giving more texture around the outside of the quilt—as the white slashes play against the pink.

I love this quilt!

I am making a “cool” version, but with a different pattern, with the C+S low volume fabrics in blues, greens, and greys.  I’m ironing and cutting fabric now, but have made some trial blocks.  I can already see that I will love the “cool” quilt that emerges.