I’m missing the puppies – they left yesterday.
Deb was picking up this gal named Sierra at the vet office so she swapped with me. (I think this was a good thing because I wouldn’t have to drive them to the shelter and drive away without them.)
This is Sierra, a pittie mix puppy who was hospitalized because of an abscess on her cheek. She cannot be adopted until this is healed so she’s living the good life on the farm for awhile.
This is easily as hard as the three puppies because she is not housetrained at all. If she has lived her entire life in a kennel, she thinks it’s correct to pee and poop on a hard surface. We walk all around the yard and when we get back she poops in front of the door! Or in the house as soon as we come in. Ugh.
She sleeps in the kennel at night and the kennel was very messy this morning – but I just don’t know why she’s isn’t trained. I came across this poster about fostering –
Get ready for some great reader quilts!
Tomorrow I’ll introduce two new $5.00 patterns.
Connie laughed when I said she was a woman of few words – she thought she wrote a lot yesterday! Haha! We both agreed it’s good I’m the one who writes the blog!
You surely have a big heart , Mary ❤️
Wow? sherry, what beautiful quilts!!!
Bless you Mary! Another foster already.
What beautiful quilt finishes today. Good job.
Thank you Connie for sharing your cross stitch retreat with us. Looks like a great shop and kind stitchers to be with.
Oh my gosh such a cutie. I hope she learns quickly
Sierra is a beautiful girl. I hope she learns where to poo soon. Maybe hazel will teach her. It’s so hard to know what the fosters have been through in their lives.
I love the reasons to foster! You have a perfect set up for it and a good introduction to the good life a pet should have.
You are an angel on earth to these needy pups. God bless you, Mary!
I know you are sad to see the 3 puppies go, but it must make it easier when a new one come! It may take a few days for this one to get the idea, but it will. Wish I could do what you do!
Sierra is a cutie! You are so good to foster all the sweet animals. Hugs,
Bless you, Mary!! It’s not like you don’t already have your hands full with farm and blog and playing piano for church and your own quilting. And then you foster on top! You have touched so many lives—both human and mammal. Certainly you have touched my life. Thank you for all you do for so many!!
Sherry’s Bullseye is GORGEOUS in blues!!!! Love it!!
Diane from CO – the readers should go to Facebook and see what YOU just did!!! I don’t think I could do all that grass work! You laid sod, for cryin out loud! Who does that? I wish I could hire you –
Haha!!!! I used to LOVE helping my uncle put up hay every summer. Farm work is hard work, but it’s good work!!! I am a Midwesterner—that comes with a work ethic that taught me to work hard and be happy about it!! The yard was good hard work. I expected to hire it done but couldn’t get any of the turf places to even return my calls. They did me a favor—saved me about $2000.00 and now I get to say I did it myself!
I’d come help you just to spend a day on the farm!! ❤️
I usually don’t comment on readers’ quilts but Sherry Whelen’s today really struck s chord. I absolutely love all three. Hang on sewing machine…we’ve got some heavy sewing to do. I’m going to start at the top and try to equal her wonderful quilts.
Marilyn – I am laughing at your warning – “hang on sewing machine!” Simply too good!!!
I loved seeing those little puppies. They got such a good start at your farm, and I hope they find an equally great home with lots of love. Getting a dog from the shelter like Sierra is hard work. That was our Sonny, from the shelter, a year old and not house trained. We started going out every hour on the hour and each pee and each poop was accompanied by a little training treat with a lot of praise. He got it pretty quickly once the treats were introduced. Of course, 9 years later he still expects a treat each time (sigh) but I cut him off with a “that’s all” after about 2 or 3. The reasons for fostering were terrific and made me choke up. I know I’d have a difficult time fostering dogs when the giving them up part arrives. We fostered a litter of kittens once. They all had homes, but when it came time for them to leave, one’s home fell through. We cheered and he lived with us for the next 15 years!
Hi Mary, such a pretty name Sierra, hope she gets toilet trained soon. Sherry,s quilts were great! I have some alterations to do for a friend and mending for my son to do before l can get back to quilting.take care everyone, best wishes from Sandy
One puppy that’s not potty trained may be more of a challenge than three busy little puppies. Sierra is in good hands.
Sherry has three beautiful finishes. I really like the first one.
I’m almost finished with the second of two commission quilts. I need to make two Roman shades for our back doors. The strings broke in the old ones and the fabric is really faded. It’s not my favorite kind of sewing but is better than paying for new ones.
Friday my sister is coming to sew so that means I can work on a fun project. I’ve been cleaning up my sewing room in between quilting the commission. It seems I’m constantly cleaning up after projects.
Susan k – I wish my sister was a quilter – I envy your private retreat.
I have 4 sisters. All of us sew. I finally talked one sister into trying quilting. She loved it and it’s so much fun to sew together. In July, we’re going on our second sister retreat to the hill country for three days of sewing. I can’t wait!
Susan K – HILL COUNTRY! I love Hill Country and if I had to move that’s where I’d choose. I took pictures of many houses when we were there years and years ago
Mary I have always maintained that angels like you will have a very special place in Heaven for all the good you have shown animals.
I too had to train our rescued dogs and they still get a little treat from going outside to poddy after all these years. My heart always breaks knowing they weren’t given a good start in their puppyhood.
Ohhh love that string quilt and the bullseyes!!!! So fun to see them.
Kathy – I’m afraid she’ll leave before I can accomplish housetraining but her new owners will have to take over then and they will be made aware of the situation.
Welcome Sierra to the Chicken Scratch blog post. You will get lots of pictures of you posted, we all will ohh and ahh over you in the coming days. You will have great fun growing some at the farm. Then you will go to a permanent loving family and another puppy will come to the farm, have loads of fun, and learn what love is all about.
Sherry, what great quilts you shared today. You have been busy.
Happy summer everyone.
Thank you for all the kind comments about my quilts! I’ve been busy trying to get some of the piles of tops that have accumulated around here lol. I have had a sit down Tiara for probably 10 years, quilted many (even king sized) on my Bernina for years before that. This spring I decided that the toll of moving the quilt around was becoming too much for this old body, so I bought a long arm and shoe horned it into a bedroom. So far I’ve quilted 13, from a small wall hanging to a queen size. I have practiced on several smaller quilts that I salvaged from other peoples cast offs, the the black/color strip quilt started out as ‘cut offs’ from someone else – I unsewed the black from the color and sewed them back together into half square triangles, I squared them up (they were all different sizes) and sashed them to make them all uniform sizes, then laid them out smallest to largest. I think it turned out really cute -from someone’s trash! The others of course are a paper string pieced quilt that Mary featured several years ago. I even practiced on this one with straight lines with the channel locks – I learned that from Mary! And of course the Bullseye – Mary did a sew along with Country Threads pattern a few years ago, and I made one, then I made a flannel one and this one is my third – they are so fun to make!! I have a few more to take photos of that I have finished, with more salvage stories.
Sherry – THANK YOU for posting this explanation – I wish more readers would try to answer questions about their quilts – I just can’t keep all the details straight and cutting and pasting is a real pain and takes way too much of my time.
Sherry, love your quilts! I would like to try a paper string piece quilt. Could you please list the steps or at least what kind of paper you used? I really like how you arranged the squares. Thank you.
Hi Linda, thank you for your kind words and interest! I will tell you that I used telephone book paper cut to size. I know phone books are becoming difficult to find! ButiIt is nice because the ink is ‘stable’ and the paper is thin and easy to tear away while I am watching tv or on a car ride. But, I think this might be a Country Threads pattern that we did as a sew along – I am not comfortable giving more information without Mary’s consent.
Sherry Whalen – we do not own the rights to string piecing so go ahead and explain to this reader. I do have some photos saved from that sew along if you want me to post them. Maybe we should do this together on a separate post?
That sounds like a great idea – I remember when we did the sew along, a few summers ago. I put so many crazy strings of left over fabric in that quilt, and it turned out great!
Thank you!
Sherry…Your quilts are wonderful. It is great that you got a long arm. I wish I had room for one, but then again, there is a big old learning curve to worry about. Yours are great. I should make another bullseye quilt. I have quite a few leftovers blocks from the 1st and only one I have made. I love it and should make another for a gift.
Sierra seems to be side sitter. Hope she trains soon and you certainly will be doing her new owner a favor.
Mary, I may be going to email you a lot. I am going to foster a poodle as soon as it gets vetted so I may have a few questions. Love all the quilts. Serria is a real cuttie and love how she lays on her tummy and streaches out her back legs. I have one that does that. I can’t seem to get to the sewing machine for very long at a time. Thanks for all you do.
Beverly – I’ll answer whatever questions I can – my sewing machine is sitting idle, too
SHERRY your quilts are wonderful!!! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Mary – you’re a special lady to foster as you do. Maybe that’s a way for me to have a pup around – I’ll have to talk with the hubs about it.
Boy those quilts are fantastic! Amazing how pretty a simple scrap quilt can be.
Have a great day!
Sierra is adorable, Sherry’s quilts are awesome! Cold here tonight but I’d rather that than hot Temps! Jan in MA
The quilts bring a smile as I look at them. I think the smiles and the knowledge they are made with good thoughts and care make quilts what they are: real loving miracles. That means every quilt maker is a miracle worker. Nice way to think of ourselves.
The quilt hanging above you on the wall is very pretty!
I know you miss your three little fellas, but it sounds like that new rescue pup will keep you busy for awhile. I was looking back at your post from the day when it rained 2 inches, & your hubby’s cornfield is beautiful. He must be doing much better if he was able to get out there & plant it!
PS – Maybe they’re getting ready to give us some NEW episodes of Yellowstone soon … I see that there’s another marathon next weekend (not this coming) starting at the very beginning again. I’m guessing they’re trying to catch people up on the first 4 seasons. 🙂
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Sherry – You have been very productive. They are beautiful.