The ChettheDog.com Quilt

Doing the final binding with help from AbbietheKitty

Hi Mary and Jeni,

As you know I have been working on the quilt for ChettheDog.com.  It kept me busy during my recuperation time.  Otherwise I tended to brood about the transplant.  I am almost done with it and thought I had better post about it before I send it off.  

Blocks were made  by Rio, the Evil Pug, Wookie's Mom (aka as Debbie LM), Kirby T. Penworthy, BStover, and me (aka Staff.)

Bloggers sent in their photo's and Debbie LM and I made picture blocks for them.   

This is the top left quadrant. Rio, the Evil Pug, and below him is BlueCat and to her right is Wolfie WW.

Up in the left corner is Rio, the evil Pug.  His friend made this block using fusible appliqué.    According to Rio it was quite a learning experience for her.  Rio is the one who started this whole idea.   It is all his 'fault.'

This is the top right foursome.  Isn't Siber-H (in the right corner) a doll?
Gus is the grey tabby and BooBear is the orange tabby

This is the banner in the center of the top.  Wolfie WW, Rio and Gus and BooBear

In the row below the top three we have Sam the princess on the far right.

Sam needs lots of glitter and shine

Below Sam on the right side is Kirby T. Penworthy.  This is a very good portrait of him although I think I got a little excited about those eyes.

Kirby T. Penworthy

Next to Sam on the right side of the quilt are these two foursome's.  

Wookie and AbbietheKitty
Cosmo and Macy the MinPin

Rio's business card, Alice Johnson,
Buford and Molly, a Black Poodle 

Next we have the bottom Row.  First, in the Left corner we have the Blog Motto.

Our Motto

And just above it on the Left side is Dawson, from Canada.

Dawson, A Tigers fan...grrrrr

Next to Dawson and the Motto are these two foursome's.

FattyKitty, Mollypop
Grace's 12 puppies and all the other Newfoundlands and family.

This is the last block on the lower right.

Rio's BedBug advertisement, Jasper, a green eyed Poodle,
Maggie, AKA Magpie and BStover's embroidered "B".

Here is the finished quilt.  I made it a big file so you can see all the details.

Love,
Nancy
I guess this is a PS.  Here is the label from the back just as (almost) Debbie LM wrote it out.

This is really the end.

Nancy

Hi Jeni & Nancy:

This is from the 1900 census and is available through Ancestry.com.

  I also found Grandpa's Selective Service registration for WWI, which obviously he didn't have to go to - he was 30 years old and had 2 children.  In the 1920 census, Mom is listed - at 0 years old.  Ancestry.com is a fun resource and I definitely would like our library to get it.

  If you open (click on) the picture and then hold down "Control" while hitting the "+" key, you can make it bigger until you can clearly see the Elliot household is the second one down.  I guess I never realized / understood that Grampa lived with his Dad and Aunts but not his Mom.  Do you know how she died?

Love, Mary

Billings Diary Day 120: Chief Plenty Coups State Park

Hi Jeni, Nancy and everybody else.

Finally made it down to Pryor, Montana and Chief Plenty Coups State Park.  I've been meaning to go and have done some reading, the foremost being Plenty-Coups: Chief of the Crows by Frank B. Linderman. 

Picture lifted from this website: Newspaper Rock

To give you the context into which Plenty Coups belongs:

Plenty Coups grew up as a traditional Northern Plains nomadic Crow Indian (born around 1848).  The Crows were constantly at war with the Blackfeet, the Souix, the Arapahoe and Cheyenne.  Early on in his life he proved to be a great warrior and soon a Chief of the Mountain Crow tribe. 

After the Civil War, when U.S. policy was to subdue Indians and take their land, he counseled collaboration with the white men instead of war.  This is attributed by some to a vision he had as a young man interpreted to mean that white culture could not successfully be resisted.  Another reason given is that the Crow tribe used the whites as allies against those who wanted Crow land.  Apparently this worked, as the Crow reservation actually is on their traditional lands (of course whittled down to a portion of the original territory).  So it was politics as usual. 

The biographies don't go into how difficult this must have been to do - did  he appear as a collaborator with those undermining the culture?  The Crows still have original lands, and practice their cultural heritage (see Crow Fair).  I wonder how he fares in the hearts and minds of the Crow tribe itself?  Plenty Coups is such an interesting person in our history who has not been given much press, but he's as important as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

The park is a quiet place.  It's listed as a "Cultural" state park rather than a "Recreational" or a "Natural" one.  And it's not near the Interstate either.  No one passes it and pulls in on the spur of the moment.

After Chief Plenty Coups death in 1932 it was given as a "place of peace" to people of all tribes.  This was his plan and he donated it in 1928, before his death.  There is a small museum that tells history of Chief Plenty Coups and the Crow Tribe.  The house Chief Plenty-Coups built when he stopped being nomadic is also there.

He always had a teepee set up they say - perhaps the house was used mostly for white visitors.  He had a store where he sold things he grew and harvested on his farm, and since he couldn't read or write, developed a pictograph way of keeping his accounts.
His house was built to take advantage of a natural spring, which now has a cottonwood growing right on top of it.

The water is so clear you can't see it coming out from under the tree, but those shadows are on water.  Here's another picture especially for Skeeter:

Water bugs at Plenty Coups' spring

Chief Plenty Coups is buried on the land with two of his wives and his adopted daughter.  The Linderman book is hard to find, but it's worth finding and reading.  Linderman let Plenty Coups tell his own life and didn't elaborate on what was said beyond clarifying statements of fact.  There is another bio out there that is not nearly as good.

Now that I've written this, I want more information.  I'll bet I can get it at Little Big Horn College Library.
Love you two, Mary
 

I Love My Garden, 2010 Edition

Hi there Mary and Jeni,

Walkways?  What walkways? Hint, see the hose?

OK, so now you know the truth.  I love my garden.  It has 6 sections that are delineated by brick walkways that are so overgrown in the summer that they might as well not be there.  It has a center of star blocks that ends up the same way.   Not that you can see them in this picture.  However, below is a picture where they show up.

See, there are too walkways in the garden!

This photo is from Spring 2009 and taken early in the spring when I was watching my tulip corner bloom.
I am loving it so much right now because I am banned from it while adjusting to the transplant.  "No Gardening" they said.  Right after that they said "No Cats".  Heh, AS IF!

 Nancy in her tulip corner, 2009

So I am staying out of it for now.  But I really want to go in there and take some close-up pictures of some of the flowers that are blooming right now.  Tomorrow when I go to see the doctor I will ask about that.  I would think I could just walk in it if I promise not to dig up any potatoes or anything.

Nancy and Alice Johnson in the Garden, 2009

Now if this video ever loads it will show a little one minute snippit staring a 13 striped ground squirrel and some ants and a butterfly puddle (not pool).  

August 12, 2008

That's all for now,

Love,

Nancy

Transplant

SUNDAY, JULY 18, 2010 11:17 PM, CDT

I got a preliminary call about 10 minutes ago.  I am backup.  There is another person who is tops on the list but if he/she can't go thru with it then they will call me.   
I have talked to another person whose husband had a transplant and this happened to them and they had to go in and prep and wait all day and then it fell through.  They ended up waiting another 6 months for a kidney. I will be called by midnight and told if they want me in to Fargo by 7 a.m..  I am not supposed to take my baby aspirin tonight.  If I don't get called I will email again in the morning.  
Jim has been told (by me) to take his little netbook along so he should be able to keep in touch with you if it actually goes through. 
Excited, a little scared.  Still don't believe it. Love, Nancy

More later!   Here is my site. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nancydrew

Birds on the porch

I have had two nests on the porch this year.  The Barn Swallows that always nest over the library windows have been very noisy lately.  Those baby's fledged yesterday and a good thing too as they could not all fit into the nest anymore.  The above photo is what they looked like yesterday.

This photo was taken on June 26th,  Just 5 days and they grow like weeds.

This year I have a little brown bird nesting in my Christmas wreath (that never gets taken down).  See the little beak there in the dark spot?  I had to stand on a chair and hold the camera above my head to get this close of a shot.  The LBB parent has lots of streaking on the sides of her tummy and a spot in the center of her breast.
I am not sure if it is a Song Sparrow or not.  That is my guess.

This photo was found on Google images it was posted originally by http://www.coffeecreekwc.org/  This photo of a Song Sparrow is just what the parent looked like although I never got a good image of it myself.

Combine those with the hummingbird feeder from Droll Yankee that hangs on my window and you have a birding porch.

The LBB fledged while I was visiting Mary in Billings so I didn't see it.
Love,
Nancy

Billings, Days four, three, two and one

I have wanted to visit my sister Mary for a while now, but kept finding excuses to put it off.  Then a friend wanted a "Pony Express" delivery for three sewing machines from Missoula to Wisconsin.   So Christy, Mary's daughter, brought the machines to Billings and I came to Billings to visit Mary and pick up the sewing machines for delivery to the River Rat Toga in September.

Mary knows I collect old sewing machines and she wanted a machine to sew with.  Since she hasn't moved much of her furniture to the little house in Billings I used that as an excuse.  This little Singer Model 66, previously electric but now a hand crank in a cute little desk, was delivered to Mary.  

Before delivery I cleaned and oiled and greased the machine.  It is not perfectly clean because I am nervous about taking apart things like the Bobbin Winder,  but much of it is shiny and good looking and all the insides are clean and in good order.

Mary took me to a beautiful quilt store in Billings called Fiberworks, her excuse being that she needed some fabric to play on her machine with.  (I needed no excuse) Oh such fun fabrics. I managed to find a few things to bring home.  Mary bought two fat 1/8ths and made this little bag in just a few minutes.  She is all ready to put a ribbon through the top to close it with, once she finds a ribbon, and she still has another 1/8th to play with.

Monday evening we went to the opening game of the 2010 season of the Billings Mustangs.  They have a new ballpark called Dehler Park which is very nice.  They won 11 to 4 over the Great Falls team and we had lots of fun and two lemonades each.  We didn't have any caramel apples.    Such restraint!

This is the fancy new scoreboard showing a picture of the Western Heritage Center which is the original library here in Billings.

After breakfast at Stella's on Monday we went for a walk in a Riverside Park which is affiliated with the Audubon Society here in Billings.  This park has a nice walk along a small river that flows into the Yellowstone River.  This is the Yellowstone River at that point.  Here is proof that we were there.  Jim is standing quite close to the edge isn't he?    The river was running quite fast, probably because of the rain and hail (and tornado) that we had yesterday.

After the storm on Sunday, the clouds cleared away and Mary took me up on the 'Rims' to get a look at the wild flowers and to see this view of mountains hovering over the city.  Cool eh?

Here is the new moon over the city, and then a picture of Mary taking a picture of a Yucca plant.  Evidently this was a highlight of the walk for her.  She has wanted to see a blooming Yucca for some time.   There were some blooms that had been hailed off the plants and we touched them.  They are very strange and waxy feeling.  You could say they feel Yucky.

This last picture was taken on the way into Billings on Saturday.  These horses were up on the range overlooking the freeway.  I was way far away and had to zoom this as far as I could so you could get a glimpse of the horses.  They looked so neat and western up there.

This last morning our plans are to go to the Dude Rancher for Breakfast and then visit Mary at her Library before leaving for home.

It has been a very nice visit and next time I am staying longer.

Thanks Mary for a great time!

Billings Diary, Day 62

Hi All,

  I'm supposed to write my obituary for a memoir writing class, but I want to post more wildflower pictures. 

The ol' bear and I visited the Little Big Horn Battlefield. 

Although I've had many chances to do this before on trips from Montana to Minnesota or North Dakota, I've never stopped.  We agreed that it was much more engaging than we thought it would be.  The history is fascinating for one.  First we attended a recitation of the battle which confused me as three different armies converged on the largest group of Indians ever gathered (the historians believe) and then Custer broke off from one army and ended up dividing his group into three and blah blah blah until I didn't know who was where and what was up.  To make things worse, the "professor" (apparently he is a professor in his winter job) confused shouting with emotion and kept making me flinch when he would yell out a paragraph or two.

We then went on the two walks that meander to places where things happened in the battle, and stopped at every roadside point with a tablet until now I actually do have an idea of what happened.  

This marker had braided grass left in front of it.

 Of course, there are still things being argued about, which makes it even more interesting.

There were plenty of meadowlarks along the way.  A meadowlark song makes anything the best, and along with that, the wildflowers were stunning.  So stunning that I went right into the museum store and bought a book in which I could find only two of the specimens we saw.  I think the book is more for the Dakotas and if so, you can have it when you come here. 

So - on to the wildflowers (and the grasses - they were also fascinating):  I am sure most of these are fairly common, and I am going to get a book out of the library (and buy one too) but I haven't yet so I don't know what they are.  Sorry they are so big, but I wanted to keep the detail so I didn't resize or crop too much.

I know what these last two are: the top one is Yucca (I've posted some pictures of it before I knew it grew this impressive spike which I'm dying  to see when it's in full bloom) and next is prickly pear with some buds on it - also can't wait to see in bloom.

Yucca - with flower stalk.  Also know as soapweed because the roots were used for soap according to this book.

Prickly Pear with buds on it.

 Did I say I've never lived anywhere before where cacti grew?  I am fascinated by it.

I've posted this by uploading the pictures, and while waiting, ironing clothes for work.  I have a penchant for linen, which is eternally wrinkly, but also have a penchant for ironing, thank goodness.  This all goes quite well with my penchant for drying clothes on the line.  If I didn't hang clothes out to dry, I would have missed the pair of goldfinches playing tag amongst the trees this afternoon.  They were making clicking-type noises that I have heard before.  Now I know that those are goldfinch noises and will look for them next time I hear it.

Adios, all.