And the aftermath begins.......

Just talked to my brother.  He ives in Laplace.  They were told to stay because they had no flooding in the area and the officials actually downgraded the flood potential to nothing.  And the worst of the rains had passed.  

Then an hour later, they were  standing in water that was rising so fast they had 10 minutes to get out.  They have two dogs who got in the truck, but the cats panicked and scattered.  Kenny figured they could get on top of things and would do ok.  So they turned their attention to Blossom the Pig.  Blossom was in sheer panic and would not allow herself to be put in the truck.  She hates riding anyway.

The water was nearing their knees in the next 10 minutes and they knew if they didn’t move at that moment they would not get the vehicles out.  So they had to leave Blossom behind.  

Just now, Kenny was calling from the house, he found her in her pighouse.  She didn’t make it.

And there is three feet of water in their house.    They stayed in Lafayette last night but have a friend who has an empty rent house they will use.  He is trying to see what he can salvage, in a skiff, in his flooded house.

I cannot imagine.

Bonnie Hunter classes, Whoo Hoo!

That is what she says, Whoo Hoo when she likes your blocks.  Of course she likes EVERYONE'S blocks, but that is beside the point. 

She said Whoo Hoo! when she saw MY blocks!

I will admit that you will have a prejudiced view because I recharged my battery last night from her class yesterday and the lecture with her wonderful quilt show and I failed to put the battery back in the camera.  I did, however, bring the camera to the class today, sans battery.

This is Bonnie's quilt:

So here are my wonderful blocks.  I see now that with the scrap fabrics I have that I need to use more corners of the light ilk than the darker beige or creams.  I can scatter these throughout the quilt and they will blend nicely.  But, the further you get away from it, the more you see the lights.  Just like Bonnie's quilt.  That little blur is Grand Dog Hugeaux's butt.

It needs cornerstones.  If you look at Bonnie's quilt you will see her cornerstones.  They are two inch strips of the scraps used in the quilt with a two inch square where the block corners meet.  That makes the little churn dash pattern and separates the blocks a bit more.

This is the Pineapple Blossom quilt on her website.  It goes really fast, so I would definitely recommend this quilt pattern.  And best of all it uses a good amount of scrap strips.

glen 

Why are pigs so hard? (whine)

pig

I decided today that I would make a pig quilt TableRunner for my sister in law.  She has a pig.  Blossom is a Vietnamese Pot Bellied Pig.  I usually think of these things as small pigs but Blossom is larger than my Swissys, and they are pretty big dogs.

Blossom is older than 20 years.  I don't think I have a picture of her anywhere, but I guess she is cute...as pigs go.  She has a lot of wiry odd sticking out hairs.  And a huge nose she uses to root up the sofa cushions every day when Michelle leaves for work.  She learned to open the refrigerator a long long time ago, so they actually have a padlock on their fridge.  (It hasn't stopped anyone from getting fat, so it only works for real pigs.)

Last year I made Michelle a quilt from the Olivia the Pig collection in black and white and reds.  I loved the quilt.  I hope Michelle did too, since I have not heard from her about it at all.  She was not present when I handed the basket of presents to my brother, so I have no idea what she thought about it.

I thought I would just zip out 8 pig blocks this afternoon and then finish them up tomorrow.  Well, best laid plans of pigs and women.  I fought with the construction of the pig for some reason.  It was way harder than I thought it would be.  See my Bad Pig?  It looks like, I don't know what.  A blimp maybe?   The red pig turned out a bit better not worse.   I think I need to make the pigs skinnier in their body.  LOL.  That is funny, my pig needs a diet!  I finally did get it done, and had to cook supper then leave for a Toastmaster meeting.  So I really got nothing done all day!

But does it look like a pig?  Aughhhhhhh!

So then I decided not to do a whole big quilt, but to do a pig theme group of presents and the tablerunner.   I found a really adorable watering can that is shaped like a good sized pink pig.  And I found a red/white/blue piggy bank.  And a dish shaped like a cute little piggy.  I think this along with the table runner will be a pretty cute gift.  I guess once again, though, I won't know how it goes over since I never hear from them and never see Michelle.

She won't read this, they have not paid much attention to us here in Baton Rouge in a long long time.  So the surprise won't be spoiled.  I just get upset that my mom never sees them either.  That is the hurt in all this.

Sigh..........pig things.

glen