One of my daughters is involved in feral cat trapping, neutering, and returning them to their feral colonies. Several vets in the area do the neutering for free or very low cost, but sometimes cats are not feral. Usually they are kittens people dump, and often they are sick. These babies the group fosters, seek vet treatment and neutering, and eventually are adopted out to good homes. This takes funds to pay for these services. Adoption fees do help, but the group often does fundraisers. As a quilter, my daughter often asks me to do some sort of a pieces to auction off. She says the runners and wall hangings I have made over the last several years have brought good funds for the group. I am alway looking out for a good pattern.
On a recent trip to a local quilt store I saw this pattern. Note this copy of the front page with my border notes.I dug through my scrap bins and was able to pull out some fall fabrics that I thought worked well. As you can see I had a plan for keeping myself straight. Things were going pretty well with the project, well minus the face. I did end up at JoAnn's for the brown background and the two prints for the body and paws from Hobby Lobby. I have finished off the appliqué pieces for the face. The appliqués are held down with a small blanket stitch. On to quilting it, which includes whiskers. The little white highlights in the eyes were pearl beads. Hope to have it done by next week's post. The herons are back at my daughter's country home. She spied them on a large tree in their back yard this week. Earlier this year a breeding pair dropped by and enjoyed a romantic dinner at her fish pond. They dined on every single one of the 50 or more feeder gold fish that had grown over about two years into 3 and 4 inches long. Grandson Ben, age 12, along with older brother Noah had dug and constructed the pond and Ben became the keeper of the pond and he was not very happy about the situation. His immediate reaction was to find his BB gun and take care of the matter for good. Of course, mother was not going to allow that. I imagine they have restocked the pond, but I am sure it has a net over it now. I guess the herons will have to find a new dining establishment.
The bird tales are such a great addition to your blog!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!!
Bless you and your daughter for helping the feral kitties. We have a house full of formerly feral kitties that we started feeding outside our back door about twelve years ago. We trapped, neutered, and returned them to our back yard and continued feeding. When my husband got a chance for early retirement about ten years ago, we decided we wanted to move closer to family in Iowa. There was no one where we were who could take over the colony so we enlisted my mother's help in building a cat habitat in the basement of the new house. It was complete with climbing structures, boxes to hide in, and comfy furniture to sleep on. We bought enough carriers and live traps to haul the twenty cats, rented a vehicle and enlisted our niece and my dad to help move cats. The cats spent the first few months getting used to the sounds of the house in the basement where they could lurk in relative quiet. Eventually we opened the basement door and let the cats into the upper part of the house. Over time they have become tame cats that sit on us and watch TV, keep me company when I work on the computer, meet us when we come into the room. The youngest of our bunch is 10, but most of them are at least twelve. We've lost a few to cancer in the past couple of years, but we've sure enjoyed having them. I appreciate anyone who helps with feral cat (or any cat) causes.
ReplyDeleteYour wall hanging is darling. You did a beautiful job. I hope it brings a nice amount of money to help the kitties.
Laurie
Hi,
ReplyDeleteLove the cat quilt...so cute. Someone will love it.
Sorry to hear about the fish. Maybe the Herons will
find a new fishing hole...have a great day!
The cat is so pretty - I have all of the patterns from who knows what year I was going to make them! Makes me want to dig them out and start working on them! Very pretty! I have a lot of Story Quilts patterns.
ReplyDeleteHi Donnalee! That Heron at the top of the tree is just stunning. I recall the fish pond incident but it is the Heron just following the food chain. The net should just serve to keep them away and yet frustrated. I'll just bet they 'talked' about the good meal all year which is why they stopped back. I love the new appliqué project - especially all the fabulous notes to keep yourself on track. Happy Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Thanks for linking up this week and good luck with next week's goals. ~smile~ Roseanne
ReplyDeleteOh that quilt is adorable. I would love to have one like it. Love the colors too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for joining the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop.
Have a fabulous Wordless Wednesday. ♥
I have a cauliflower cat, a kidney bean cat and an unfinished peas in a pod cat just the tops made not sandwiched and quilted. Could I send them to you?
ReplyDeleteThat's adorable needlework! Herons are so photogenic.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic addition to 'My Corner of the World' this week!
That cat quilt is ADORABLE!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
What a shame to lose all those fish. Lesson learnt, I guess, maybe always have a net over the pond while it is unattended. Your cat donation wall hanging is coming along well, and I'm sure you are thrilled when your daughter asks for your help in fund raising donations.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great pattern choice. You did it proud.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh - that quilt is so darling!! I hope it brings a ton of donations!
ReplyDeleteIncredible heron photo, Donna!!
ReplyDeleteA very pretty quilt for a good cause! I hope it brings in lots of money. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSuch a cute quilt! It'll make a lot of money for the fundraiser. It's so perfect! Love the story of the herons. So sorry they ate the fish but glad too. Thanks for sharing on Wednesday Wait Loss.
ReplyDelete