A New Day and A New Week

Springtime is the land awakening.  The March winds are the morning yawn.  
~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard inKathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You 

Friday did not turn out as planned.  Thursday night, our little furry love, Weasley, had another night of focal seizures - over two hours of on and off again seizures.  We took him into the emergency vet around 12:15 am.  Luckily there was no one else there and we didn't have to wait long.  They dosed Weasley with Valium and that did the trick.  They did keep him there until morning but he came home back to normal.  Our own vet gave us a couple doses of Valium for any further seizures so at least we will be able to avoid the emergency vet, hopefully (not to mention the $$$).  As a result I ended up with about 3 hours of sleep.  I didn't attend the scheduled workshop and it's a good thing I didn't.  My brain just didn't want to work all day!  I attempted to cut fabric for two simple Loving Hands quilts and I can't tell you how many wrong cuts I made.  I should have spent the day sitting on my hands doing nothing - lol!  But today is a new day and a new week and I'm ready to go!  How was your weekend?

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LITTLE FACT OF THE DAY

Raccoon

Isn't the raccoon just one of the cutest creatures there are?  We used to do a lot of camping and having these little guys visit our campsite was always a highlight.  Here is what I found out about the raccoon:

* The word "raccoon" comes from the Algonquin Indians and means "he scratches with his hands".

* If you give a raccoon a sugar cube, it will first try to clean it (as raccoons clean all their food before eating it). It will wash it and wash it until the sugar cube finally dissolves to nothing

* The record life span for a captive raccoon is 21 years

* Raccoons are very clean and use a common latrine in the wild

* Raccoons never den more than 1,200 feet from a permanent water source

*  When walking, they arch the back, walking from heel to toe with non-retractable claws.  The front and back feet have five toes, making it easy to grasp and hold things.

* Most people are surprised to find out that raccoons are not only good swimmers but they actually love spending time in the water.

* The raccoon's scientific name, Procyon lotor, means "washer dog" although it is a closer relative to the bear family.

* Raccoons have a large array of vocalizations. They purr, whistle, growl, hiss, scream and even whinny.

* A raccoon's hands are so nimble they can unlace a shoe, unlatch a cage and deftly retrieve coins as thin as dimes from your shirt pocket

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LOVING HANDS FOR MARCH

Last week I finished up and turned in the two little quilts I made for my guild's Loving Hands....

This first little one is definitely for a baby boy.  I think I should have arranged the blocks just a bit different but I couldn't figure out whether to have the same sashing colors match up against each other (green to green and blue to blue) or to do like I did.  This was made using the 16" block pattern, Philadelphia Pavements.  By the way, the quilt really is square but the breeze kept messing with it as I was trying to take a picture.

Once again the breeze just would not stop for picture time!  I was very happy with the way this little quilt turned out.  Definitely pink and girly!  This quilt was made using the 16" block pattern, Crossed Roads.  I will probably use this pattern again to create a Loving Hands Quilt.

I learned something making this quilt.  My original idea was to make a one block quilt.  The quilt is supposed to measure 32" square.  So wouldn't you figure that you could use a 16" square pattern and then just doubling the size of the blocks used?  I tried that and the quilt was going to end up being 35".  I was totally amazed at that.  Guess I will have to do some sort of math problem to figure it out.  Does anybody have any hints to make this an easy process?

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FEBRUARY'S BEE BLOCK

No, I'm not late on sending the block out, I just have gotten behind on sharing some of the swap and bee blocks I've been making lately.  

Christina sent out some great black and white fabrics, along with one red, to work with for February's Let's Bee Together.  She requested that we make a Disappearing 9 Patch block with those great fabrics.  It's always fun to see how a simple 9 patch can be transformed.

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TODAY'S GOAL

I'm going to start sewing next month's Loving Hands quilts so I don't feel so pressured next month.

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GIVEAWAYS

Fabulous Frogger is having a giveaway.  You could win one of two Little House Needleworks charts.  This giveaway ends  Thursday, March 22.

From Blank Pages is having a giveaway.  Diane is ready to send the Traveling Stash on its way to a new home for a visit.  This giveaway ends Wednesday, March 21, at 6:00 pm MST.

Hawthorne Threads is having a giveaway.  You could win a Rosalie Quinlan Folk Heart fat quarter bundle.  This giveaway ends Wednesday, March 21.


Don't forget about my giveaway!  You can go HERE to enter.


And you can also access so many giveaways by visiting Blog Hop Party with Giveaways.

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FINAL THOUGHT

Just in case you haven't seen this already......