We made another trip to Red Deer today to compete in a scent trial hosted by the Little Nose That Knows. Brodie had a great day in his advanced trial coming in 2nd in interiors and vehicles and finished first overall. He got lots of ribbons and swag. Thank you to Judges Ryan-Ann King-Smith and MaryAnn Warren and to Kristina Sveinson and Samantha Freschette for all their hard work organizing the trial.
Filed under Brodie, SDDA, Spirit, Sporting Detection, Uncategorized
One of my puppies is retiring after 10 years as a service dog. She was a joy to foster and train. Together we learned the incredible power of positive reinforcement and it changed my life as a trainer. She was also one of Wally’s babies so that made her extra special to me. Her partner Sam loved and cared for her as I would have myself. I could not have asked for a better partner for her. So proud of you Ebony!!!
Filed under Foster Puppies, Service Dog, Wally
Spirit and Brodie had a nice off leash run and swim today. Unfortunately that also meant they both had to have a bath because they were filthy and smelled like “swamp thing”.
We’ve had Wally’s ashes for almost a month but I have not been able to force myself to spread them somewhere. I woke up this morning and knew today was the day. What better day than Father’s Day to celebrate my Golden boy’s 17 beautiful years of life. He sired 7 litters of guide and service dog puppies (over 50 puppies). Although he has outlived many of them, there are still numerous Wally babies working with their partners to make their lives better. His ashes joined our beloved Tango’s ashes in a beautiful wildlife park. They are back together again. I know they are both waiting faithfully for me to join them.
Filed under Wally
Brodie SD-A (SP)
Got up bright and early this morning to drive to Springbrook, AB for the Nosey Pawtners Sporting Detection trials. Brodie really enjoys scent work and is very excited to search. Our morning trial was a wonderful success. It only took him 34 seconds to find both hides in the container search (and ignore the distractors). He earned a score of 56/60 and placed 3rd. We immediately went to our interior search. He got both hides in 1:25 with a score of 76/80 and 2nd place. Our final test was exteriors. They are more challenging because he gets distracted by pee mail and he wants to leave a response which results in immediate disqualification. We made it through in 2:09 without any marking and a score of 47/60 and 1st place. Yeah little man. He earned his advanced title with special designation for passing all 3 components in the same trial SD-A(SP). The icing on the cake was that he placed first overall in the advanced trial.
Because Brodie titled in the morning trial we could no longer participate in the amateur stream. For the afternoon trial we had to move up to the Advanced working class which includes dogs that do scent work for a living. He rocked it! So many people commented on how enthusiastically he searched and how he obviously loved this sport. Those comments made my heart sing. His container score was 58/60 in 40 seconds for 3rd place, interior was 78/80 in 43 seconds for 2nd place and finally his exterior was 56/60 in 1:46. He earned his Advanced Working title and placed 3rd overall. A big thank you to Judges Heather and Doug Wilson, the gang at Nosey Pawtners and all the amazing volunteers.
Two scent titles in one day wooooo hoooooo. So proud of my little man who turns 16 months tomorrow!!! Look at all this swag.
Filed under Brodie, SDDA, Sporting Detection
On Sunday our friend’s daughter had a beautiful little girl that they named Chloe May. I love the name, it’s so pretty and feminine. They now have a Grandson and a Granddaughter. Unfortunately, in my haste to get the quilt to it’s new home I forgot to take a picture of the completed quilt. I have this picture of the pieced top hanging on my design wall before it was sandwiched and quilted. The free motion quilting just added more dimension and texture to the design:
Proud Grandma sent me a picture of the quilt showing some of the longarm work.
Filed under Baby Quilt
I was deeply affected by the loss of so many people as a result of the Humboldt bus crash. The Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild put out a call to quilters across Canada asking us to make and donate quilts to give to people who had been directly affected by the crash. They asked for 200 quilts. I knew I wanted to help. Then I found out that one of the victims was member of a friend’s extended family. Instead of making a generic quilt for the group, I decided to make an quilt dedicated to the family who lost their son. I hope that it will provide some comfort to them.
Filed under Charity Quilt, Lap Quilt, Quilting
I am way behind in posting pictures of my completed quilts. I finished the comfort quilt about a month ago. It was given as a group gift to one of our friends in our Sunday morning walking group. It includes inspirational sayings that were picked out by members of our group. I have never been a fan of “scrappy” quilts but there is something about this one that really appeals to me. I just smile when I look at it.
Filed under Comfort QAL, Lap Quilt, QAL, Quilt-A-Long
This weekend both Brodie and Spirit competed in Rally Obedience at the Northern Alberta Canine Association (NACA) trial. I’m so proud of both of them. On Friday Brodie got his third qualification for Rally Intermediate and earned his title. He is now known as Copppermoon Lighning Bug CGN, RI, SD-S (SP). We moved up to the Advanced level for Saturday and Sunday. That means he now competes off-leash and there are toys and food used as distractions on the course. Both kryptonite for my boy. The second day he spotted the food bowl and squeaky toy while we were still sitting and waiting to start our run. I knew I was in for trouble. A few seconds into our run he took off and ran and got the squeaky toy. Very proud of myself. I called him back to me and asked him to give me the toy and thank goodness he did. The audience was in stitches. I think I earned brownie points when I put him in a down stay and walked across the course to put the toy back where it belonged. He held the stay and then we resumed the course as if nothing had happened. Little brat! He completed both runs successfully and earned 2 qualifications towards his advanced title. Sunday was also the Golden Retriever Specialty. I was so surprised when the ring steward gave us an an extra ribbon (green) and a beautiful leather leash from the Golden Retriever Club of Alberta for high score in a rally trial. Here’s my handsome boy with all of his swag and a closeup of his new leash.
Not to be outdone by her younger brother, Spirit also had a great weekend. On Friday she got a perfect score of 100 for a high in trial in her first ever Intermediate run. On Saturday she was working towards another perfect score but was spooked when a dog in the adjacent ring doing obedience, ran towards us. We lost 2 points because she got scared and ran to the end of the leash. I was so thrilled with her. She has a history of being reactive and very uncomfortable around other dogs but she didn’t bark and she recovered so quickly and finished the course in style. So proud of how she handled herself. In her final run on Sunday she got a 97 and a 4th in trial. That means she earned her Intermediate title and is now known as Tailspin’s Winter’s Spirit RI SD-A.
A very big thank you to Judges Gail Carroll and Shawn Kelly.
Filed under Brodie, CKC Title, Rally Obedience, Spirit
This weeks’s goal was to finish cutting all the neutral fabric and to piece 5 large and 9 small blocks. Goal achieved. If my math is correct, I have cut 1317 pieces of fabric to make a lap size quilt. Yikes!
Filed under Comfort QAL, Lap Quilt, QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Quilting, Scrap Quilt
This week marks the start of the Comfort QAL (Quilt-a-long). As soon as I saw this quilt I knew who I was going to make it for. I am not normally a fan of the “scrappy look” but something about this one appealed to me. I hope the recipient will like it too. Week 1 has us cutting all the medium and dark fabrics. I am making the lap quilt so I needed to cut enough fabric to make 79 small and 30 large blocks. Our second goal was to purchase and/or source from our stash all the neutrals that we will need.
Week 1 goal complete. Here are my bright fabrics all cut and ready to go. Quite an eclectic mix of prints and solids (436 pieces).
I’ve even got a head start on next week’s goal since I have already cut up all my neutrals as well (872 pieces).
#ComfortQuiltQAL
Filed under Comfort QAL, QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Quilting, Scrap Quilt
I can’t believe that Wally, our old Goldie, is celebrating his 17th birthday today. We are so very blessed to have had him in our lives for this long. His favourite treat in the world is a Timbit so every year on his birthday he would get one for each year. As he started approaching his double digit birthdays we began cutting the timbits in half. This year we cut them in quarters and then gave him one whole one to make 17. As usual, he inhaled them all.
Filed under Wally
We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday driving back and forth to Camrose to participate in the Battle River Canine Association rally obedience trial. It was a very tough weekend for Brodie. As a 13 month old, teenage intact male, this was his first exposure to a smorgasbord of intact females and he lost his mind. I’ve lost my sweet, calm and focused boy. He has been replaced by this wild child who has zero interest in his Mom. I’m heart broken but I knew it was coming. Hopefully this phase won’t last too long.
Friday was a complete disaster with a NQ in advanced and then we got excused from the ring during his Intermediate run because he decided to have a poop in the ring…totally out of character for him. Saturday was a bit better. We squeaked by our Intermediate run with a 73 qualifying score and a 4th in trial ribbon. Sunday I saw a brief glimpse of my sweet boy and we walked away with an Intermediate score of 88, our second Q and a Second in Class ribbon.
Thank you to Judges Karen Brearley, Margaret Chandler, Marie-Johanne Cloutier.
Filed under CKC Title, Rally Obedience
We spent this weekend at the Battle River Canine Association rally obedience trial in Camrose. I signed Spirit up just to give her some experience in the trial environment. She can get anxious and reactive around other dogs so I wanted her first trial to be somewhere relatively close to home giving us the opportunity to just take her home if she was overwhelmed. She amazed me. There were only minor signs of stress and I was able to quickly focus and redirect her. Not only did she successfully complete her trial each day with a qualifying score, she earned her Novice title with scores of 92, 96 and 95. On Friday she also got a ribbon for Second in Class. She is now officially known as Tailspin’s Winter’s Spirit RN . Not bad considering we just finished our introductory rally course a couple of weeks ago. Yahoooooooooo Thank you to Judges Karen Brearley, Margaret Chandler, Marie-Johanne Cloutier.
Filed under CKC Title, Rally Obedience, Spirit
Tilly and I went to Fort Saskatchewan High School this afternoon. The kids are participating in a 24hr bike-a-thon to raise money for the Stollery Children’s Hospital. They took breaks to relax and chill out with the dogs.
Filed under Pet Therapy, PeTS, Tilly
I did it!!! Only a year late but it is done. We have had such a cold, snowy winter that I had to wait for a milder day to get some pictures. It was definitely a challenge to make some of the 3 inch blocks but I am glad that I did it. Would I do it again….probably not. Now it is just looking for a good home.
I did some custom quilting in the 4 corner blocks and the centre medallion….otherwise I just used a simple e2e design called Deco Vine.
As with all of my quilts, when I sit down in the lazy boy to hand sew on the binding….my cute little fur ball always has to plant herself in the middle of the pile making it more challenging to accomplish my task.
Here are few closeups of some of the blocks:
Filed under 365 Challenge, Quilting
This quilt took a long time to finish. The 12 multi-coloured blocks were made as part of QuiltEssential Co’s 2015 block of the month program. This colour way was called ‘Bridges of Madison County”.
I knew how I was going to design the quilt top long before the 12 blocks were even finished. My inspiration for the quilting came from some of the designs in the 12 blocks. I wish I had kept track of how long it took me to do the longarm work because it was substantial. I am really happy with the finished product.
Close up of the centre medallion and some of the long arm work:
I like using pieced backings on my quilts. I think it makes for a more attractive back that gives you the option to flip it over so you have two quilts in one.
We are celebrating Brodie’s 1st birthday today. What a joy he has brought to our lives. He is everything that I wanted in a Golden and so much more!
This is what he looked like a year ago
Short video of Brodie trying to play with his birthday present but his sister Spirit has other ideas.
Filed under Brodie
Before
This afternoon Tilly and I did a Pet Therapy session with the City of Edmonton 311 operators. She was her normal friendly, cheerful self and I think everyone enjoyed loving her up. I don’t know what it is about Therapy work but she is always exhausted after. She was a sleep before the car exited the parkade and she snored the whole way home.
After
Filed under Pet Therapy, PeTS, Therapy Dog, Tilly
Last week we took Wally to the Vet because he was vomiting and had bloody diarrhea. He has a sensitive digestive system and he gets these tummy troubles every year or so. We were not panicked but at his advanced age (16 year and 10 months) we wanted to get things settled and resolved quickly. As we were waiting for our appointment we were shocked to see that one of his testicles had ballooned in size. It was not like that the previous day. It was 11.5 inches around and the size of a softball. We went from being mildly concern about diarrhea to being panicked about an extremely fast growing tumour.
At his age surgery is extremely risky but leaving the tumour posed its own risks. We made the very tough decision to go ahead with surgery. I’ve been stressing and having nightmares for the last few days but for some unknown reason I felt strangely at peace when I dropped him off this morning. I got a phone call two hours later and he was alive and well. The Vet said that he gave them a bit of a scare when they tried to insert the tube down his throat and encountered an obstruction. They found a dangling tumour (he’s sure it is benign) that they had to remove before they could start the planned procedure. They kept him all day so that they could keep him on IV fluids to flush the anesthesia drugs out of his system as quickly as possible. They sent me this picture to show me how well he was doing all snuggled up in warm blankets.
He is home with us now and we feel so blessed.
Filed under Wally
This is a typical morning in our house…although usually Tilly is also snuggling somewhere in the mix. I have over 150 lbs. of hairy children draped across my body. Good thing they are comfortable…..who cares if I am.
Well I’ve managed to complete several blocks and some of the sashing pieces. I’ve been experimenting with different layouts to try and decide how I want to finish my On Ringo Lake quilt.
Here is my on-point layout as it was designed by the author Bonnie K. Hunter:
Here are the same blocks with them arranged in rows and columns rather than on-point:
Here are some of my own ideas that I have been playing with. I doubled up the sashing to create a secondary design and added blue blocks (on-point and standard layouts). If I pick this design I am going to add a variety of different blue blocks to keep with the scrappy look.
And these two use a four patch instead of the solid squares:
I can’t decide which one I like best. Any and all opinions welcome.
Linking up to the Mystery Monday linkup at Quiltsville’s Quips and Snips
Filed under mystery quilt, On Ringo Lake Mystery, QAL, Quilt-A-Long
This has been a crazy week. Thank goodness it was a holiday week so I had lots of free time. I have cut over 3000 pieces of fabric and assembled hundreds of blocks but I’m still way behind.
I finished all the nine patches for part one:
Part 4 finished:
Part 6 added a triangle to all the pieces completed in part 4:
So I’ve completed parts 1, 4 and 6 and I’ve got the pieces of fabric cut for parts 2, 3 and 5. I thought I was doing really well until Bonnie released parts 7, 8 and 9 in the last 3 days instead of the normal one part a week. We now know what the finished quilt will look like. I really like it and it is motivating me to keep going. It is never too late to join us. Remember to download all the instructions before they are removed from Bonnie’s website. #quiltville #quiltvillemystery #onringolakequilt
Filed under mystery quilt, On Ringo Lake Mystery, Quilt-A-Long
We’ve had an incredibly mild start to our winter….at least is was mild until the last week. It just keeps getting colder and colder with no end in sight. It is -39c with the windchill. Yikes….I hope it ends soon. We all have cabin fever and need to get out in the fresh air for some fun and exercise.
Filed under Uncategorized
I was surfing on the weekend and stumbled upon Quiltville On Ringo Lake Mystery quilt-a-long. I’ve never done a mystery quilt because I didn’t want to invest the time and money making a quilt only to discover that I didn’t like the finished product. I went back and looked at some of the previous mystery quilts on Quiltville and they were all lovely. This year’s mystery quilt is designed to be made from scraps….and like any fabric-a-holic I have more than my share of fabric. To make a long story short, I decided to join in. The only problem is that it started 5 weeks ago so I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. Week one was a nine patch….actually a lot of nine patches. I’ve got the first four made…..many, many, many more to go.
I’m linking up to Mystery TUESDAY Link-Up, Part 5
#quiltville #quiltvillemystery #onringolakequilt
Filed under On Ringo Lake Mystery, QAL, Quilt-A-Long
This is Christmas morning in our house. Wally has always been the one to deliver the cards but now Brodie wants to help too. Gosh I love my fur kids. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
I did it! I managed to finish piecing all 365 blocks….just a year late. I have even finished sewing them altogether and have the top on the longarm working on the fun part. My original goal was to finish all the blocks by year end…now I have revised it to have it quilted and bound by year end. Fingers crossed!
Filed under 365 Challenge, Quilting
Tilly, aka “the boss”, is 8 years old today. She brings such joy to our family and rules the 4 legged members with a iron paw.
Filed under Tilly
Our big, baby girl is 3 today. Gosh time flies. What is even scarier is the fact that her life is potentially 1/3 over if you base it on the average life span of 8 years for a Berner. Of course our girl is going to live much longer than the average because she has a great example in longevity….her big brother, Wally the golden retriever, who is 16 years and 9 months old.
She got a giant salmon head for her birthday breakfast treat.
Filed under Uncategorized
So far so good. I’ve completed blocks up to Dec 20th. Still on track for completing this quilt top by the end of the year.
Filed under Uncategorized
Life In The Dog House 