Thank you

This is a just a quick update before I go back to do some marking for my summer course, but I want you all to know  I have been back in touch with Daisy's foster mother, and had a really good conversation. She is pleased Daisy is doing so well, but as she lives a ways away we have agreed to keep in contact by email. I am going to get my husband to take some shots tonight of the wild running around in the water that goes on at the beach and send them on to her.

I intend to keep in touch too when we are back in Nova Scotia. You are right, she needs to see how her foster dog did and where she went. It is the least I can do for what she has already done for us.

The comments left on this blog really got me thinking. I thank you so much for taking the time to write them. I like this conversation best when it is two way.

More later, there are some pictures of the Lowly Worm sweater coming up.

Having a past

I got a call today.

From the woman who fostered Daisy after they broke her out of the puppy mill four weeks ago.

I found out that until that time she had spent her entire time in a cage. 

Her feet had never touched grass (that's why they are so soft), no one had housetrained her,  (perfect now)  just mucked out her cage if that, and she had never been on a walk, or on the other end of a lease.

The woman today told me what a wreck Daisy was. Terrified of men, nervous, and withdrawn. The foster mother was worried. She wanted to know if Daisy was doing alright and if she could come and visit.

I am learning no one expects a puppy mill mom to do well. At all.

The thing is who I have here is a small dog who doesn't like loud noises it's true, but who walks for hours every day. 

Who chases birds and bunnies. 

Who climbs onto a window sill and waits when we are out. 

Who does leaping laps around the yard when we come home. 

Who has tentatively started to play with toys.

Who comes like a bullet when she is called.

I am so excited to be taking her home next month. I want to show her that big fenced yard and say "this is yours."

Right now I have a dog who runs up and visits with everyone we meet on the beach. Who lets them pat her head, even the men.

What a nice little dog they say. How well-behaved. How friendly.

I have decided to keep her history to myself on these encounters.

I have been thinking a lot about this.

We all have our baggage. Some folks have had things happen in the past that have been terrible and hard to leave behind. Some folks have had far more than their share, for no good reason, like Daisy.

The thing is on that same beach last month I attended an Easter service at sunrise. Whatever your spirituality, whatever it is or isn't, basically the message is simple - let's wipe out that bad past. You're good now. 

Maybe bad times can stop being part of your story.

Maybe sometimes a bit of cancelation is the right thing to do.

Just to go back to where you started, to who you were going to be until that happened.

I was thinking of this tonight on the same beach and I decided Daisy has a right to not have that past anymore. 

She is as good as any dog on the beach. 

The blown dried ones, the ones in dog strollers, the family dogs who have always had the family.

She is a little dog who is just so glad to be alive in this world.

You should see her run.

Really what else matters? 

She is enough just as she is.

Right there.

So tonight I was complimented on my beautiful dog.

"Look how she looks to mommy to make sure it is OK to be patted by a stranger. How smart." 

"Thank you. She was trained to do that."

Daisy deserves the credit.

I'm thinking I will call that woman back tomorrow. 

Tell her how grateful I am for the work she did fostering Daisy until she was adopted. I really am grateful. But I think we are fine without a visit.

She remembers the damaged dog.

We won't.

Flypaper thoughts

• A pause in the sewing this week
• My MIL fell and broke her hip one night
• A new hip and then an air ambulance home
• All is well
• Hasn't had any pain meds at all since day two
• They sure keep their cool that side of the family
• My side makes up for it
• Feeling like I should be sewing more
• Wonder if other sewing bloggers feel that pressure?
• Nothing to show
• Wonder if that's why other bloggers sometimes vanish?
• Not me
• If there is no sewing going on there still is thinking
• Have enough flypaper thoughts to fill a book
• For instance
• Do you ever notice how ugly pelicans are up close?
• And how amazingly elegant and beautiful they are when they all glide in formation?
• Takes my breath away how wonderful they look in the sky
• Maybe we are all like that
• Maybe we are only at our best when we are in our element
• Maybe the job should not be trying to look or be our best but to find that element?
• Take off to where we were meant to be
• Might take some time
• Miss Daisy is coming along so great
• Getting her dog back
• Hope we are her element
• Going to a Willie Nelson concert tonight in the amphitheatre
• Husband and I can't remember the last time we went to a concert
• This may be indicative of our age or lack of pre-existing coolness
• Of course Mr. Nelson is 82
• So tonight may not count in coolness points
• The Lowly worm sweater is now for me
• Turns out the sleeves are even narrower than the body
• Fits me fine although the right length (the only right part) for my 6'4" son
• Christmas after next is the one when he gets a sweater
• Are there people who buy their kids' presents?
• Mine probably wish I was one of those people
• Have been told 50 pairs of socks is enough for any two feet
• I needed a sweater

Happy Mother's Day to our children

I admit to some ambivalence about Mother's Day. No disrespect to my wonderful inspirational mother or to my sweet mother-in-law who happens to be visiting with me now.

The thing is I figure mothers don't need to be thanked, children are such a gift.

One part of that gift is what the experience does to you and who you are.

So here is my list. Please feel free to add to it. You know you are a mother when:

• You are eighty and you still tell strange kids to do up their jackets
• You have saved that single small mitt you knit for them when they were two, even though that kid now has kids of their own
• You have at least sat down one million times and before your bum hits the couch someone yells "Moooom" and you get up again
• You have at least two million times said "Don't yell, come here and tell me what you want"
• You have made sandwiches with your coat on
• You are an expert in some sport that you a) never played yourself b) never were the least bit interested in yourself
• Your favourite room in the house is the bathroom because it has a lock
• You are sure you have spent more time in your car than your house
• You go into their room when they have left home to sniff their pillow and tell your husband you were just in there folding laundry
• You have learned to sleep with one ear open
• You say you are not too tired when you are

Happy mother's day.

Now what what have I missed?

BTW here is a spectacular article from the NYTimes today on mother's clothes.

Wonder what of my creations anyone will save.

Quick summer dress

Thank you so much for all the supportive comments. Much appreciated. I heard at the shelter that puppy mill moms are the most difficult dogs to take in - all they know is being in a cage, the puppies at least get to leave. They are generally fearful and poorly socialized.

So far Miss Daisy is exceeding expectations as they say in the big world. She is apparently making up, mile by mile, for all the time outside she never had before and is excellent on our long walks, social and gentle with every person and dog we meet. She doesn't know how to play yet (we have a couple of fun dogs at home in the family who will help with that) and had no clue what stairs were. She follows me around one step behind me all day and sleeps happily with us all night.

The only incident we had was when we went out to golf, the first time we had left her, and she chewed a hole in her beautiful nylon traveling crate. We got a shock when we came home and she was not in there, until we found her upstairs in the bedroom sitting beside a pair of my shoes. Point taken, enough being caged up for this lifetime.

Here is the latest picture, the ears are coming up:

Now I realize too that this is meant to be a sewing blog and yes I have done some sewing.

Here is the latest version of Brensan Designs KISS dress that goes together so nicely.

I know I always accuse my photographer of taking my picture all slanted over, but seeing this I realize that what is off kilter is me. But so are the trees, so at least we have a theme going. Stretch cotton sateen from Mood, finally sewn up.

This pattern has optional back and front French darts but since I wanted a sort of everyday dress I put in the back darts so it wouldn't look like a sack, but left out the front darts to spare myself the experience of looking down and my belly under the seatbelt in the car and seeing the rolls. It just makes it more comfortable to wear, even though it does reveal the realities of my figure:

I like this pattern so much because it requires zero fitting finesse and because of the cool construction techniques. The best one is the way the top of the back seam is sewn for the first few inches ( you can get the neckline over your head) and then the zipper is inserted. So neat and so much nicer than all that fiddly unsatisfying stuff you usually get at the top of a zipper in a dress:

The facings are bagged so the neckline and armholes are particularly neat, you can find that technique here.

An excellent pattern.

This should come as no surprise

Ok.

Where we last left me, on the edge I live on and frequently sew from, I was volunteering at a dog refuge shelter.

Well.

Yesterday afternoon I brought home this two year old poodle Schnauzer mix. Her name on her cage said Heidi but the family quickly figured that since Miss Heidi at home is heavily invested in the Terrible Twos and painting her body with stuff you shouldn't use for that and trying to make rules for things like who gets to open the doors or else - many events that prompt "No Heidi!" that this would be counter productive.

So since this new dog likes to stop and smell the flowers Miss Scarlett has phoned in the name Daisy, which is who she is now. And she doesn't know she has a name anyway.

The thing is Miss Daisy was abandoned after her time in a rabbit cage at a puppy mill. She was picked up and sent to be euthanized but ended up with the group that tries to save those dogs, and ended up being walked by me.

These puppy mill dogs really have had a hard time. The ones I have tried to walk won't, they have never been out of cages and don't know how to do it. These are animals that often have not walked on grass, played, being patted, or even had names. 

This little dog really loved to walk however and was the only dog I ever have seen who actually stopped and smelled the flowers. I was told to expect that she would stay in her crate for a long time and I would need patience.

This is a long way from Mr. R the terrier chutzpah king.

But I figured I wasn't going to go home and leave her behind not knowing what would happen to her.

So we came home and she did hide in the crate. She looked at a ball and didn't know what it was. She doesn't know what Good Girl means and looks worried when we say Come. I still have not heard her bark.

But I took her out for a walk and we walked and walked and she was so happy. And she ate so well and I felt her bony back and wondered how many meals it would take to fill her out.

The sound of the dishwasher, the washing machine, the beep of the iPhone, the sound of garlic being chopped at the chopping block startled her.

And last night she was put in her crate but started to fuss and when she came out she tried to get up on the bed. 

And she slept all night, quiet and relaxed, between us.

We will see how we go.

She is a good girl. 

Just doesn't know it yet.

As requested

Here is Vanessa. Other dogs in the shelter can be seen here.