It was probably about 6 or 7 years ago now, but I still laugh out loud when I think about it! Since I've had several bats since then (some with equally funny stories, one with me hiding behind the corner as the bat swooped in circles around the bedroom), I now have bat gloves (the thickest leather gloves I could find at the hardware store) and my bat scoop (the pool skimmer) placed strategically together in the kitchen for any emergencies! I've been thinking about getting a bat cape to complete the outfit!

Oh Nancy, I wish I had been there to see it!

Hi Rita & Renata -

What beautiful cathedral windows pillows! I have a cathedral windows quilt that I started years ago that I still hope to finish one day. So much to do!

Your critter stories have me laughing, especially since I can relate to almost all of them. My most horrific story was when I was living on a farm and a mouse ran across my face during the night. I went to the Humane Society the next morning and adopted a cat! Made all the difference in the world! I also had a mouse stockpiling dog food under the kitchen sink at my current house. I obviously didn't go in there very often because I opened it up one day and one side was completely full and just came pouring out onto the floor! We also don't have snakes at this altitude, but I've had several bats and those scare the $#&$ out of me! When I found my first bat in the house, I freaked out and called my friend. Just as she asked me in a very calm voice where the bat was, it took off from the window and flew straight at me. I screamed into the phone in the most hilarious, hysterical voice "It's flying right at my face!!". That is the only time in my life that I've ever screeched! But then I got myself under control, caught the bat between a pool scooper and a magazine and got it outside where it swooped off into the sky. I actually love bats outside the house and really enjoyed watching it fly!

Nancy

That's a great story about the chipmunks Renata. I just read it out to the kids - they were amused. How wonderful to have your mother teach you how to make a slope and I agree with Karen you do set up a very romantic picture of your mum in her workshop and the nuns in the monastery. I think your mother's cathedral window is beautifully done - it's the Irish flag colours

I could deal with mice, squirrels (we had one of those who used to come in to take the hazelnuts I had gathered), chipmunks, birds and I have even had to get a few bats out of the house but Marilyn I don't think I could cope with a snake! We don't have any snakes in Ireland - St. Patrick got rid of them all - at least that's what they told us when we were young. Personally I think they sneaked back in during the Millennium and wrecked our economy. Most of them are hiding in the long grass now!

kfstitcher wrote:
She really is, Karen, and I wish I had paid a little more attention when I was younger... I'm just lucky that she is still willing and able to teach me.
Renata

Oh Renata I love the story of being with your Mom while she worked! How great to have a sloper made just for you. She sounds like a wealth of knowledge!

Rita and Sugarmuffin57: you just reminded me of what happened last year... good thing I was at the beginning of my quilting journey and did not have a huge stash of fabric... My cat, Luigi, used to bring gifts to the front door, neatly dressed in gift position, very dead, minus the bow... but he stopped doing it as he got older (or perhaps had an unfortunate encounter... don't know). However, one day, I went into my walk-in closet where I store quilt fabrics and could smell cat food. As I pulled a five-yard piece off the shelf, indeed a little dribble of cat food clattered to the floor. As I pulled more fabric off, I suddenly saw, to my total shock, an entire wall of cat food built up behind the shelf behind the fabric stash. A chipmunk was entering the house at night through the hole the TV cable entered the house through. The filling in the hole had been eaten through... he was taking cat food and storing it on the second floor. I do recall, during that time frame, Luigi growling during the night but never thought much of it... After emptying out the closet, washing loads and loads of fabric and patching up the hole with steel wool and then plumber's putty, we were never visited again, to our knowledge...

While I was visiting my mom for her birthday recently, she taught me how to do cathedral windows, both the hand-stitched and the machine-stitched versions. They are much easier to make than I would have guessed. Lynne Edwards has written a very good book on Cathedral Window Quilts and its variations for anyone who is interested. Below is a pillow my mom made for me several years ago.

Lucky me, while I was there, Mom also taught me how to create a "sloper," the basic foundation pattern for my size from which I can create through dart manipulation and other techniques, a variety of clothing designs. This seemed easier to me than trying to alter a commercial pattern, which she also taught me how to do. I've never made a garment myself, but spent many hours in my mom's atelier as a child, hand basting along her chalk mark lines after school rather than being babysat by the nuns in the nearby monastery. It never ceased to amaze me that she could take a client's measurements, and with a measuring tape, put a few chalk marks on a piece of cloth neatly placed on a table and then just cut!!! It is these memories and my desire to learn now that spur me on. However, will there be enough time in the day to do it all?
Cheers, Renata

"Hickory Dickory Dock,
two mice ran up the clock,
the clock struck one!
....and the other escaped with minor injuries!"


We usually get mice trying to move in nearly every autumn. Nice old fashioned wire sprung mouse traps usually solve the problem for us.

Yeah, really, the you tube videos are great. Thanks for sharing Jane.
My method is different, not sure which way to make them is the fastest but this one looks good...

Lori a tree cow is a cow your working with that you had better make sure there is a tree close by you just in case you need to use it! LOL!
Cows cant climb trees ya know! And if I can't get up the tree, I can run around it faster that they can!!! Ha!
Have you ever watched a bull rider at a rodeo the clowns have a big heavy rubber barrel they jump inside if they need to... Same principle..
Our tree cows usually go on a trip to the sale barn... They are just not worth broken bones and ribs and such.
We have a neighbor who’s dad is in the hospital right now in a coma because of a tree cow...
They're just not worth it... but I'd take one of those before I'd take a mouse up my leg... Oh that just makes me shiver shake.

Reetzbobeetz wrote: Well what a small world! Here I've been also watching those cathedral window tutorials on youtube and it's raining too. My husband could never understand why I enjoyed many cute little mouse decorative "things" around the house but freaked out when an actual mouse would get in the house. Big difference!

I had a chipmunk that my kitty brought in once. It had taken up residence in the heat register. Was stock piling cat food in there that it stole at night. Took a some road blocks, a broom and some persistence but I got it out the door and back to where it belonged. Got to love our cats and their gifts.

Jane thanks for the link. I have just been sitting here watching youtube tutorials on cathedral windows - like I am ever going to do that again But it passes the time on a rainy day when I should be doing a million other things.

Glad to entertain with my mousy story. I actually think they are really cute - but not so cute that I want to live with them!

Love the new profile photo Lynn!

Oh!Rita--- I needed a good smile and a laugh on this rain-y Monday morn !! Years back, I had a mini-Schaunzer who
brought "gifts" in the house ! She was a great hunter ! Birds, mice, garter snake...not always quite dead !
Gets the blood pumpin' ... mousey moves so fast ! Thanks for the cheer-up !

It's never a dull moment on this thread. LOL Rita with a mouse up her leg and chasing it around her house. That would have been fun to watch. One time I was cooking and opened the pot holder drawer and reached inside. There was a mouse on the top and I touched it. OMG did I wet my pants that time!!! Now I look every time I open that drawer. This is certainly keeping up entertained until our reels show up. LOL

Sharon