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Whoosh! and WHEE!

That great Whooshing sound is, once again, time evaporating…which is most appropriate because the WHEE is about an exhibit called “A Matter of Time.”  Curated by Brenda Gael Smith of Copacabana, Australia, it is going to be as wonderful as her previous exhibit (that I was also most fortunate to be in) called Living Colour Textiles.

A detail of my quilt, Milkweed No. 2.  To see the blog for the exhibit, visit http://www.amatteroftimetextiles.com

A detail of my quilt, Milkweed No. 2. To see the blog for the exhibit, visit http://www.amatteroftimetextiles.com

Brenda has given a sneak peek in her blogpost, here.  I’ve been fortunate to see a draft of the catalog for this exhibit, and I am fascinated and inspired by the many interpretations on the theme.  I wish I could post myself off to Australia to see it in person.  The exhibit will debut at the Stitches & Craft Show in Sydney: 3-6 March 2016.  Sigh……

In the meantime, I have been insanely busy with good and sad.  For the past 18 months or so I’ve been working on a granny quilt for Joshua’s sweetie’s mom.  Ashley’s gramma died rather young (all things considered), so Ashley’s mom asked if I would make a lap quilt of her clothes.  Of course I said yes!  Then I discovered it was all turtlenecks, sweatshirts and fleece.  Oh.  My.  I’ll blog about that in a couple days.

This past week, my dear tiger tabby cat, Tyger Dumpster Smith, finally succumbed to what had been ailing him for the past year or two.

Tyger, a shadow of his former sleek and handsome self, in his lat minutes

Tyger, a shadow of his former sleek and handsome self, in his last minutes on earth

You might wonder about his name.  When I was very little, about 3-4, I stayed for several months with my gramma and mom.  Down the street lived an orange tabby named Tiger, which I pronounced Tigah.  I always wanted a tiger cat.  In October 2000, I got my chance.  We were living on San Juan Island.  At the time we wanted to be adopted by another cat, the on-island shelter couldn’t adopt out cats due to a kitty-flu amongst their animals, so I went to the Skagit Valley animal shelter on the mainland.   Someone had rescued him two days previously; he was found tied up inside a plastic bag, under a tarp, in a dumpster (there is a special place in hell for the person who put him there).  Well, obviously he selected me.   The spelling of Tyger comes from the William Blake poem

TYGER, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies          5
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

(etc.)

And his middle name reminds us how lucky we all were that someone heard his tiny kitten squeaks and rescued him. He purred until his very last, calm breath.  Sniff.  Now I need another tissue.

Last scritches

Last scritchesSo it was a sad week last week.  

Tyger's collar

Tyger’s collar

And in the meantime, I’ve been doing our taxes early so we could get all of Eli’s financial aid applications in (which followed getting in all of his college applications).  The system is better than when I applied–you do it online and most schools used a standardized form so you don’t have to write 70,000 different things, but it is still a beast and a burden to do.

Those lovely chores were completed this morning!  UGH!

So….drum roll….I got to mess with my weekly photo challenge and work on some designs for thermofax screens for a couple new art quilts.  At long LAST!   So I’ll share more as I can.  For now, please do visit A Matter of Time Textiles blog and enjoy!

 

 

5 Responses to “Whoosh! and WHEE!”

  1. Whiskers Says:

    Your Tyger, as my P’nut, took a little piece of your heart with him on his journey to his next life. They wait for us at the Rainbow Bridge.

    Big hugs,

    Weedy

  2. Linda Says:

    I have a same color color cat named Tugger who is a rascal. He came to live with us as a rescue cat just before I lost a gray tiger named Cinders, the world’s best cat to diabetes. She had the same look in her eyes as yours when we had to say goodbye. The vet made an imprint of her paw in heart shaped clay for us. It hangs in my room. I still miss her after 7 years.
    I would love to see the memory quilt.

  3. Patricia L Walters Says:

    So sad to hear about Tyger. We had a Tyger-like cat for a while when we lived on Long Island. But We left Kansas with 3 cats to move here and lost 2 within a very short time. The 3rd one named Katisha lived with us for 20 years (1993 – 2013). We adopted a female, Kallie, and male, Odie, from the local vet’s shortly after her passing./ Do you want another cat?/ I know your Pug seems pretty special. I love the Non-real colors in his Mistyfuser picture.

  4. Debbie St. Germain Says:

    I am sorry to hear about Tyger. We had a rescue that looked just like him and when she turned 4, she went downhill. I thought she was a tiger when I got her, but she blossomed and her hair grew in and I realized she was a maine coon mix. I read that they can have a heart defect and it usually hits them when they turn 4, so hard to lose our furry loves.

    Debbie

  5. LuAnn Kessi Says:

    So sorry for the loss of your sweet Tyger kitty. I am sure he made your house a home. We must not cry because it is over, but smile because it happened. Just think of the wonderful life you gave him. Thank goodness you came along when you did.

    My Best To You,
    LuAnn in Oregon
    luannkessi.blogspot.com