Tuesday 22 January 2013

Computer Bad; Quilts Good; News Sad

Still playing 'Fight the Computer'. Now it turns out the download from school, which I thought was Windows 7, is only an update. This after 2 attempts at downloading and a visit to IT at school. Which means I still need to beg or borrow a disk from someone of a reasonably recent Windows OS (Vista or XP), install it and partition the drive, THEN update to Windows 7 before I can put in the program I need. Beginning to wonder if the hassle is worth it.

Right, so now I've got that off my chest, something more fun...I skipped the Weaving and Spinning Guild meeting the other week in favor of the Quilter's Guild. The program for the night was a trunk show by Elaine Quehl, and a traveling display of mini art quilts from SAQA, which stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates.

Elaine I had met a couple times before, through a mutual friend. She does hand-dyed fabric, and the most incredible, often botanically inspired, art quilts using her fabrics. Click the link. Check them out in the gallery. Wonderful use of color and form.

SAQA was completely new to me. I must admit I'm not really drawn to abstract art, but I do think their idea of a traveling show is pretty neat. A whole group of small quilted panels by all different people, each piece maybe a foot square and framed individually, and sent from place to place to show people what art quilting can be. I think someone said this particular group had Hong Kong on its itinerary, so they are really traveling around. A virtual look at the show can be found on the SAQA website, for anyone curious.

One other piece of news to share, rather sad. (Stop here if you wish). The parents are back to one dog, and down one chicken. Allie made it rather obvious that even after being there for several weeks, she couldn't be trusted with the other animals unless under supervision. Mom had already scolded her away from the chickens that day, and she was being good. The minute Mom went off to check on the laundry, though, Allie tore one of the chickens to pieces, then compounded the felony by trying to hide the evidence, asking for the body back when it was discovered, and terrorizing one of the cats into hiding in the woodpile all night (found the next morning, cold and hungry but unharmed). Add that to the fact that she was showing a bit of a tendency to snap at people over the holidays, when everyone was home, and Mom felt they had no real choice but to put her down. She said she cried all day about it, but they couldn't risk keeping her, and wouldn't have felt right about giving someone else a dog that might harm them or their animals, especially in a rural area. Best case, she'd have to be chained or confined all the time (and what kind of life is that?); worst case, someone would abandon her again, or put her down after another person or animal got hurt. So there was no real way to make that a happy ending, unfortunately. Sometimes it just doesn't work, hard as you try.

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