Ginny


On Monday morning, our beautiful Ginny crossed the bridge. While it had seemed on Saturday like she might be rallying, on Sunday afternoon her condition deteriorated rapidly. In true Ginny fashion, one of her last bursts of action, after a feeding session, was to circle around me, flicking her feet all the way. She spent the afternoon sleeping in the sun, with Weasley by her side. Later, she moved to the kitchen litterbox, and Weasley stayed there at her side through the night. On Monday morning, as I was leaving to take my daughter to school, I told her it was OK to leave, and I told Weasley that it was time to let her go. When I came back a little later, she was gone. Weasley continued to sit with her for another hour or so.

I would like to share with you some pictures that were taken of my girl before I started blogging. Ginny was born in the basement of this house. From the very beginning, she had an amazing amount of curiosity, opinionated self-confidence, and spunk. When her siblings went off to other homes, I couldn't let her go.




Ginny and her siblings, a few days old. The red are sisters, the white are brothers.

 Ginny liked to climb everything, jump off anything, and would only stay put briefly for petting. She would race around the house at top speed, and bounce off the walls. She was constantly underfoot, because she always had to know what was going on.

Here they are, a little older.

She always wanted to be where she wasn't supposed to be. When she was younger, she used to race to the top of the stairs, just in case we left the upstairs gate open. She loved to be able to get into my oldest daughter's room, especially after my daughter went off to college.

Ginny and her sisters, about 7 weeks old. To be honest, I'm not sure which one is her.

When the bathroom door was open, she would hang out near the entrance, trying to look nonchalant. When she thought we weren't looking, she would race into the bathroom, and  try to dig her way behind the washing machine.

Ginny (in the back of the picture), with her parents Molly and Weasley.

When she was given a treat, Ginny would run off with it to a "safe" place. Sometimes she would forget to stop running, and would lose the treat somewhere along the way. If that happened, she would go and take Weasley's treat away from him.

Ginny getting ready to perform the Bun Concerto Number 4.

When let out of the kitchen, Ginny and Weasley had a certain path they would travel, before settling down somewhere. Ginny would throw things that were in her path Their path took them under the dining room table, where my husband used to leave his shoes. More than one pair of shoelaces were bitten in half before he learned his lesson.

Weasley on left, Ginny on right, Valentine's Day.

Ginny hated to travel in the car, and would throw major tantrums. She would dig her towel from one side of the carrier and back again. And she would thump. A lot.

Every hearth needs a bun.

Like most bunnies, Ginny loved to sleep in the sun. But she also loved to cuddle up and go to sleep in the curls of the vacuum cleaner hose. I have no idea why.


A little privacy, please, Mom!

 Every now and then, Ginny would develop a digging habit. It would generally only last for two or three weeks, until she found something else to fascinate her. She could empty a litterbox very quickly. When I got the supposed "dig-proof" litterboxes, she soon learned to use the narrow opening as a chute to throw the litter out through. 



Someone left the hay bin in the kitchen open. Don't know for sure, but most likely Ginny led Weasley up here.

This blog got it's name from Ginny's habit of textile destruction. I will never forget the sight of her covered in batting bits, as she looked up at me from the quilt she was chewing up. Her towels looked like swiss cheese.

Nothing more beautiful.

The only piece of fabric she ever refused to chew was the one I gave her, thinking that I could make some interesting textile project from the result of her chewing. That fabric is pristine to this day!

Leading her father into trouble. Again. 


We almost lost Ginny a couple of times over the years. The first time was when she decided to show how much she liked getting her hair cut by biting through the cord of the electric clippers. I have no idea how she survived that. We would have lost her last June, if our new vet had not been really good with bunny teeth. Now she's gone, and our house is very quiet. Ginny's presence was much bigger than her physical size.



Dreaming up more bunny projects.

 Ginny was a joy to know, and we feel truly blessed to have had her in our lives. She will be missed.

As for Weasley, he didn't eat so well the first day, but is doing better now. We are giving him extra love, and lots of time to sleep in the sun. And he seems to enjoy "watching" NCIS on the couch while getting his fur stroked. Please give your furry ones, bun or otherwise, a little extra love from us today.

Happy Birthday To A Special Friend

Tomorrow is the birthday of a very special lady, Shell, from The Raspberry Rabbits. Not only is she a very talented and creative soul, but she has the biggest heart around. Weasley, Ginny and I would like to wish Shell a Very Happy Birthday, and say how glad we are that she has become our friend through this wonderful blogging world.

See how excited Weasley is about this?

He says he'll wake up if  Sugie and Harrington will send some carrot cake over. 

Then again, knowing Weasley, maybe he won't.  Anyway, we hope you have a great birthday, Shell!

For more Birthday Wishes, check out the links on Donna's blog at Brynwood Needleworks.

Friday In The Garden

It has gotten cold again here, but at least it's sunny. I took a little walk in the garden, to see what might be sprouting. Under the row cover in the vegetable garden, there are some baby lettuces.

And also, some baby spinach. This was planted in the fall, but a month later than I usually plant it. I wasn't sure it would grow. We should be having spinach salads by Easter.

Some bulbs are also beginning to poke stems up through the ground. I wish I had more bulbs, especially daffodils. One of these years, I will actually get around to doing some fall planting.....

Inside, I am working on a few tiny quilts. Aren't these cheerful? They make me laugh, and that's a good thing.

Also inside, Ginny is soaking up the sun. There have been no improvements in her condition, but she is still perking up for papaya treats. We will see what the weekend brings. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Playing In The Scrap Pile

I felt the need to do a little therapy sewing over the weekend, so I plunged into the pile of scraps on the floor near my sewing machine. This pile had been growing since January.

It felt good to just dive in, and let that sewing machine roar along at top speed. The result was a pieced rectangle, about 14" by 25".

I layered this up with batting, and quilted it, using feather, leaf, and paisley motifs in my three favorite variegated threads.

I decided to use this as a binder cover, so I cut up some fabric for the inside sleeves to hold the binder, and some pockets for loose papers. Once all the layers were sewn together, it looked like this on the outside.

On the inside, you can see the pockets. Lots of room here to stash stuff!

And finally, a view of the completed binder cover. I'm not good at keeping records in a bound notebook. Usually I grab whatever piece of scrap paper, post-it note, or napkin is closest to make drawings and notes to myself. I'm hoping to corral some of those in this binder, making it easier to go back and find information that I want to reuse, or ideas that I want to expand on.  

I'm very pleased with the cheery look of this project. Isn't it amazing what a treasure trove a scrap pile can be? What have you made lately from your scaps?

Ginny Update: Not much has changed here. Her eating is up and down, so she is getting Critical Care supplements (which I have to work hard to keep Weasley out of!). I'm checking into some suggestions I was given after my last post. Thanks for all the support and prayers.

Update On Ginny's Health, Or Does Anyone Know Of A Good Bank To Rob?

It hasn't been a great week here at the Home of Rabbits Who Eat Quilts. There is no need to get into all of it, so let's go straight to talking about Ginny (she prefers it that way, anyway). Our girl had surgery yesterday to remove several of her lumps. A couple of them had become infected, and antibiotics weren't doing much. They were also large enough that she was quite uncomfortable. They took a small one off her belly, a very large one from under her chin, and checked on and cleaned up one in her mouth (that couldn't be removed).

She came through the surgery OK (unlike my wallet), and is starting to eat again. Ginny is keeping herself somewhat isolated, but Weasley is giving her cuddles when she lets him.

Weasley on left, Ginny on right.

We are keeping our fingers crossed that she recovers well from the surgery, and praying that she can expel this virus from her system, and be done with it. Please send some healing thoughts her way. She might not say it, but I know she would appreciate it.

An Over-Abundance Of Hare

Umm, I mean hair.

"Hey, Dad! Can I join you?"

"I'm coming in!"

"Ginny? It's kind of crowded in here...."

"But a snuggle is always nice."

Outside, the snow is finally disappearing.

I think it may be time for the hair inside to do the same.

"What??? Ginny, did she just use the 'h' word?"

"No haircut for me, Daddy-o. I'm outta here!"

Good Intentions....

Well. I had good intentions of finishing up several projects this week, but it's not going to work out that way. What is under this blanket (Daughter #1) is home for a few days, and has come down with a stomach bug, just to make her very short visit more fun.

And this gorgeous girl is having some issues. One of her lumps that she gets is infected. I'm supposed to be putting warm compresses on it. Yeah, right!

So, not a lot is getting done. I have almost finished this. It's the first quilt I made for the Three Creative Studios Color Palette Challenge, the one that I didn't end up using. It still needs a sleeve and label.

There are several figures quilted into it. These were done after all the other quilting. I'm not too happy with the effect.

This little gate was tried in several different spots. I liked it here before quilting, not so much after. 

I had to go over this one with a lighter thread, because it faded out completely when I used the thread that I had used for the other figures.

I really like having the figures in the piece, just not how it was executed. I have always done the quilting part of my quilts without planning ahead, just doing what seemed right when I got to it. If I'm going to keep using these figures, I'm going to have to change my way of thinking about the quilting, and do more planning.

Next up, some little springtime quilts, just for fun.

Target: Converse



Do you think those laces taste like timothy?



Look What I Found!

On the south side of the house, the snow is starting to recede a  bit. I had to climb through snow banks to get there, but look what I found.

What you see is little sprouts of brand-new parsley, just starting to leaf out. Isn't it wonderful to see this green?

You would think they could look more enthusiastic about it. We are talking parsley, after all!

Weasley says, "Call us when you get a sink full, Mom."

Ginny adds, "Don't forget the Kale!"

The Paint Was Flying

During school vacation last week, we ran some classes at the Leominster Art Center for the first time. Probably because it was new, we didn't have a large number of kids sign up. My fabric painting class ended up being three little girls, and three big girls (my daughter was one of the older ones). 

We made stamps from foam core and sticky foam, and used them with paints and markers to decorate totebags and scarves. I also brought along stencils and other stamps that they could play with.

On the lower right of the picture above, you can see a few of the stamps that they made.

This is some of their things drying, before they went back and added more layers of color. We worked with a motto of  "more is better"!

I was glad the older girls were there, because the two youngest may have been a little too young for the entire project. The older girls were able to buddy up with the younger ones, and ease the process along.

And, they were a huge help in the clean-up. We tried to be careful, but with such enthusiatic work going on, it was inevitable that some paint went astray. We had to scrub chairs, the floor, and the bathroom before the next class was due to start (one hour later). We just managed it. I can't wait to do it again!