Being shot at trumps being hit by lightening!

We came home yesterday to find a strange car in front of the garage.  DH went into the house and saw that it had been trashed.  He was standing by the strange car calling 911 and a guy stood up on the other side of our car, raised his gun and shot at DH and then took off running across a field into the woods..  Luckily he missed.. Every drawer had been dumped and cupboards had been ransacked and all our suitcases were loaded with what they were going to steal.

The county sheriffs were immediate and wonderful.  They used dogs and were able to track the one with the gun. The second one got away even though the police had a helicopter looking and they are coming back this morning with the dogs. The thieves had planned to steal our truck also as they had started to load it with stuff.  Even this morning I shudder thinking of it and I couldn't sleep last night thinking of another out there.  It turns out the strange car was also stolen and the captured guy was high on drugs.

It was a pitiful effort on their part as we have little of any real value... The two most valuable things I own are my two featherweights and they are untouched.....but the fact that the guy was willing to shoot at DH was and is still terrifying.  Even though I'm sure the second guy is long gone I am hesitant to walk in my forest this morning.  If we'd come 1/2 hour later they would have been gone with our truck and everything else...















being shot

RR and Critter Production

Lest you think I have just been sitting and twiddling my thumbs, I have been busy producing critters for the jacket.  Unfortunately I have misplaced the house finch I finished and hope it turns up before I finished the jacket.

But here is a robin, swallows, Morris, hen and chicks, bluebird like the one I did for Cathy and another hummer in progress. I need only 3 more to finish the left side..  The thing I REALLY like the most about doing these appliques "off-block" is the freedom they give me in moving them about before I stitch them down..

Now I'm going to have all the critters I love on the jacket and the critter I love the most really needs to be there...  So here is how DH will be on the jacket...

I did finish the Cathy's wool block and there is a first for me on it... The bluebird is done with bamboo thread.  I really like the texture of it...

Leave your name for a giveaway of fancies....

It was a busy summer weekend and there was only 4 of us tackling the bins but we were able to reduce my 8 bins to 6 bins.  Here they are cutting velvets.

It was ALL fancies....silks, satins, velvets, etc. and we ended up with bags and bags of it cut into 8-10" squares.  I will have large bags to give to new stitchers who join our group, packets of fancies for new classes and I'm going to have a give away of three bundles so leave your name and a comment and I will choose on Wednesday evening.

Afterwards we had a nice lunch in the gazebo and each cutter took home all the fabric she wanted.

Bird's eye view

I should have added this photo to yesterday's post as this is the view that birds had from the top of that old snag...  You can see why there was ALWAYS a bird there.  But now it will rot, attract insects and the woodpeckers will love it...

I will mourn the loss of this tree...

At the back edge of my forest there was a huge old dead tree about 40' tall and it overlooked the valley behind us...  It was a favorite with the ravens, wood peckers, and hawks and at dusk I've seen the occasional great-horned owl there.  One day I even captured a shot of an eagle on it.   Every day as I walk  in the forest I check  it as I turned this corner...  This morning I was about 100' past the corner when I realized I missed it and walked back... Sure enough it was down... 

We had horrific winds Tuesday with gusts up to 65 mph and my lovely old snag was a casualty..  I have been watching it for over 30 years so I had expected it to happen long ago, but just the same, I shall dearly miss this landmark on my daily walks.

I blogged about my day in 2011 when I was looking for a cougar siting and saw the eagle..   olderrose: It's so great when you have a camera at the right moment!!