the morning is early.  the fire is glowing across the room.  everything is dark except that little square of flame.  even the windows are still dark.  edgar has been out, but is sleeping deeply again, sprawled on the wide feathery couch and covered in a wool blanket.  telulah has stared at me with her huge eyes and performed her morning sneezes.  ellsworth has come inside and floyd has dashed out.  and stella has not left the warm nest of a bed upstairs with tom.  this is my morning house.  it is settled and quiet.  with a few subtle floor creaks when tom shifts in bed in the room above. i'll make coffee soon.  but i'm loathe to break the stillness.  ellsworth has come purring to me, pressing and curling into the side of my leg.  his fur is still cold from being outside most of the night.  but underneath, he's fat and warm.  i've had a delightful beginning to my day.    

i will be sewing today, preparing for our sale on sunday.  once more we will open at 10 on sunday morning.  and be there until 5.  at the little white house at 55 mowat ave in portsmouth village.  i will have the main room filled with quilts and christmas stockings and napkins and journals, while krista's books and denise's sterling jewelry and a little room of paintings and mixed media pieces fill the sloped rooms upstairs. come visit our little lake splashed village and explore the handmade goodness of our little studio.  
 

 today i was able to sew.  i was anxious and nervous leaving edgar for too long, so i'd run home to check on him every 1/2 hour or so.  but i was able to get a good start on a little pile of quilts.  and i've finally listed the newest farmhouse quilt.  this is the lucky quilt that was professionally quilted a week or so ago.  my friend megan lives on a dairy farm 20 or 30 kilometres outside of the city.  she has 2 kids under 3.  and she has a sewing room with a quilting frame and machine that she guides ever so skillfully by hand, creating charming stitched patterns as she connects the three layers that comprise a quilt.  the farmhouse quilts really needed her touch.  i quite love the new, more finished quality her work gives the quilts.  it does raise the prices, but the added value completely supports the price hike. i find myself going upstairs throughout the day, just to admire this quilt.  it is a great piece of handcrafted goodness, and the collaborative element makes it even more special      

tonight i'm tired.  there are sleepy cats curled up around me, and that may add to my fatigue.  but it will be good to sleep hard tonight.

this is the first farmhouse quilt i ever made.  it was may of 2011.  i had an idea.  i had scraps.  i worked away certain i could turn my idea into something lovely.  but wondered if other people would love my vision like i did. and somehow, just a few weeks after i listed it on etsy, it sold.  i was excited.  i felt like my idea, and my way of making this scrappy quilt, was valid.  i would keep at it.  and then, the woman who purchased the quilt emailed me.  she told me that after hours of poring through etsy, she kept coming back to this quilt.  and when she saw i was from kingston it seemed certainly meant to be.  for she was looking for a wedding gift for a family doctor who lived in kingston.  she mentioned her name and i recognized her as my grandfather's family doctor.  he had died a few years before just a couple months shy of 105. i was thrilled that the quilt was going to her.  really thrilled.  
and yesterday, a year and a half later, this little story continued.  we had our sale at the studio.  a sale i didn't feel very prepared for because of the past couple weeks with edgar.  but i had been able to finish edging the latest farmhouse quilt that has been professionally quilted and it was spread on the bed upstairs being admired.  i felt like yesterday was the launch of this latest incarnation of the farmhouse quilts.  the birth of a new direction.  a woman and her husband came in, talked with me about this and that, and looked around.  eventually she turned to me and asked, 'are you elmer willis' granddaughter?'  i nodded, and asked how she knew my grandfather.  she told me her name and as she was adding that she was my grandfather's family doctor, i was already tearing up.  she related little stories about him.  she remembered him.  and remembered him well.  and then she mentioned the quilt.  and that it is beloved in her home.  that it travels from room to room.  her daughter had snuggled under it with her boyfriend, watching a movie the night before.  and she herself had been wrapped up in it that morning.  i couldn't stop the tears welling up.  i hugged her and thanked her for telling me all this.  i often think about that quilt....my firstborn farmhouse quilt that went off on it's own quite early, to someone who felt a bit like family because of their association with my grampa, but who i didn't know and never expected to meet.  and learning that it is truly loved by someone who cared for my grandfather, is just so special.  it was a good day.  

first things first......our boy is on the mend.  the vet feels that the stones flushed successfully out of his urethra.  he seems back to his wonderful self.  we went for a walk yesterday and he seemed great.  the next hurdle will be removing the catheter and hoping he can resume normal peeing on his own.  i can't say enough how special it was having all your warm and caring thoughts and wishes for edgar.  we really felt the love and i know that made a difference in his strong recovery.  thank you!

although i've had my focus only on getting edgar through this ordeal, life marches on and it is december.  and i have a business to think about.  our first studio sale is today!!! i have the first of my new revamped farmhouse quilts ready to go.  and by revamped i mean, professionally quilted.  it is phenomenal and i'm excited about the direction we're heading with these.  there is also 'the storybook robin', a room full of krista's carefully selected and delightful vintage books that make the perfect little treasured gift.  and denise arsenault has joined us today with her line of lovely sterling jewelry.  

so the studio is open from 10 - 5 today, sunday december 2nd.  we are located in the little white house at 55 mowat avenue in portsmouth village.  

in the early winter, there is a magical time of day/night when the world is dark and your house is bright.  it still feels like day because it essentially is.  the house is bustling around getting home from work, preparing dinner, tidying etc.  but the windows are still uncovered and the light of what we do, shines out into the darkness.  seeing life from the darkened outside always gives it a layer of coziness. it's a little like being on the front porch except with the separation of darkened silence. 
the past few days, if you were seeing into the vignettes our windows create, you would see us doting on edgar.  the first day after surgery, he ate and drank and peed and pooed, walked around the yard and rested really well. we were really encouraged. but the second night was a little scary and distressing, as the nights can be.  he was uncomfortable and gassy and seemed in pain. and he didn't care to walk any more.  but we got through that and late in the day yesterday, we were able to get him settled once more on the couch he loves.  there is an elaborate layering of garbage bags, quilts, leak pads and diapers.  and now that he's on the couch, he's like his old self again.  except that he leaks pee and sometimes blood.  and keeping his skin from getting irritated is a challenge. and he's very unsteady on his feet, only able to walk without both tom and i actively involved.
in a few hours, we're taking him back to our wonderful vet, and he will try to flush this stone out of his urethra and back up into the bladder.  it seems like such a little thing.  but it's so huge to our little life.  thank you for all your wonderful caring comments and your prayers.     

it was snowing tonight when we brought edgar home.  little gusts of white around the lights.  the first gentle snow i've seen this year.  he was so very groggy from almost 5 hours of surgery.  a 'marathon', our dear vet, uncle d'arcy, called it.  when we arrived home, our friends met us and helped carry him in to his bed by the fire.  we are still very much in a crisis, for although an entire speciman jar of pea sized stones were removed from his bladder, the one stone that is lodged in his urethra wouldn't budge.  this is definitely a life threatening situation.  we are hoping that the inflammation will diminish and this awful little piece of rock can be flushed back into his bladder.
for tonight, he is comfy, under quilts and cats, by the fire, drifting in and out of consciousness.  and when he wakes, he whines for water and drinks heartily, which is a wonderful sign.   

our week has been complicated.  edgar has been ill.  it's been an up and down sort of week.  all sorts of anti-biotics and pain meds for our boy.  a huge infected wound on his leg, swollen to twice it's size with pitting edema.  and now bladder stones in his urethra, a catheter and surgery on monday morning.  and my friends have been doing all they can to make things easier.  last night, before the onset of bladder stones, i set up my quilts to take part in the most delightful yearly event at our local waldorf school.  tracy and i at side by side tables, her charming encaustics and my colorful literary quilts.  tom was home with edgar, while tracy and i had a fabulous evening meeting wonderful people and selling our items.  but in the night edgar's issues worsened.  i had hoped i would be able to take part in the event today as well.  instead we were at the vet's x-raying his bladder at 9 a.m.  and tracy took over my table completely, selling my stuff and her own and relieving all the stress i felt from feeling like i needed to be in two places at once. 

 

tonight we are exhausted.  we've been a little edgy.  nervous and frightened about edgar's surgery, about dealing with his catheter (hoping it stays in place), and the injections i need to give him.  there was a loud knock on the front door.  when i turned on the light, not a soul was there, but a brown paper package lay on the step.  and inside the most delightful fabrics, perfect for holiday napkins.  i don't know who found these perfect fabrics, (it feels very 'storybook robin-ish' to me), but they are simply perfect and i love them.  and i love my friends who take such good care of me and show me they care everyday, and then step it up even moreso, when i need it more.