It is hard to believe that I have not written in so long.  Time flies faster as you get older.  I am not sure exactly why it feels that way, but there must be some sort of physiological explanation.  I think most have similar experiences.  I cant even remember what I have been doing, other than trying to stay above all the nuttiness.

Bear is a very smart dog.  He has realized the pill pockets contain pills.  Despite the fact that he needs his medication, I have not found a way to fool him.  I tried coating them  in butter, sticking pills into Italian meatballs, arranging steak bits alongside the pill pockets - but to no avail.  One in particular is essential - the antibiotics that keep him from having explosive diarrhea all over the house.

I seem to be failing at everything.  This last quilt started out with good intentions, then turned into a monstrosity.  Not only is it king sized, but king sized ugly.  I thought cute quilting would improve it, but it turned out to be an expensive waste of wool batting and metallic thread.  I cant even muster the energy up to bind it. I do love having a binding project that large for evenings on the couch in front of the idiot box, when my addled brain cant do much more than watch for stitch regularity, and occasionally glance up at the tv.  Maybe if I just dont look at the quilt, Ill be ok.

I must update our supporter and donor pages, as well as our rescue pages.  I think for now Ill just upload a picture of Bear in his wig.

Mr. Optimus passed away.  He was my beautiful boy and the inspiration and mascot for Quilts to the Rescue. Sleep well buddy.  I miss you.
Optimus 2001-2014.
.

Hi Everyone!
Summer is here.  Sad to say Mr. Optimus is not doing very well, and it breaks my heart to see him declining.  He looks so sad and hangs his head and his tail.  He does not come in to sew with me anymore.  Tess has been trying to alert me when he needs help by meowing very loudly.  She is very helpful and snuggles him frequently.  Hard to imagine that they have only been together for a year and met at such advanced ages.  One would think they would have kept their distance,particularly with the size differential - 130 pounds v. 8 pounds.

I was hoping to have more time to quilt this summer, but it looks as though the cards are not stacked in my favor.   The blurb about QTTR in the online AQS magazine helped immensely, however, with several quilters sending me quilts and fabric.  Hopefully, another quilting magazine will decide to run a story about QTTR and bring in another batch of supporters!  I am VERY grateful to Ann for running the blurb.

I would love to hear from you, so please, send me an email!
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and productive summer...
Roschelle, Mr. Optimus, Tess and the rest of the QTTR family
admin@

It sure doesn't feel like Spring, now does it?  Everyone has cabin fever up here!

It has been a banner couple of months, with almost a dozen quilts and crate liners going out to rescues.  We have had a number of inquiries from quilters who wish to donate blocks or fabric or their time, as well as requests from rescue groups of both cats and dogs, for upcoming events.

QTTR will be at the Pet Expos here in Michigan as well as the two Michigan kennel club shows this summer.  We will have a booth and hopefully, some quilts and crate liners available.  There will be a big end of event raffle for  giant dog beds,queen sized quilts and crate liners.  The MIdland Quilter's Squared Quilt Guild rose to my challenge and constructed blocks that they turned in to me for quilting.  Many were turned into crate liners, and others were combined into a twin sized quilt and quilted up.  They were all donated to our growing list of rescue groups who are using them for auctions.


Work has been so busy, that quilting has taken a back seat, but not to worry!  It is only temporary.  I will get back to it shortly.  I am hoping that some warmer weather will allow the windows to be opened in the sewing room, which is bound to increase productivity.  I hope you all are finding the time to donate your skills, money or time to helping an abandoned older animal have a better life...

Take Care! Roschelle, Optimus, Tess & the rest of the QTTR Family.

Hi Everyone!  The Holiday season is upon us, and I just wanted to send all of you the warmest of holiday wishes...It gets so busy during this time of year, but I hope you don't forget about the homeless senior animals and their needs.  I will be spending my holiday break quilting for Spring auctions and having quality time with Optimus and Tess (even though Tess may not want to spend time with me....I am going to trim nails and clean ears and do all kinds of terrible things). 
Many rescues will be having spring events and will need quilts, so if you are a quilter, send QTTR a top!  It can be your charitable giving for the holiday season and will bring cheer to many!  I think that some people may not realize that helping others combats depression, and since the winter blues are on their way, what better than to piece a top, or make a monetary donation to QTTR and help the unfortunate senior souls that are without any holiday cheer....
Help an Animal for Happy Holidays...
Warmest Wishes,
Roschelle, Optimus and Tess

It has been a while.  I thought you might like to see Tess.  She is a 15 year old Maine Coon that we rescued.  She is sweet but very skittish. I did have a booth at the dog show here in Midland Michigan, and the prize raffle was a GIANT dog bed shaped like a bone.  I also got some custom orders from folks who attended the show, and that was really great.

The raffle was won by one of the judges, who thankfully had huge dogs!  Also, quilts have gone out, or are about to go out to almost a dozen different rescues...June's Senior Cat Rescue, Save our Seniors, Akita Rescue of NY, P.A.W.S. of Michigan, Illinois Malamute Rescue, HATS, Northern Lights Sled Dog Rescue, Cat House on the Kings, Arlington Friends of Animals, House of Dreams Cat Rescue, and Boxer Rescue of Oklahoma.  I have also sent out a few orders for crate liners and quilts to people who have commissioned quilts in support of QTTR. 
Hope to hear from you soon!  Thanks to the tireless work of all rescuers of animals!
Hugs,

Hi Everyone: 
Sorry it has been so long since I posted.  My Charlotte went over the Rainbow Bridge. She died of dysautonomia, a rare disease in the U.S.  Her last days were awful and it was very painful to watch.  I have not recovered, and am afraid I will never find another cat like her to love.   My work for QTTR halted for some time and I am making an effort to try to get back to it, and go on as if everything were normal again.  So far, I have not been successful.  I hate that I love my animals so much  and feel so deeply saddened when they pass.  I hate that they have such short life spans.  I hate that the smallest things remind me of them and the fact that they are no longer here. I hate that they can't be replaced.  It isn't fair and I would really like it to stop.  Preferably soon, so I can go on with my work.
    Optimus is mourning too.  It is almost harder to see him mourn and be sad, he is an old dog and should spend his limited time being joyful.  Just another thing to hate - the fact that you can't fix it.   Sorry for being so morose.
Thanks for listening.
Roschelle and Optimus

So, its the new year, and I have been lax about blog-ing...so what else is new????   This is a picture of the quilt top Sharon sent that I quilted.  Sharon is a life-saver and so so talented!

I apparently am losing my mind.  The poor folks/keeters at Akita Rescue of Florida thought I had forgotten about them, because they had not heard from QTTR in so long.  I was sure I had contacted them about sending out quilts in early Spring, but I guess I imagined it.  I feel just awful about it.  QTTR will just need to send out an extra special box for the Florida orphans.  We also have two new organizations that will be getting quilts soon.  Cat House on the Kings in California and Northern Lights in Indiana. 

I had a rough start to the year, both personally (health-wise) and with quilting.  I just had so little energy that I could only quilt for an hour or so before getting tired.  Everyone knows that an hour is just insufficient!  I keep wanting that magic wand to show up, but it  has not surfaced yet...I did however spend several days picking out thousands of teeny tiny stitches from a top that is half quilted - ugh.  It was terrible. What amazes me is that it took only seconds to screw it up and days to fix it.  It should be the other way around, dont you think?

We got a lovely note from BEAR (Big East Akita Rescue).  Talk about having it rough.  They are in NJ and right in the eye of Hurricane Sandy.   We got keeter kisses and are happy to know that the dozen orphans and JoAnn are safe. Well I hope everyone had a great start to 2013.  I will write soon, promise!

Woofs, Meows and Hugs,
Roschelle, Optimus and Charlotte

Sharon sent this lovely top, here it is quilted!  There are 5 more...I have two left to quilt.  We sent three out, Shadow Cats, HATS and Tulsa Boxer Rescue were the recipients.  I am about to send one out to BEAR - Big East Akita Rescue...

We held a raffle for a quilt at the Tails to Trails event and it was very disappointing.  We only had two people buy raffle tickets, which is a huge revenue loss on a quilt. :-(
Otherwise we are making people and pets happy!  We got a lovely thank you note from a recipient of one of our quilts that was auctioned off at the nationals by SOS ARWNY.  Shadow Cats and Tulsa Boxer Rescue were really happy with their quilts and hopefully made a ton for the rescued cats and dogs through their auctions.

There is still so much to do, so we continue to woof along!

Thanks to Quilter's Newsletter, we had a blurb run in their last issue.  We are so grateful, because that blurb generated at least a dozen inquiries from quilters around the U.S!  We have a growing family of supporters, it is so exciting!  We also have a growing number of rescue groups who have either received or are requesting quilts for auction, many of those are coming up in September and October.  I am really busy trying to meet the demand; and it seems that my sewing machines are not happy with their workload.  All of them have balked and have ended up in the repair shop!  I am going to pick one up today, hopefully it will decide to cooperate....One of the QTTR family members suggested a page for the rescue groups and for the supporters, with links and stories...What a great idea!  I need to find some time to sit down and figure out how to make that happen.   I wish I were more tech savvy.  Anyway, I hope everyone is doing wonderfully and we will write again soon!
Big hugs,
Roschelle, Optimus, Charlotte and the QTTR family