Recent Mischief
Harry Becomes New ABQ Mascot and Logo August 31, 2009
Prior to the 2009 International Quilt Show, I wanted a new web page design, new covers for my patterns, and a new logo and look for my business cards. I asked my friend Christine, who is a graphics designer to come up with something. She had a close look at my existing webpages, all the while asking the question, "What is 'Among Brenda's Quilts'? What does that mean?" She decided that the common theme was Harry. So she found a clip art cat and plugged him into a nice new banner for me. The new front covers and business cards were then designed, I made a few new quilts for new pictures and samples, and the web pages were redesigned mostly by hand from scratch by my husband. It has been a lot of work, and although we think the results are worth it, we still blame Harry for putting us through it.
Winter 2008 / 2009 September 1, 2009
We mostly see Harry around - inside, underfoot, and otherwise in the way, when it is the dead of winter. January 2009 was one of the coldest and snowiest winters that I can remember, and Harry pretty much moved inside to sleep on the quilts at that time. At least, he made an effort to sleep, until around 4:00 in the morning or so. It is really quite challenging living with a creature who is nocturnal and insists on going outside even when it's 20 below and snowing, when you yourself are at your happiest under a thick layer of comforter and quilt!
We do our best, trying to keep Harry amused inside the house, of course. At times he gets pretty frisky, or antsy; heck, at times he's downright schizoid! It's times like these that we find he is best left to his own devices. We don't want him ambushing our feet and biting through our socks in a Kamakazi hit-and-run maneuver. That hurts! We just give him an elastic band, and back slowly from the room. He can play with that rubberband for hours.
In winter, too, Harry is at his cutest and snuggliest. He is cute because his fur is very lush and the horripilation makes it stick straight out. He goes outside and dives through the deep snow, nose first. When he comes in, he has snowballs stuck to his long fur, between his legs, and he walks like John Wayne after a long ride. As far as snuggling goes, Harry doesn't like a lot of it, but he will occasionally 'warm up' by sitting on you for a few minutes. It's not unusual for him to come inside and leave a pool of melted snow on your lap before heading to the kitchen for a snack.
When he wants to sleep, however, he just wants to be left alone, and he will sneak away somewhere. If we are lucky, we find him on or near a quilt, and then snap a picture of him for this web page.
Springtime Gardening with Harry September 2, 2009
As the weather warms up this spring, Harry is spending a lot more time out of doors, and we mostly see him when we are out digging in the garden. He waits until we have planted the seed and carefully raked it before he helps us dig, unfortunately. He is very curious to see what we are doing, and when we are finished he lets us know that a) this is his domain that we are working in, and b) the improvements we are making are acceptable, just as long as we don't get too cocky!
In the spring, Harry's lush winter coat needs to be groomed regularly by his tongue, and unfortunately for him, this means lots of clunks in his fur. He really looks rather ratty in spring - especially after we end up cutting big chunks of those matted areas out of his otherwise fine pelt. Currently he has lots of missing fur either side of his neck that we removed. He looks like he has a 'mohawk-style' haircut. This means that Harry is not as photogenic as we would like for our web page.
Harry Furs Up The Place September 3, 2009
As usual, Harry is getting away with his mischief. When I'm too busy to give him the attention he demands, he takes it out on me by insinuating himself into every project I have on the go. It has ever been so, here Among Brenda's Quilts. Harry has sort of become our unofficial mascot. When we were looking for a new logo, my friend Christine suggested a little clipart cat. You may not immediately see what it has to do with quilts, unless you have been a frequent visitor to our old web page. Believe me, it fits! There seems to be one constant at Among Brenda's Quilts, and that's Harry. I hope this doesn't mean we have to insure Harry for a million dollars or something. The way he throws himself into life and death situations, it would be a costly premium, I'm sure.
Update: ABQ Mascot at Large! September 4, 2009
Harry is really busy out of doors. He likes the cool spring weather. He only comes in for snacks, the rest of the time he is out and about. He even sleeps outside, whenever and wherever he likes. And what he likes, oftentimes, is to have a snooze in our charcoal pit. We are not sure why. We have our theories: maybe he just likes to swing in the breeze. Or maybe he likes it because it acts like a charcoal filter and deodorizes his cat-odor. In any case, we are just glad he is outside and not laying on our quilts. Especially after he gets all sooty.
Harry Infiltrates a Blog! September 5, 2009
The Electric Quilt people have a new blog site called Quilt Gallery that features pictures of EQ sketch book designs and the final quilted project. Our furry mascot Harry the Cat is featured in my design ‘Risky Business’. Scroll down the EQ Quilt Gallery Page to see what’s happening with Harry now.
Thanks Penny!!!
Harry's New Cat Feed November 8, 2009
Ah, autumn. The air is crisp, the leaves ablaze with colour. Harry, the ABQ Quilt Inspector busies himself with checking out every stitch in Brenda's quilts. Out each night hunting for sport, this time of year means Harry has less daylight hours to do his main job, which is staking his claim and dropping his fur Among Brenda's Quilts. Yes, his new winter fur is growing in nicely, thank you very much, but the old fluff has to go somewhere. Why not enrich the nest?
And Harry has a new feed! Well, his food hasn't changed -- he likes the most expensive stuff, of course -- but this website now features a news feed, so to keep up with Harry's latest shenanigans all you have to do is subscribe to ABQ (via Harry's New Feed) and you can read all about it in your newsreader (Google Newsreader is free and fun, and easy to use from your browser). If you already use Google Newsreader, just click on the RSS/Atom Feed icon in the URL bar of your browser, and you will get regular updates of Harry (and Brenda's Quilt Designs, too, of course).
While you were away... February 4, 2010
Harry kept himself busy while we, his owners, took ourselves off on holidays this January. Thinking that it was time we updated to vertical blinds, he took things into his own paws. This is our window seat area in the family room after his creative spurt. Needless to say we were stunned to discover his hidden talent and are hoping he doesn't decide to do something with the drapes next. Keep in mind when judging his work that Harry has no claws and was unable to refine and fine tune the details involved in his renovation...