A quilt that covers Denali Park—Wow! They sure do things big in Alaska!

MILE 231, PARKS HIGHWAY, ALASKA... As otherwise noted in this blog—Quilters (DQ's) are a strange breed. This applies especially so to DQ's who live along the upper Nenana River where it flows along Alaska's Denali National Park.

At 6 million acres, this park, with Mt. McKinley peaking at 20,320 feet, is a bit of a challenge to cover. Of course, quilters really like projects that are demanding, elaborate, and even grandiose. Thus quilting a map of the park apparently was an undertaking the Denali Quilters accepted with sharpened needles and roller cutters at the ready.

As reported by Kris Capps in Fairbanks Daily News-Miner's July 12 issue, the Denali Quilters created a "fabulous" quilt. At 12-by-12-foot, this quilt took 1,000 hours of cutting, piecing, ironing, and hand sewing over a four-year period.

Definitely sounds "fabulous"!

As Kris notes, the quilters created an interesting set of border blocks,

"Twenty-two blocks surround the map, each depicting a close-up view of selected plants and animals. There is the nose and curl of a Dall sheep horn, among rock and mountain avens. There is the hind end of a swan feeding in a pond and incredible blocks showing colorful vegetation.

Each quilter designed her border block, which all provide an illustrated legend for the map."

Yep! At 12-by-12, those Alaskan DQ's sure do things big in Alaska.

Final question is—Who has a bed that needs a quilt that big?

A Big Black Dog and A Duck

TIMBER-LINN PARK, ALBANY, OREGON... If it looked like a duck, swam like a duck and quacked like a duck it was fair game for Ellie Bear (our big black dog) Monday night when we took her to the creek. But the duck swam circles around Ellie Bear, as she tried to keep Ellie away from her babies.

Chris and I had been out for dinner and after picking up some computer paper we took Ellie to a park with a creek and obviously a duck. And a Mama Duck at that! One who didn't take it well when Ellie jumped in the water. The only thing Ellie saw or heard for 1 1/2 hours was that duck swimming in circles around her.

Mama duck was trying to protect her babies. It finally got too dark to see a black dog head or a brown duck or much of anything else in the park. As time went by the Mama duck's quack got horser and horser and Ellie's breathing got more labored.

After the first 40 minutes I was worried that she might drown before she would try to get out.

As much as she loves "Pig Ears," even the those two words didn't get her attention. For all my calling and talking to her it was like I wasn't even there. I guess she has the instinct even if she hasn't been trained to retrieve for hunters. But, I thought the ducks were supposed to be dead when labs retrieved them!

I finally called Dane to come to the creek when he go off work, a 25 minute drive. My hope was that since she is really his dog and minds him much better than me, that he could get he to come out of the water.

Of course, as soon as he drove up, she comes dragging herself up the slope. She is a really smart dog and most of the time knows when Dane is coming home from work. So, now I wonder if she just got tired or if she heard his car and knew she was in trouble.

Well, all ended well, but we had one tired dog. I don't think she moved at all on the way home and she slept the rest of the night away.
Peggy