$25, 000 MILESTONE WINNER! WE MET AND SURPASSED OUR ONLINE GOAL!

The $25,000 Milestone Incentive, "Airemoon", goes to Patty Eisenbraun of Bloomfiled, MI. Her donation put us at the $25,000 mark. Congratulations, Patty! 

The unofficial total of online quilt ticket donations is $25,295.48. Pinky is doing the Airedale scoot in the living room as I type and I'm crying from joy. I am in AWE of the power of the AireForce. 

Unofficially, today's donations totaled $4,420! That is an amazing job! This morning we asked you to donate a little more to help us reach our goal and you did it! Lydia Ross had faith all along that it could be done; I was hoping we would reach it but not entirely optimistic that it was possible. You proved me wrong. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Look what we ALL accomplished together for our beloved Airedales in need in just 2 months time, but today especially.

I will announce the Early 'Dale No. 9 incentive drawing results probably tomorrow or Sunday. From my reckoning, Eileen Tedesco has 844 ticket stubs to fill out before she can do the Early 'Dale drawing so please be patient.  That's a lot of ticket stubs for one person to process in a day!  I don't envy her that job.  I think she has the hardest job of the entire fundraiser and she does it exceptionally well and we are very blessed to have her volunteer each year and do this job every day for two months without a break.  

Stay tuned for the Early 'Dale No. 9 Incentive Winners in the next day or so.

TONIGHT EARLY 'DALE NO. 9 DRAWING ENDS AND END OF ONLINE TICKET DONATIONS!

EARLY 'DALE NO. 9 DRAWING ENDS TONIGHT AT 8 PM EDT

The $25,000 Milestone winner is Patty Eisenbraun of Bloomfield, MI!  Congratulations, Patty!

And don't forget, there is still a $25,000 Milestone Incentive for the person whose donation puts us at $25,000.  
**!***!**!**!**!**!**!**!**!**!**!**
TONIGHT concludes online donations for quilt tickets.  IN PERSON TICKET DONATIONS can only be made on Thursday, Oct. 6th between 6 and 8 PM at the ATCA Hospitality Room in the headquarters hotel. Lori Taylor will be there with the Quilt Display - Leap Y'Aire, and the 4 Bonus wall hangings.

Please note that the drawing for the 2016 quilt, Leap Y'Aire, and the four bonus wall hangings, will take place on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2016 before 8 PM at the ATCA Hospitality Room of the Headquarters Hotel, the Hyatt House in Plymouth Meeting, PA. This will end the 2016 Fundraiser.


NO. 9-1 MUDPUP - PLAYBOW FIGURINE
WINNER:






NO. 9-2  AIREDALE THROW
WINNER:









NO. 9-3  PRINT - "SULLY"
WINNER:







NO. 9-4 SCARF
WINNER:







NO. 9-5 AIREDALE FRAME
WINNER:  









This is also the LAST year of the Airedale Rescue Quilting Bee and the Airedale Rescue Quilts. It's been a long, long run (1999 - 2016) and we've had fun creating unique fabric works of art for the benefit of National Airedale Rescue. A huge thank you to all those who participated in the Quilts over the years and those whose donations made the the quilt fundraisers so successful. You made it possible for National Airedale Rescue to help so many Airedales for the past 17 years. Not including this year's fundraiser, the Quilting Bee has raised $222,540 since 1999 through Oct. 2015.


$20,000 MILESTONE WINNER

CONGRATULATIONS 
TO 
JUDY LUCKETT OF SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS !

Her generous donation this afternoon put the Quilt Blog thermometer over $20,000!  I recognized her name - I placed Winston, a Rescue Airedale with Judy and her husband back in the 1995 when I coordinated Airedale Rescue for Metrolpolitan New York.  They kept the tradition going by adopting 2 more Rescue Airedales over the years - Clio in 2004 from Cheryl Silver of Texas Airedale Rescue Team and again in 2014 when they adopted Duncan from Jan Wiles of Oklahoma Airedale Rescue.

The Sandra Merwin Orginal Mixed Media Painting, "Loving Aire" will be going to it's new home with the Lucketts.


RESCUE SENIOR - GRIFFIE (CALIFORNIA)

GRIFFIE is 12 years young this September. We are extremely GRATEFUL to everybody at NAR for the help with the ongoing medical maintenance of some of Griffie's issues (limping, anxiety and digestive). 

However, the most profound intervention and help from NAR/Senior Fund was given to us in early 2016. In January 2016, as we were getting ready for Greg's Melanoma surgery, Griffie suffered a sudden and unexpected onset of a Glaucoma, an ocular tumor that later did burst, and a loss of vision in his left eye. It all happened overnight, a day before our trip to the UC San Francisco for Greg's surgery. We rushed Griffie to the vet and were given quite a handful of medications to try to control his condition and pain. An eye removal surgery was scheduled the soonest possible. 

However, in the meantime, a mass that Griffie had on his left shoulder for a few years now, that we were monitoring closely, has started growing very fast, and oozing. Another trip to a vet, an aspiration and we decided that removal of this mass was a priority, given a speed at which it grew. Surgery #1 was a success. Ten days later, when Griffie was strong enough to endure the second surgery, we took him to an Animal Eye Clinic specializing in eye surgeries and yet again, it was a success and Griffie was under the anaesthesia significantly less time than expected, and the good news was that the tumor was all contained within the eye and therefore was removed completely, so was his left eye. Griffie since has healed beautifully and now goes by the name of Griffie-The-One-Eyed-Pirate-Captain.

Both surgeries, and all the medical intervention, and Griffie's life today were all made possible thanks to financial help from NAR/Senior Airedales Fund, for which we are deeply and endlessly GRATEFUL. THANK YOU!!! In that last picture Griffie wishes to offer his Kisses to all who helped and love him. 








The Shubins: Nata, Pa Greg and Griffie (and the ABC Team at the Rainbow)

Nata makes beautiful jewelry and donates to the National Airedale Rescue Senior Fund from every sale.  Please check out her pieces at Etsy:




4TH BONUS WALL HANGING - "AIRE LEAPS THROUGH THE SEASONS"

Fiber Artist:  Candy Kramlich


Finished Wall Hanging measures approx. 24.5 - 25 inches

Finally it is done!! My procrastination this year knew no bounds! All because I dreaded the turning under edges and pinning process. My most challenging aspect this year was "ears". The pieces were so small and my fingers had a hard time turning under the edges! In keeping with the "leaping" theme for this year, I decided to use two different Airedale leaping poses taken from an Airedale placemat and made the backgrounds representative of each of the four seasons of the year. I learned 2 new things this year too: if you use 4 fabrics for your sashing, sew two together at a time before attaching to the blocks rather than one at a time; and don't reinforce the stitching at the beginning and end because if you have to rip it out, it's a pain in the neck! Many thanks to Rebecca Eash for making my label.


Label on back



We start off in the top left block with SUMMER on a light green/blue background and the Airedale is leaping to catch a brown toad after a summer rainstorm. I reoriented the Airedale in a downward leap when I realized brown toads don't leap up to high.  I know in central Maryland, the brown toads come out in the yard after a summer rainfall, and my Airedale, Pinky, is in high hunting mode!  So much so, that even a brown leaf blowing in the wind or lying by the back door, brings out the toad huntress in her summer, fall, winter and spring!  It doesn't matter that they taste vile and disgusting when caught and leave her gagging and foaming at the mouth.  The prey drive is just too strong in her. The pink collar is homage to my Pinky.


FALL is the upper right block and the background is a muted green with a leaf pattern.  The leaping Airedale is trying to catch several falling leaves in the blowing wind.







WINTER is on a faint gray/blue background with hints of pine needles in white and brown.  The leaping Airedale in this block is trying to catch a snowball or two.  What Airedale doesn't relish leaping to catch a snowball and then, if they miss, wonder where it has disappeared to in the snow-covered ground!


SPRING's background fabric is a brighter shade of green with a floral pattern.  The leaping Airedale in this block is chasing butterflies and dragonflies.






The idea for this wall hanging was a riff on my first wall hanging, "Bitches in Season" by Christie Williams.  My first challenge for this wall hanging was deciding on the background fabric for each block.  I was trying to use fabric that I had on hand in my "stash". With several years experience under my belt, this year the hand applique work was fairly easy.  It was just a matter of getting started and psyching myself up to do it.  Since it is hard on the eyes and fingers, I usually only work about an hour or two  morning and night on the hand applique, but because I was so behind in my schedule, I did the hand applique on the 4 blocks in 4 days, a new personal record.  My quilting is minimal (just stitch in the ditch in center seams) as I still don't trust myself to get innovative as I have a hard time controlling my sewing machine.  Maybe some day, I'll get adventuresome and get crazy, but for the time being I'm playing it safe so I don't screw up the blocks.


Auditioning fabric
This was a year for recycling what I had on hand from fabric to ideas to drawings.  I had initially planned to have sashing between the blocks alternating the 4 background fabrics.  But I had a huge mis-step and had to carefully rip it out.  I opted to not put any sashing between the blocks.
Freezer paper pattern pieces ironed onto fabric and cut out
positioned on the blocks

Fall Block still waiting to be pinned
auditioning embellishments
Winter Block waiting to be pinned and playing
around with embellishments
I use the self-binding method, so here is a photo of the top, batting and backing fabric pinned together and ready to be sewn. Now just needed to add the embellishment buttons!

I ended up using a rich brown fabric for the backing rather than trying to piece together the 4 background fabrics.  After my sashing disaster, a rookie mistake, I opted not to use sashing.  I tried sewing each sashing piece to one side of each block and then join them.  Well, I ended up with a big "hole" in the middle.  Panic!! I decided after reading an article on sashing that is isn't required, so didn't attempt a 2nd try since I was under the gun and could not afford any more mishaps! Now I can get a good night's sleep. 



EARLY 'DALE NO. 9 INCENTIVES

STARTS TODAY, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 AT 12 AM PDT
ENDS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 AT 8 PM EDT
THERE ARE 5 SEPARATE ITEMS BEING OFFERED

NO. 9-1 MUDPUP "PLAYBOW" SCULPTURE
Made and donated by Wendy Hodgson
www.mudpups.com
https://www.facebook.com/MudPups
https://www.etsy.com/shop/MudPups








Wendy wrote: When I offered to donate to the Airedale Rescue Quilting Bee, I was advised the theme for 2016 is "Leap Year". So, what's better than a dancing, playful, leaping Airedale! 

This Aire Girl is 6 inches from tip to tail handmade by me in my MudPups studio, Queensland, Australia. She is made of stained (coloured) clay and as a special treat for the Bee, a small heart cavity was created in her chest and then filled with beautiful pure white porcelain.

Aire Girl was hand sculpted for many hours, allowed to dry for a couple of weeks, and then fired in my trusty kiln to 1832 degrees F which converts her from dry clay into a solid but still absorbent form called bisque.

Next, she was sanded and her eyes, nose and saddle were applied, then back into the kiln for final firing to 2084 degrees F. The result is what you see in the photos - a ceramic stoneware sculpture of an Airedale in playbow pose.

A final sanding, a protective coating applied and now she waits to discover who will give her a new home. She is happily playing with all the other ceramic furkids on the shelf.


NO. 9-2  AIREDALE THROW
Donated by Denise Lucas


This throw is 100% cotton, washable and measures 50" x 70".  It highlights the many endearing poses of our beloved Airedales. Perfect to throw over the sofa back or display on the wall.

NO. 9-3  FRAMED CHARCOAL PRINT - "SULLY"
Made and donated by Jane Miller
Facebook:  Jane A Miller/Photos/Critters



"SULLY”, framed measures 12 inches x 14 inches.  Jane Miller said "I did this as a prize at one of the Airedale Auctions. A lady won a drawing of their dog. However, this lady did it for a friend that had just lost their Dale. This is what Sully loved to do. And this is the way they wanted to remember him!"

NO. 9-4  SCARF
Artwork by Ann Curran of Ragtail Airedales and Printing by Jan Williams of Arctic Aire and donated by both Jan Williams and Ann Curran



The artwork is Ann Curran's (Ragtail) "Dog on Wheels", printing by Jan Williams.  The scarf measures approximately 60" x 9", is handmade of crinkle chiffon and is hand washable.


NO. 9-5 AIREDALE FRAME
Donated by Delia Hardie



This trio of Airedales measures 3.5" x 5" and makes a lovely frame of your favorite fuzzy face.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS YEAR'S QUILTER

Sandy Lachowski quilted this year's quilt and here is a little history about Sandy that I got from an article written about her by the Central Oregon Association of Realtors titled "Stitching a Story." I paraphrased some of the article.

Sandy has been machine quilting for 16 years and she considers it not work, but an art form that she pours her whole heart into and can't imagine living without.

It started with the gift of a baby quilt for her first daughter.  She was intrigued by the idea of making a quilt and began to take classes and at first concentrated on making homemade children's clothes that she sold at a weekend market.  However, a chance visit to a local quilt shop introduced her to a long arm quilting machine and the rest was history.  The shop owner allowed Sandy to practice on the machine and for a little over a year, she quilted random pieces of fabric on the machine until the owner told her she had practiced enough. Soon Sandy's business "Best in Show Quilts" was born and she mostly finishes quilts for others.  She sometimes will piece and quilt her own creations but not for herself.  She donates them to be raffled where the proceeds benefit a local Humane Society.  Besides quilting animals, she is passionate about her dogs and there are hundreds of dog show prize ribbons that decorate her studio.

To Sandy, the magic of a quilt lies in its story - who was it made for, and why certain fabrics were chosen.  Since Sandy considers quilting an art, she doesn't use any patterns or stencils and refuses to upgrade her original long arm machine because she doesn't want a computerized one.

Here is a sample of Sandy's work.  Wow! 

















































Here's a photo of the Rescue Quilt Booth at the Oregon Quilt Show in July.  They accept a couple of fundraising quilts and Leap Y'Aire was invited to have a booth so Sharon DeBoer set up shop and received many many nice comments on the quilt.





RESCUE - BARLEY - NEW MEXICO

Barley (formerly known as Marley because he was covered in dreadlocks when he was found) was a stray whose owner never came to claim him and that the shelter could not place, so they contacted Airedale Rescue and asked us to take him. He was a bag of bones when we got him - only 45.5 lbs. He is now on his way to his proper weight of about 70 lbs. He was estimated to be around 2 or 3 years old. He had no training when he arrived, but was very,very sweet and affectionate.


Before
First Haircut


So  Handsome & Confident Looking










Our volunteers transported Marley/Barley, visited him frequently at the kennel, groomed him, took him to classes, worried about him, loved him and did everything they could to get him ready for a new home. They said they had never seen a dog in such poor condition. He was not only starved for physical nutrition, but also for human affection. Because he had kennel cough, he had to be kept at the vet's facility in isolation for two weeks. He was covered with ticks and looked like he had never been groomed. It took a couple of weeks to get him feeling well enough to be groomed. Once he recovered from the kennel cough, we moved him to a boarding kennel where our volunteers continued to visit and work with him several times a week, while we looked for the right forever home. By the time we found one, Barley was well on his way to recovering his health - he had already gained several pounds, and learned a few tricks. His new family came fully equipped with a couple of teenaged boys to help Barley utilize the young, enthusiastic Airedale energy he was starting to exhibit.

Here are some photos of Barley in his new home:




Home at Last!


RESCUE SENIORS WHO CONTINUE TO BE HELPED BY NAR FUNDS

National Airedale Rescue, Inc. has a Senior Fund created because there are donors who wish to earmark their donation to help defray the costs of caring for the Senior Airedales that come into Rescue and for one reason or another, they aren't able to be placed because of their age and perhaps chronic health issues.  This fund allows these Senior Airedales to be fostered and cared for and loved for whatever time they have left.  The Seniors are very special.  I know firsthand from fostering Nina, who was unadoptable because of her advanced age and several health issues. She brought so much joy to every day and that's the special secret about the Seniors.

Here are the stories of several Seniors helped by National Airedale Rescue in the past couple of years.  Rusty LaFrance wrote: As you know, I take in the older Airedales ... ones that are having a hard time finding a foster or a home to live in for the later years. These senior Rescue Airedales are a few of the seniors who continue to be helped with their healthcare needs by National Airedale Rescue this past year.  National's help enables them to live out their lives by offering help with their care that sometimes may be too much for an adopter to handle on their own.  It ensures that they have a loving and safe place to live out what time they have left and they deserve that.  In my opinion, the seniors are the best, and give back so much and those who take them in and give them love and a safe caring home are special people too.  


BERNIE (NV - SWAT) I received a call from a lady saying that she and her husband were in St. George Utah .... on their way to Glacier Montana where they were going to live in an assisted living facility that didn't allow dogs. They were from Ohio .  They wanted to know what to do with their 12 year old Airedale so I said I said "Bring him to me!"  Bernie is now 15; the best Airedale you could ask for.. even though he is now deaf and can't see as well.  He loves life and is quite the specimen.  I love having the old man around!


JAX (S. Calif.) Jax was an owner surrender due to a major life change for his humans.He is an escape artist, who just wants to be with his humans so leaves if there is no one at home ... after being picked up by Animal Control the second time, they decided he had to go to Rescue.  We arranged a transport from So. Cal. to my place and what should arrive but an EXTREMELY skinny and tall Airedale boy ... who is a bit of a grouch :-)  We ran all the tests on him to see what was going on to make him so skinny ... lack of groceries was what the vet said (we love our vet and he loves Airedales).  So we have Jax on a really good diet now ... with no grain to try to clear up the hot spots.  We have finally got some fat over his ribs !! My husband thinks he is part StagHound with his tall/long legs !! Jax is 11 now.

ALLIE (S. Calif.) Rusty LaFrance wrote this about Allie.  "Allie was placed in a home in southern California when she was just two years old.  At the age of 10, her humans found themselves unable to take care of her and she was returned to Rescue (per the Rescue contract).  One of my wonderful foster humans had just lost the last senior she was fostering for me, and Allie was the perfect fit for her home.  Allie is very much loved and is traveling between Arizona and Idaho, where it is cooler in the summer months.  It is as though she has always lived with Sheri and Sheri could not be happier.  Sheri is the perfect human as a foster for a senior Airedale, and our Senior program makes it possible for her to take these seniors into her home."

COLIN  (S. Calif. ) Colin was dumped at the shelter. He was covered in fox tails ...everywhere!  It took months to get all the foxtails out of him.  The best we could tell was he was used as a Junk yard dog .  He was 8 or 9 years old, bad teeth and bad infections from all the fox tails, and he had been biten by a snake ! He was in such bad shape that I was sure he was not going to make it, but, tough as nails ... he did. He is being fostered by one of my foster humans that is willing to take care of an older dog that has health issues.  We discovered he had a persistent ear infection and finally got it under control with a special, no grain diet.  He is hell bent on trying to get the snakes so he gets his vaccination every year ... some things you just can't change!