Rottweilers and quilting ... a great mix!

Notice my new quilt layout underneath my assistant?

So many blogs lately have been featuring their dogs and cats.  It's made me wonder if quilty/crafty type people are drawn towards animals?  Or do I just gravitate toward blogs by people that also love animals?  Hmmmmm..... Well, either way, I have noticed a lot of animal talk lately.  Which naturally leads me to thinking about my own faithful, hardworking assistant. 

I'll be honest here.  I have no clue what she is doing or how it helps me.  She has made it her job to lay on absolutely every piece of fabric I place on the floor.  I mean she is totally serious about it too!  She can be upstairs all tucked into her bed snoring peacefully away and I will ever-so-quietly start laying out some squares on the floor and, before you know it, I'll hear her tags jangling.  She'll come thumping slowly down the stairs (it's hard for a 103 pound dog to get moving after a sound sleep) and give me an annoyed look.  "Do we REALLY need to be doing this NOW," she says as she lands on the squares with a huge exhale.  Hurrumph! 

Here she is laying on my very first quilt

Rottweilers are a working breed of dog and are happiest when they have a job to do.  They originated with the Roman armies as cattle herders and cart pullers.  I'm not sure how a Roman soldier would feel about one of his dogs being a quilter but I bet he'd be real impressed by her work ethic! 

Something doesn't feel right.  I better sleep on it. 

I'll never forget the day my oldest son brought her home as a tiny five pound, flea infested puppy.  I had told him that he was absolutely NOT allowed to bring a puppy into our house.  Especially a Rottweiler!  He was moving out soon so I agreed that she could temporarily stay here.  He had brought her home in a plastic rubbermaid bin and she was going to be either in that bin or in his arms the whole time she was in the house.  He paid his younger brother to babysit all day while he was at work and repeatedly take her outside for bathroom breaks.  I tried so hard not to look over at her when she was out because I was still simmering with anger that he had defied me. 

One afternoon I was in my garden pulling out yards and yards of tangled pea vine and I felt a tiny tug.  I looked down to see Jada with a piece of vine in her mouth.  She was shaking her little head and pulling with all her might and then she looked up at me with the conspiratorial look that said "Don't worry Grandma, we'll get this old vine out together!"  My heart just melted .... She became my gardening helper that summer and when I was watering she ran beside me with the hose in her mouth and when I was shoveling she was beside me digging holes.  Always with the sideways glances to make sure I saw her working. 

To make a long story short .... Jada was relinquished to me when my son moved out.  She's my best friend and my assistant in all matters of my life.  Baking, garding, and, of course, sewing.  Jada is by my side throughout the whole quiltmaking process from beginning to end.  She is the inspector and sniffer of all fabric parcels that enter the house (did you know that many fabric shops have resident kitties!?).  She lays at my feet while I sew.  She lays on all my work.  She gets involved in the quilt primping when I'm doing a photo shoot.  She gets yelled at to MOVE! a lot but she never goes away.  She's there for me every step of the way.  

Now I understand the real reason that the Roman armies were such a formidable, dominating force during their time.  They had the best helpers.   

Jada and I making dog biscuits in our matching aprons.