Artist: Evie Fieseler
Media: Hand Appliqué and a bit of Hand Embroidery

Rowdy came to live with us at age 13.5, a very sick old man, and as it turned out he was with us just five vet-intensive days before his death. In that very short time, he found his place in our hearts. As sick as he was, he came confidently and with great interest into our home filled with dogs and cats and teenagers. Right away, Rowdy started putting his head in one lap or another, doing gentle, playful bignosepokes, and glimmering at us with those sweet, loving eyes, reaching out to us... I got to thinking that Rowdy's outlook reminded me so much of the way my funloving mother had lived her life--always ready for the next adventure and reaching out warmly to give to others, no matter what. My mother died at 65, 24 years ago when I was only 31, and over these years since I've sometimes felt cheated not to have her love and friendship. When I made this quilt block, I tried to imagine my mother as an elderly woman; I found that I could imagine her body aging, but that I could not imagine her funloving spirit changing in any way. So the woman in the wheelchair is my imagined elderly mother...still happily playing and fully enjoying everyone around her. I designed my block to show that my mother and Rowdy would have enjoyed each other, and I can imagine the laughter and their dancing eyes if Rowdy were to ignore the toys and begin tugging on the quilt. With my quilt block, "Senior Rescue: Rowdy and Oma," I especially wanted to honor warm, loving, happy Senior spirits who know how to give so much, and to illustrate that "old and frail and needing rescued" often equals "warm and delightful and rescuing"!

Artist's Bio:

Evie Fieseler, a retired English teacher, lives in Melrose, Florida with her 19 year old daughter who is disabled.  Evie also has two sons who are 19 and 23.  Evie is a long time volunteer staff member of CompuServe CATS Forum.  Evie presides over a menagerie that includes eleven dogs, cats, rabbits and pet rats.  Evie assures us that all of her animals coexist peacefully.

Evie has two Airedales.  Tweed, who is 12, is her only non rescue.  Leo, aged 10, was adopted less than a year ago after he lost his home due to divorce.  Evie has adopted nine other "random bred" rescues.  Of this group 4 are seniors at age 10.  Her quilt block was inspired by Rowdy, a  13 1/2 year old rescue, who was terminally ill when Evie rescued him.  Although he only lived with Evie for five days, his gallant Airedale spirit inspired her.

The 2001 quilt block was her first quilt related venture.  She has done counted cross stitch and some sewing.

Evie is the Quilting bee treasurer and has coordinated ticket sales for the 2001 quilt.  She designed the art work for the raffle tickets, as well as the ticket order forms.  She also created the newsletter flyer.  Evie said she may be persuaded to do it all again next year as well.