Poor Tessie

Can you believe this perfectly healthy dog now has to take medication for life?

Poor Tessie is in the middle of a second bout of a bacterial skin infection in just two months. I will spare you a description of the symptoms. Let's just say, she needs a bath every couple days while this occurs because her skin starts to get that "doggy" smell way to quickly after a bath.
Lucky for me, Tess loves a shower. Literally, she actually loves to get one. All I have to do is take a pile of towels from a closet and open the shower door. She practically knocks me down when she rushes into the shower. It is amazing. And I hate that word, it is the most overused word in America, but it really is "amazing". Maybe it is because of all the baby talk she gets while in the shower or maybe, it is the massage, or maybe the warm water. But whatever it is, she seems to really like getting a shower.
Anyway, what Tess now has is low thyroid. The very smart vet tested her as a last resort as to why she was getting these staph infections. Smart doctor. Although, I did look it up on the internet and found that labs and retrievers, 4-6 years old, who have been neutered, get low thyroid the most of all dogs. Tess is a 5 year old, neutered, lab/retriever mix. So there you go. Right on target!

Binding Tutorial

My friend Candace over at Squash House Quilts posted a nice little tutorial about sewing a diagonal seam to close up the binding strips on your quilt. It's something I should have been doing all along but didn't. Thanks to Candace, she motivated me to do it the right way today. It's easy and looks so much better than just tucking in the end.

Same Quilt as Before

Talk about the "same ol', same ol'. I just made the same quilt again that I made last week.


I am just so inventive, I really surprise myself! LOL At the last quilt show, I made waaaaaaaaaay to many half-square triangles while I demonstrated my Stitching Lines in one bunch of colors, enough for two baby quilts. And since I was not at all happy with the quilting on Chameleon Critters #1, I made another.



This time I did my world famous meandering quilting all over the surface. Oh, and I didn't do it just one time. I actually quilted the whole darn thing earlier in the week and then ripped it all out.
Did I ever tell you I am not much into the quilting part of this whole thing??? Anyway, my tension was all off and the bobbin thread was just laying there on the surface waving at everybody that walked by! So, out it came. Seems that my Juki runs best on the frame when I use a pre-wound cardboard bobbin. I failed to use that the first time..........and I know better.


And surprise, surprise, I quilted a second baby quilt yesterday.............two in one day....I am very impressed with myself!! I think I have posted this one before. Another bunch of half-square triangles needed to be put to good use.


And again, meandereing all over..............I can't do anything else on my frame.......no talent in that department?

Chameleon Critter Baby Quilt

I finished up another little baby quilt today. These half-square triangles were made during the demos I did at my last show in Ventura. I had purchased the dark brown Chameleon print last year and was waiting for the right time to use it. It certainly is different from most baby quilts, but that is just why I like it. A perfect quilt for a little baby boy!

Camarillo Was a Good Show

The Camarillo Quilt Show was a success! It was held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Andy helped me this time. I am sure he was totally bored for the whole show,
but he did very well for his first time. And probably his last time.
That's not how he likes to spend his time.

Here are some of the quilts on exhibit. They were all beautiful. Unfortunately, the lighting in the building was horrible and did not show off the quilts to their best advantage. And I used my cell phone for a camera. So believe me when I say these quilts were better than they look in my photos!

This is called "Indecision" by Sharon Norbutas. It is only one block over and over that has been rotated, reversed, reduced and distorted.

"Fun With Flowers" by Vicki Nichols. I love the lattice.

"Scrappy Dresden" by Lynda Blais. Lynda used over 180 floral prints for this beauty.
It's all hand appliqued.

"Christmas Visions" by Saralee Antrim-Salzan.
I love the optical illusion.

"Pinatas de Navidad" by Noreen Arroyo.
The large stars are three dimensional.

"Completely Dotty" by Patti Jacobs.

All the prints are polka dots.