Sunday

Remember the Thimble Bugs quilt from a few days ago? I thought I would show you the back so that you could really see the quilting. I used an all-over meander that forms dragonflies. Because the front of the quilt was so difficult to mark, I put the design on the backing and quilted from the back. It's so much easier to do that than fight with marking the top. I've used this several times and am always pleased with the results. While you are piecing or appliqueing your quilt top, you will know if it is going to be a problem to mark the front. Knowing that, choose your backing fabric accordingly--go light enough to use the silver Prismacolor marking pencil or dark enough that you can use the white Prismacolor or soapstone. Yes, those are flies on the backing fabric--and I quilted the piece with a variegated thread.



Here is a picture of another 5-point star--much more sedate than the pirate/skull one you saw in an earlier post. I like them both for very different reasons--and I have the option of doing both. Try something different--it's only fabric--and if you don't like it, give it to the cat or dog to lie on. They are much less critical of our pieces than we are!

Here's my girl--Lynnie. She came from Boxer Rescue in Pennsylvania, where she was surrendered by an Amish puppy mill. They had bred her as long as they could and when they had no use for her got rid of her. I've had her since January 2006 and she is about 6 years old now. She has recently been diagnosed with a thyroid condition and as a result suffers from alopecia negra (spelling?). Her hair is falling out and the skin is turning black on large sections of her back and sides. Her thyroid medicine will at least stop it from progressing, but the hair will never grow back. In the winter she has a nice plaid fleece coat to cover the hair loss, but this summer will see her naked. I think she is beautiful anyway, and I tell her that in almost every other sentence.

If you have a dog that is losing hair in strange patterns and has gained weight that is just not coming off, have your vet check for thyroid. It's surprising the number of dogs (and other animals) that suffer from it.

If you are interested in learning more about adopting a boxer, please visit http://www.adoptaboxerrescue.com/.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments for me! It's so exciting to get mail! MK asked what I was using to take my pictures with--its an Olympus SP-500UZ 6 mp digital camera. I just love it! I do resize the pictures for the web so that they load faster, especially for those of us still on dial-up. So if you try to resize them bigger, they may be a bit grainy.

I spent most of the day working on new handouts with digital pictures of each step for a machine pieced block of the month class I am teaching. Students have been really happy to have everything laid out step-by-step, and it lets them work along at their own pace.

Spend some time today doing what makes you happy--even if it's only for a few minutes. Happy quilting!