Sherbrooke Dog Show

This past weekend's dog show took place at the exposition centre, dog showing inside the building with 'campers' parked outside in the parking lot. Thursday night we were all alone. It was warm enough that I had to put a table cloth (not what Lucie had intended) and a towel (from my teenage years!) on the X-pen to give the dogs some shade.

Not long into the weekend and the parking lot became a zoo with cars parked every which way, including in front and beside us, as close as anyone could park.
Flat coat retrievers are in Group One and hence nearly always shown at the beginning of the day. Each breed in the Group is listed alphabetically and shown this way. Here is Gypsy, our liver-coloured gal at just short of 2 years of age being inspected by Friday's judge. Last year I 'retired' from showing Gypsy, to be replaced by Melanie who gets a remarkable performance out of my little girl. I kinda like the number one in the corner of the picture, but alas ... read on

The tilt of the judge's head tells it all. Gypsy places second in her category.

This is Saturday and the flat coat booster; as a result there are 14 FC's being shown today. Here you see Nicole Germain, our breeder, showing Botox, Gypsy's liver brother. You can see more of her dogs at http://www.flat-coat.net/

It looks like Melanie is not so pleased with Gypsy and perhaps 'having a talk' with her.

Melanie definitely has Gypsy's attention. Both did very well in the ring, but a better bitch won.

Here is Nemo, a 7 yr. old flat coat and father of Meika's latest litter - http://www.flat-coat.net/litter.html. This fellow is quite magnificent and easily won "Best in Group"

Nemo again with his handler, Stephane. They both presented quite a wonderful picture.

Back to Gypsy & Melanie. Dog treats must be yummy.

Nicole & Botox brought home more Championship points and a coveted rosette.

Nemo & Botox in the ring. After the Sunday show, Gypsy decided that she needed a little extra coaching from her breeder so she is experiencing what my husband calls dog 'boot camp'. We'll see how she does. But for the moment she is missed at home by her human owners and her cousin, Leila, a 6 yr. old flat coat who may just be moping.

Ties, ties and more ties

My collection of ties is growing very nicely. This latest group comes from my son's girlfriend's family whom she encouraged to 'donate' to a good cause. The more interesting ones (IMHO) are on the right, including a brown striped one (7th from the right) which may be included with my latest endeavour - a portrait of our dogs.

Tea cosies or is it cosys?

This kind of weather is a perfect excuse to stop and have a 'cuppa' as the English say. And in order to keep the teapot warm, a teapot cosy is just the thing.

I finally finished my first 'real' project using two ties from my ever-growing collection. The horse's head was handpainted onto the tie, probably after the tie had been bought. The paint used rendered that portion of the tie extremely stiff such that I think the owner could not have been pleased with the way the tie would hang when worn. I've added free motion stitching to enliven the 'portrait and because of the trapunto quilting, it is now quite smooth & soft to the touch - almost suede-like. I couldn't resist trimming the whole affair with meadow mink from a jacket I purchased at a re-sale store.

BTW - the two ties used in this tea cosy came from Larkin Van Horn's tie donation last year.

My next project is to create two cosies using portraits of Leila & Gypsy individually on the 'front' and a combined photo of both of them on the back. What will be unique about these tea cosies is that they will have no batting, but instead have felted dogs' hair to keep the pot warm. Collecting, needle-felting and then wet felting the dogs' hair was quite the learning process which I completed last year. I now have two fairly large pieces of each colour to work with. Of course I will use the black piece for Leila and the 'brown' for Gypsy, our liver-coloured flat coat retriever.

Apr.6th, Good Friday

Spring has arrived. Tulip & daffodil leaf tips are above the ground, but look what greeted them this morning.

Today I decided to try out the 'rumour' that you can dye eggs using silk fabric. Since I just happen to have a few hundred ties, many of which are silk I 'volunteered' 3 of them, 2 of which had stains on them. This is what resulted. Click here for the full instructions.