Doggie Quilt aka “George’s Quilt”

This project started out with the idea that our dachshund needed a blanket to sleep on. He won’t sleep on the dog bed, always sleeps on the couch snuggled up in whatever throw is left there. We were tired of the throws smelling like dog and getting dog hair in them, so my hubs told me to make the dog a blanket to sleep on. I was getting into quilting again, so I decided rather than just make a plain blanket, I would take the opportunity to make a quilt. I figured it was the perfect project to practice with – small, not much fabric needed, and George won’t care if I made mistakes.

I decided on a 12” Card Trick block and three fabrics: brown, a green fabric with brown and cream dots, and a cream fabric with brown dog-related words. It took me block or two to realize I needed to make all my “word” fabric line up to look nice.

I have been wanting to learn how to machine quilt, and I figured I might as well go ahead and try on this one. First, I needed a cone adapter for my spool holder. Then, the instructions for my machine didn’t quite work (completely releasing tension on the darning foot didn’t allow the needle to get all the way through the fabric, and I was skipping stitches). So I just barely put some tension on the foot, and I was off!

I had to take a couple of breaks to let the machine rest. I didn’t want to hurt my old workhorse (which is older than I am).

You can tell where I started from how tightly it’s quilted and how I got the hang of it and relaxed later on. You can also see where I was learning to keep the speed even and where I had to reposition and forgot to drop the needle.

The quilt is 3 blocks by 3 blocks or 36”x36” finished. I used the plain brown for backing and the word print for binding. I was originally going to make bias binding, but my last experience with bias binding made me mad, so I just did crossgrain binding strips. I actually enjoy sewing on binding. I think it’s because it’s “the end,” and it just finishes up the quilt so neatly.

I had to forgo posting last night because I was thisclose to finishing the binding. And . . . it's complete!

Now I have to figure out what to do next. I have several projects, just have to decide which one. But I guess the first thing I should do is clean my machine. Old Faithful needs some love now and again.