Tipper and Taffy with "Dog Pals" Quilt
My "Dog Pals" quilt is done! I really enjoyed using Carolyn Friedlander's raw edge appliqué technique from her "Dino Patch" quilt in the new book, You Inspire Me to Quilt, by Cheryl Arkison which I reviewed on my blog last week.
The dogs in the quilt are all real dogs! Three are mine. The rest are friends and family. If you know the dogs, you can actually identify them by their appliqués! I sent a set of photos of the blocks to a friend and she correctly named the dogs!
Who's Who, Left to Right starting with top row
- Maisie, Magnolia (aka Maggie), Taffy
- Poppy, Zoe, Jake
- Tipper,Hagrid, Hazel
Taffy and Tipper are my English Springer Spaniels and Hazel is my Black Labrador Mix.
Poppy has her nose on a feather. She's a Short Haired German Pointer and she "locks on" whenever she finds a feather in the yard!
I did free motion quilting in each block, using a design that reflected each dog. Hagrid is a Bichon. His quilting is tight curls! Tipper comes from a line of working hunting dogs. He is "birdie", a good thing for a working Springer Spaniel. The quilting around him is hills and flying birds. Hazel is innately shy. The human world baffles her. The puzzle-like meandering pattern is perfect for her. Maggie, who is sweet as can be, has a heart worked into the quilting on her block. And Poppy has a tiny quilted feather, as well as the embroidered feather, in her block.
Here are some photos of the real dogs, in the same order as on the quilt. The crated dogs are Hagrid and Taffy. They were at an event sponsored by the MSPCA and were waiting their turn to show off their skills in Nosework.
And the label-- giving credit, where credit is due! All the background fabrics in the blocks, some of the dogs, two of the borders and the backing are from Carolyn Freidlander's fabric lines distributed by Robert Kaufman. So it was fun, and appropriate, to include a selvage with her name in my label!
What fun!!