Surface Design: Shadow Play with my Springer Spaniel

On a beautiful fall day recently I was out for a walk with my English Springer Spaniel, Taffy.  I thought it would be fun to post a selfie of the two of us on Instagram.  Right. I had zero success getting us both in the square photo frame.  But I did notice that the late afternoon sun was creating some really fun shadows.  So here's a photo of our shadows!

The Spoonflower Handbook has instructions for making cloth hankies decorated with profiles of dogs. The shadow photos I took, with a green asphalt tennis court as the background, made a profile which didn't need any manipulation other than cropping.  

I decided to print Taffy's profile on Kona® cotton to make cloth dinner napkins. At 18 x 18 inches, there are 4 napkins in each yard of fabric.  It's a great reminder of a fun afternoon!

Shadow Play Table Napkins with baked mini donuts and Chai tea

"Dogs at the Farmer's Market" Fabric Collection: Quick Projects

Here are a couple quick projects using the fabric I designed, "Dogs at the Farmers Market" available from Spoonflower.com.   I've listed fabric requirements and cutting directions but not sewing instructions.

Dogs at the Farmers Market Table Runner 14 x 35.5 inches

Fabric Supplies:

• 1 Fat Quarter Farmers Market Cherries
• 1 Fat Quarter Dogs at the Farmers Market
• 1/3 yard Width of Fabric  Kona® Cotton "Alegria" 405
• 1/2 yard x Width of Fabric fabric of your choice for back
• Scrap of quilt batting 14.5 x 36 "

Cutting Instructions:

Cherries at the Farmers Market

• Cut 2 rectangles 6.5 inches high x 14.5 inches wide
• Cut 1 rectangle 5 inches high x 5.75 inches wide

Dogs at the Farmers Market

• Fussy cut 2 rectangles 9.75 inches high x 14.5 inches wide

Kona® Alegria Solid Blue

• Cut 2 charms squares 5 inches x 5 inches
• Cut 3 binding strips the width you prefer 2 to 2.5 inches x width of fabric

Backing

• Cut 1 piece 15.5 inches high x width fabric of your choice

I assembled my table runner by the Quilt As You Go method, but it can be pieced any way you prefer.  If not using this method, piece the blocks, sandwich the table runner and quilt as desired.  Make a binding from the strips and sew it onto the table runner. Enjoy!

13.5 inch finished 9 Patch Block

Here is a 9 patch block using 5 x 5 inch squares.  This block finishes at 13.5 inches. 

Fabric Requirements

• 1 Fat Quarter  Paired Springers and Golden Retrievers
• 1 Fat Quarter   Farmers Market Cherries
• 1 5 x 5 inch Charm Square Kona® Cotton Alegria 405 or color of your choice

This could be one block in a quilt.  With a single Fat Quarter of the Paired Springers and Golden Retrievers you will be able make another block like this one using just Springer Spaniels or you could make 3 blocks mixing up the Springers and Golden Retrievers in each 9 patch blocks. 

I used my 9 Patch Block to make a pillow cover, using red ric-rac as a detail. Like the block, it finished at 13.5 inches, an odd size for a pre-made pillow form.  But a 14 inch pillow form with some stuffing removed works just fine!

13.5 inch Pillow Cover with Ric-Rac detail

Dogs at the Farmer's Market Fat Quarter Friendly Quilt

Here's my "Dogs at the Farmer's Market, Fat Quarter Friendly Quilt." 

Getting fabric I designed and printed at Spoonflower.com was a thrill.  Making a quilt using my very own "fabric collection" was just so much fun!  

This quilt is my original design.  I have included the traditional "Mississippi" star block, found in the Block Library of Electric Quilt 7, to help unify the fussy cut blocks.  I wanted to create a pattern that could make a quilt just using a single fat quarter (FQ) of the focus fabric.  I used all the fabrics in my "Dogs at the Farmer's Market Collection", but this quilt could be made with just 1 FQ of the focus fabric, 1 FQ of the Blueberries and Flowers and 1 FQ of the Cherries on Light Blue with the addition of solids and/or fabrics from your stash.

The solid color fabrics used in the quilt are all Kona® Cotton solids.  Here are the Kona® colors which coordinate well with the Dogs at the Farmers Market Collection.  

Kona® color and number                    Color best with:

• Periwinkle 1285  (medium blue)          entire collection
• Surf 32  (light royal)                            entire collection
• Alegria 405 (peacock blue)                cherries on darker blue, less good with collection 
• Cayenne 355  (deep red)                    entire collection
• Cinnamon 1075  (reddish brown)       Springer Spaniel and Terrier
• Amber 1479 (deep gold)                     Springer Spaniel and Terrier     
• Cappuccino 406  (brown)                   Springer Spaniel and Terrier
• Creamsicle  185  (peach)                     Golden Retriever, Coneflowers but looks with everything
• Primrose 274 (pink)                             coneflowers
• Lime 1192  (medium green)                  entire collection
• Palm 31  (deep green)                          entire collection
• Sunflower 353 (bright deep yellow)    entire collection
• Silver 1333  (light grey)                         entire collection, Pointer
• Graphite 295 (medium grey)                entire collection, Pointer and Big Black Dog

I used 1 yard of the focus fabric on the back (not the full WOF) with a strip of Creamsicle Kona® cotton and another of my Coneflower design.  Because dogs on the front of the quilt are all fussy-cut, I wanted to show the entire scene at the Farmer's Market on the back!

"Dogs at the Farmer's Market FQ Friendly Quilt" Back

I haven't written instructions for this quilt pattern but if you would like to make one for yourself, leave me a comment and I will write up the pattern.

If you would like to purchase any of these fabrics, you may do so at Dogs At the Farmers Market, Spoonflower.com.  If you click on the "Collection" in the Right hand bar, another window will open with large swatches of all the fabrics.  Spoonflower offers a wide variety of base fabrics to choose from. I printed on Kona® since I was that fabric I used for my solid colors. 

In my next post I'll show some quick and fun projects.  I will include the cutting directions for those projects.

Every Dog Deserves a Good Fence Quilt

Here is the completed Fence Quilt with the neighbor's hydrangea, peaking over and through the fence! 

Quilting the wood grain in the fence came out well.  I'm also really happy with a tiny meandering quilting over each cluster of hydragea blossoms. 

Here's the plant, the fence and the quilt.  The quilt is based on a view from inside the yard rather than looking over the front gate as in the photo.  Fun!