Dog Quilts

     I think it's cute to see Mardi rolled into a ball.  Why do dogs do that?  A quick google tells me that they are conserving body heat.  Is my doggie cold?  If so, I could turn up the heat ... or, I could make her a blanket.
     Joann Fabric just had a sale on decorator cottons.  These 100% cotton fabrics are a sturdy medium weight, and they are washable.  Since I had a coupon which gave me a discount in addition to the sale price, I couldn't resist making a couple of canine quilts.
   
     The process was simple:

     Materials:

          1½ yards of 45" fabric for the front
          1½ yards of a coordinating 45" fabric for the back
          ½ yard of another coordinating 45" fabric for the quilt binding
          Polyester quilt batting
          Thread (I used quilting thread because I had another coupon for 50% off notions)

     If you don't feel artistic, you can skip trying to find three coordinating fabrics.  Just purchase 3½ yards of the same print.  If you don't have quilting thread, use any good quality cotton thread.

     Method:

     I washed, dried, and ironed the fabric.  I always pre-shrink before cutting.

     Trim the cut ends of one print so that you have nice rectangles with sharp 45° corners.  Lay this piece of fabric on top of the coordinating fabric and trim so that both pieces are the same size.  There is usually always some variation due to a possible cutting difference at the store or the shrinkage rates of the different fabrics.  Cut a piece of batting that is slightly bigger than the fabric.  Make a sandwich of backing fabric (right side face down), batting, and top fabric (right side face up).  Smooth the layers and use quilt pins (AKA extra long straight pins) to pin all the layers together.  Use lots of pins starting in the middle and moving out to the edges.  Then you can hand baste the layers together, but I skipped this step and went straight to machine quilting the layers together, removing the pins as I sewed.  In both cases, my quilt backing print was geometric, so I followed these lines as I machine quilted.  After machine quilting, I trimmed away the excess batting and attached the binding.

     Binding:  I cut the ½ yard piece of fabric into 3" strips, then sewed the strips together.  Here's an excellent video that demonstrates how to join the strips and attach the binding with an invisible join.

https://youtu.be/2egganTi2us

     Mardi seems to like her new blankets.

I machine quilted by sewing down the center of the white diagonal lines.

Mardi occasionally likes to snooze in this dog house.

Kismet.  I found a dog print!

If you sew it, they will burrow into it.