A Dachshund Pillow!

Hello quilty friends!

I’ve been working on making a small version of the new Dogs in Sweaters pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. After I finished making the 4 dog blocks (post to come soon!) using plaid fabric for the dog sweaters, I decided to make another dog using bright colors in the pillow size.

I pulled these fabrics to use:

  • Friedlander Fabric, Elevation in White for the background. It has a subtle pattern of cross-hatching lines.
  • Kona Coal for the ears and tail.
  • Essex Yarn Dyed Metallic in Fog for extra sparkle in the dog’s body, face, and feet.
  • Spectrum by V and Co for Moda #10862 for the pink sweater and pillow binding.
  • Remix #15240-50 by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman for the lime green sweater trim.
  • The pillow background is a green print from my stash. I don’t have the selvege anymore so I’m not sure what line it is from.

This pattern uses traditional piecing methods and comes together pretty quickly. I pieced the dog with Aurifil 2600, a light gray/silver color, in 50 wt. I also used the same thread to quilt diagonal cross-hatching lines across the pillow front.

I used Aurifil 5017, a lime green color, 50 wt to stitch around the eye glasses and to do the same diagonal quilting on the pillow back.

I couldn’t find the right size pillow form at any local quilt stores, but I finally found one at Ikea! Naturally, I picked up an extra form so I can made a second pillow eventually! 🙂

For a final accent, I added 2 pink hot-fix crystals to the glasses.

I really love how this pillow turned out! It’s a cute, easy project that you can do in a day.

I’ve finished piecing the small quilt using the same pattern, and hope to get it quilted in the next week!

Dachshund Pillow!

Pillow Back

Close-Up of the Glasses and Extra Bling!

I think Pepper approves!

Happy quilting!

~Jennifer

Butterfly Block for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Vol10 + Giveaway

Hi everyone,

I’m so excited to share with you my first block published in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks magazine. My block is #958 and it appears in volume 10 which arrives at retailers this month.

My block was inspired by my son and his love of butterflies. The block has a modern twist to it because I decided to use plenty of negative space and a block (pixel style) design.

While visiting the Victoria Butterfly Gardens earlier this year on vacation, we saw this beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly.

Blue Morpho Butterfly

Blue Morpho Butterfly

Soon after, this other butterfly decided to crawl up my son’s arm much to our surprise!

I started drafting my butterfly block by sketching it out on paper and then did my fabric calculations.

Next, I cut some squares from various blue fabrics and some strips from white fabric:

Butterfly Block Components

Butterfly Block Components

I made a blue version and a pink/purple version. The blue version appears in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, volume 10 and I kept the pink version.

Butterfly Block in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 10

Butterfly Block in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, Volume 10

Here are the two blocks together:

Blue and Pink Butterfly Blocks

Blue and Pink Butterfly Blocks

This block is very versatile and you could use it to make quilts, table runners, or pillows. I decided that I needed a cute butterfly pillow for my office so I used my pink block, some extra Kona Snow fabric, and some silver metallic thread by Superior to make an adorable pillow.

Yes, I did use metallic thread on the free-motion quilting using my domestic machine, and it turned out wonderfully.

Ready for a giveaway?
Quiltmaker is giving away 1 free copy of Volume 10 to one of my blog readers, and I’m giving away a second copy! To enter, just leave me a comment, and I will pick a winner using a random number generator at the end of the blog tour. Please leave me a way to contact you. Sometimes Blogger and WordPress do not communicate very well.

I hope that you are enjoying Quiltmaker’s 100 blocks blog tour and that you find inspiration in the many wonderful blocks!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer