Christmas Stockings going to the dogs

Christmas Stockings going to the dogs

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It didn’t take too much surfing the internet to find this great idea for making Christmas stockings out of old jeans. Thanks to Lynn at Nebraska Views for this terrific idea. I’ve made two of these for friends at the local dog park and I’ll probably make a few more. Sewing denim can be difficult due to its thickness but with a Superior titanium coated topstitch needle, my Bernina sewing machine dutifully stitched through many layers of denim without missing a beat. If you have some old jeans in the closet, you might want to check out Lynn’s tutorials and give these a try.

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The latest grad

The latest grad

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Welcome Gilligan, the latest curly haired grad from the Pet Portrait class I taught at the Victoria Quilters Guild Fall Frolic in November. Your mom did a fantastic job of your portrait with all those curly locks and great eyes, nose & mouth that project your look of — please don’t leave me!

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Teacher, teacher…

Teacher, teacher…

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Each spring and autumn my local guild, the Victoria Quilters’ Guild, holds an educational day where members have an opportunity to lead workshops at a very modest fee to the participants. It’s a great opportunity to try teaching and one I didn’t want to pass up. So, I took the plunge and taught a class of 11 students how to make a fabric pet portrait from a photo.  I had given them homework to prepare their pet photos and they all came to class armed and ready to bring their pets to life. They worked with dogged (and cat-ish) determination on their portraits.  Seeing all their beloved pets take shape in fabric was truly exciting.

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Here is the portrait of Pedro that Kelly made. Isn’t he cute? She did a great job selecting the fabric values and just check out that quilting!

I had a great time showing the students how to create their own pet portraits and I’m grateful to those who came to my class.

Next up… Nahanni the Poodle

Next up… Nahanni the Poodle

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Today I finished the poodle portrait and here she is! There were plenty of challenges in creating this fluffy black poodle, but it didn’t end there. When it came to making the internal border, I had to match up 4 different pieces of the checkered fabric and keep those tiny brown checkers all aligned. With a little perseverence  (ok…quite a bit of perseverence) it all worked out. Nahanni’s portrait is 18″ x 20″.

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A Dog with a Curly Hairdo

A Dog with a Curly Hairdo

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This week, in my ongoing quest to learn all I can about rendering pet photos in fabric, I tackled a standard poodle cross….in fabric, not on the turf at the park! Nahannie is a dog with a seriously curly coat and ears covered in silky strands of hair (..or is that fur?). Oh yes, her muzzle is also on the bushy side. To top that off, she is all black. …

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Another dog leaps off the design wall

Another dog leaps off the design wall

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It always feels great to finish a portrait or any project, for that matter, doesn’t it? The latest portrait off the design wall is this black lab. It’s the second time I’ve used this lab’s photo. The first version was done in brown. This time I wanted to reduce the number of pieces to see how few I could use but still have a decent portrait. I also wanted to try making it in white, black and grey fabrics, to be more representative of the actual midnight black lab. I was pleased with the result but I think I am going to try adding more detail for better results in my next portrait.

The background fabric you see in the photo below is not pieced. It is a navy blue/cream striped fabric. I quilted it horizontally along the dark stripes. After quilting the background, I attached the portrait by zigzagging around the perimeter with an invisible thread. I free motion straight stitched, through all the layers, just inside the edge of each piece of fabric using a matching colour of thread. The final step was fusing and stitching down the internal border, a 1/2″ black strip.

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I’m lost in wordpress dashboard

I’m lost in wordpress dashboard

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OK. I’m pretty new to all this wordpress stuff so it took a while to figure out how to find the page where blog posts show up. But I managed to sort it all out after reading some of the WP getting started guides. There’s so much to learn but I’m feeling motivated and up for the challenge!