Dogs in Sweaters Quilt

You’d be forgiven if you’ve forgotten or never knew that I quilt. I haven’t finished anything in ages.

Part of the issue is that I’ve always hated the actual quilting part of the process. A few years ago I got myself a Gracie frame to help make that easier. I had a sewing machine just for that. The problem was that it was a horrible, awful, hateful machine. It was the most expensive machine I had ever bought and it just didn’t work. Last April I traded it in and got a new one. It was even more expensive. I was still gun shy though. I tried it out a little bit. I had a few problems with thread tension and just ignored it for a while.

Recently though I finished a top for a baby shower and HAD to make it work. I took an hour, started from scratch, and got the tension all worked out. From there it worked like a dream! I actually enjoyed the quilting process.

I’m honestly looking forward to quilting a few more long term projects that have been languishing. I can’t begin to explain how shocked I am by that.

Here’s the baby quilt I made. It was made from Elizabeth Hartman’s Dogs in Sweaters pattern. I only used three dogs instead of the four in her small dog pattern to make it more of a baby quilt size.

The quilting is squiggles between paw prints across the quilt with Dachshunds on the sweaters. The mother-to-be has a Dachshund mix dog who looks a lot like these dogs. The ears and tails are a soft textured fabric so you can pet them.

I’ve actually also finished another very long term project that I’ll post next week. I did something drastic to it to finally get it finished!