Thursday, September 21, 2023

It's A Dog's Life

If only we had the life my Benny is currently living. Pretty much heaven on earth. Loved by everyone he meets.


Oh you didn't mean we should include photos of the sweetest, cutest dogs you ever met? Tough, this stop is all based on Benny.


For those of you who don't know, Benny is a rescue.  He was found abandoned on the streets of Sarasota, Fl.  Probably abandoned due to medical issues that were mostly resolved before he came to us this past June.

When Benny first arrived we had some miscommunication regarding requests to go out doors.  On the first Sunday evening he was with us he wet his bed.  My quilt group had been making dog beds stuffed with quilt scraps for some time, so I went to the scrap box and knocked out this bed for him.  

 I remember hearing that one of the local rescues didn't want them because they were difficult to wash.  Well when I washed this one I understood the problem.  Once it got wet it beat the daylights out of my washer. dropping from the top of the washer to the bottom every time the washer spun.  Drying was a nightmare. After an hour plus in my dryer it was like I never tried to dry it.  It took 3 days outside in very hot Florida to dry.  


It is here still for emergencies but will be tossed when it needs to be washed again. 

I ZOOM quilt with several people once a month.  Some are local, One is on the west coast and one in Scotland.  Throughout the year we come up with Group To Do's.  Our summer project was to send each of the other members of the group a sewn Post Card. Delivery was tentatively scheduled for early September.


So what do you think? Wouldn't you have loved to find this version of Benny in your mail box?


I finished them in 2 different ways.  2 with stitching around the edges which didn't do anything for me.

 

and 5 with picture frame edging after a friend said she would frame it if I made her one. 
In total I made 8 of them.  5 for my zoom group, 2 for my friends who have declared themselves Benny's Godmothers and 1 for the couple who fostered him while he recovered from his medical issues and waited for adoption.

If you have never done fabric postcards, the amazing part is that they were mailed just as they were made. No envelopes, no plastic coverings.  I took them to the post office and asked that they be hand cancelled.  They were all received intact with no damage.  I even spoke to the gal in Scotland and hers was fine  on arrival too.

Lastly, when I got the bright idea to use the postcards as a jumping off point for this hop I down loaded several embroidery designs from Creative Fabrica.  My first choice was too large for a post card, and could only be reduced so much, but it was a great size for a tee shirt.





The shirt is a very soft lavender and the embroidery is a medium brown.  Hindsight says it would have been better on a black shirt.  Or if I used black thread but see, Benny is dark brown.


Well A Dogs Life is pretty decent here.

On a more serious note, there are lots of dogs and cats whose lives aren't great.



I made this group of  of 18 x 12 quilts (pretty much like placemats) for the group  Kennel Quilts  who receives  requests from all over the country for these little quilts to put in cages at rescue centers. Usually these requests come in after disasters that displace pets such as Hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires and the like.  
If you go to the link it explains the what and how.  It also gives patterns if you want to use them.  Me, I just use up scraps and strips I find hanging about after other projects.  

Well it's time to say so long til next month with a great big Thanks to Carol over at Just Let Me Quilt for hosting and coordinating yet again another wonderful creative event.

Here is a list of all of the participants who are sharing their vision of A Dogs Life.  Enjoy


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