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Wednesday 21 October 2015

Dog Gone Cute QAL Complete!


Lorna McMahon of Sew Fresh Quilts is a Canadian quilt designer I have admired from afar for a while now – her Elephant Parade pattern has always been on my to-do list. So when she launched her latest pattern, Dog Gone Cute, with a QAL I just had to join in the fun.

When thinking about the fabrics to use in this beautiful project, I thought I would start with my current favourites, my luscious Kona solids, with white for the dogs and grey as the background… I thought these would look great and very colourful for a child’s wallhanging which was my intention. 



I decided to make up my first block, just to get the hang of the pattern. As I only needed small pieces I raided my scraps from a previous project, and for some reason picked the lighter grey instead of the darker one. As you can see this was a mistake, far too close to the white so that pup loses its outline.

Still, I loved making the block, Lorna’s pattern is so easy to follow, and I love this stitch and flip method - her piecing is just genius!

So then I thought, what about using some patterns instead of solids… and
while hunting for some plain pink and black for the ears, eyes and nose, I came across these lovelies from Louden’s Flitsy range that I'd forgotten about – it is scary when you forget what you’ve bought!



So I tried out my first doggy, deciding on the larger block – I was very please with the outcome, isn’t he sweet! Is it sad to cooo and giggle to yourself when sewing… especially when you’re all alone??

Anyway, I then made another two, and laid them out for a wall hanging – but they needed something else…. Since discovering this flip and stitch method, I have been working on some new cushion designs for Christmas, including these two – I live in Middlesbrough if that explains anything… 


....I really enjoyed how the letters came together, so decided to work out a plan for “Dog Gone Cute” to add to my wall hanging. If you would like to add the lettering to your own project, I have the cutting and piecing instructions here.



So once the panel was all pieced together, I had to decide on the quilting… I recently finished a quilt for a new kit with wavy lines across the whole top, and had forgotton how much I love the quilting process, so I decided to have some fun, and as Angela Walters would say, “quilt the life out of it”!




I started with vertical lines on the dogs, just so they would stand out against the rest, then I echo quilted each of the letters. Then came the background, after consulting my FMQ heroines, Angela and Leah Day, I decided on this dense pattern on the top dog. However, I’m sorry to say I actually got a little bored… so I came over all artistic and decided to slowly thin out the quilting lines, turning them into loop-da-loops in the second dog, and then down to simple wavy lines in the last dog. I think it’s worked really well, I hope you agree.










Lorna has been kind enough to share instructions for these gorgeous blocks on her blog, so why not have a go yourself. And if you would like some more inspiration, check out the rest of today's bloggers:
 
Sandy of Upstairs Hobby Room
Heide of Heide’s Quilty Hugs
Britt-Inger of Hill Valley Quilter

Judy of How ART You?


Linking up with Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilt's Finish It Up Friday and Free Motion Mavericks - come and say hello!

36 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness....This is just way to stinking cute! Love the lettering and Going to go off and study how you did them. Your pups are just darling! Thanks for sharing. Hugs, Heide

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    1. Hi Heide, thank you so much for your kind words, I'm glad you like them! Thanks for stopping by x

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  2. Your wall hanging is paws-atively perfect! Love all the gorgeous quilting, Louisa. And the pieced words are fantastic! So dog gone glad to have you quilting along!

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    1. Haha! Thank you Lorna, I do love your puns! Thank you so much for having me! :)

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  3. It's darling! Thanks for the words!

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  4. Lovely finish - so nice to see the end result. I had to laugh a couple of time because I too was rather enamoured and vocal in my studio all alone when I was making my blocks and I too used the new to me method to make some letters ..... all will be revealed next week when it's my turn on the blog hop (ooh it's taken a lot of self restraint not to show it sooner!!!)

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    1. I'm so glad I was I wasn't alone in the coooing alone... I look forward to seeing your doggies :)

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  5. Adorable! Love the gray background with the soft colors.

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  6. What a nice idea to add the lettering in... hmm, gotta do a little research about stitch and flip method - I'm intrigued. I agree with the darker contrast on these pups... it's just what the project needed. Congrats on your finish! Looks great!

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    1. Thank you very much, the stitch and flip is so much fun, I highly recommend it!

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  7. Wonderful wall hanging. Beautiful quilting.

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  8. This is a great wall hanging. Thanks for sharing the tutorial for the letters.

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  9. I love the addition of the letters. Great quilt xx

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  10. The dark grey background really makes this look so soft. Your quilting is fantastic! Such a great (and artistic) idea. Lovely finish!

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  11. Oh your doggie banner came out adorable!! I like how you quilted each block differently!

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  12. I totally love your hanging! all the fabrics are adorable and the letters and words are fantastic!! and great job with the quilting too!! and by the way not crazy at all to be having fun and loving what you are doing, even alone, i do it all the time!! lol

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  13. Your wall hanging is definitely "Dog Gone Cute" and looks fabulous in those colors...love it!

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  14. ohh that is so so cute. I may have to use your word tutorial to add to my wall of cuties.

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  15. Love your wallhanging of pups! I love your fabrics against the gray Kona cotton.
    It's very pretty and so is your quilting!
    Susie

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  16. wonderful piece, love the addition of the words. Great job on the quilting too.

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  17. This is so cute! I love the lettering! :)

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  18. Love the design for your runner/wall hanging. And your quilting is great!

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  19. I just love this wall hanging! This is the cutest pattern and have it on my to do list. Came by way of Sew Fresh Quilts and am new to your blog. Will be sure to come back!

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  20. You've done an incredible job!

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  21. What a good idea for the wall hanging, so well done.

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  22. Hi! I love your puppies and the letter are fantastic! Thank you for the tutorial! x Teje

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  23. Such a lovely idea for a wall hanging with lettering! Your quilting and fabric choices are also wonderful.

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  24. Love it! And your quilting is fantastic!

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  25. This is a beautiful version of the quilt. Thanks for sharing the tutorial.

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  26. Hello Louisa,

    These little dogs look so much more fun in patterns than they would have done in solids. What a great wall hanging!

    I thought I was seeing things when I read Teessider.

    Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!

    Love, Muv

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  27. Absolutely stunning!!! I am in awe of your quilting!!! My vote is in the bag and thanks for the wording I will definitely come back to this at a future date xxxx

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