Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

At the end of November last year I was asked by a neighbour to make a quilt in memory of their dog. It was a surprise present for her partner for Christmas which meant I didn’t have a lot of time.

Thank goodness it wasn’t queen size – only a lap size.

I was given 16 photos to work with and a rough idea of what she wanted. A photo of Abby in the middle with her name and then her nicknames surrounding the centre photo. After that the design was up to me.

Abby in the middle

The colour scheme for the quilt – earth colours with a mossy green flannel for the backing.

My biggest challenge was the fabric as I am not an earth colour girl and I thought, “oh boy. I don’t have enough of those colours in my stash to make a lap sized quilt”. When I opened one of the drawers of my stash cupboard I discovered the fabrics that I designed Geometric Forest with – all earth tones – perfect. I was now in business.

I had Michael prep the photos to make sure they would be awesome and then I printed them on EQ Printables Inkjet Fabric Sheets – worked like a charm and the colours were fabulous. These fabric sheets are very easy to work with and look great – highly recommended for printing your own photos on fabric.

I designed the quilt using Electric Quilt EQ7 and then, as I started piecing the quilt together a few things changed. I did keep this quilt fairly straightforward since I didn’t have a lot of time especially with an unexpected trip home for Christmas.

I appliquéd her nicknames onto bone shapes and then fused them to the quilt. And, of course, since she is the star of the quilt I added in 4 stars surrounding her pictures. Anyone who has owned a dog knows that they are a star.

Nicknames appliqued on bones

The quilt was quilted with straight lines outlining the different blocks and pieces. Originally I was going to use my free motion bone motif but then decided it would be too much.

Close up of quilting

I delivered the quilt all done except for the hand sewing on the binding which I did when I returned after Christmas.

The quilt was an absolute hit and the colours were perfect. Thank goodness for that fabric I had stashed away in my stash.

Happy Quilting!