When the weather turns snowy, let's turn the day sew-y! Too corny? A few weeks ago, I made an ugly quilt with my friend, Michelle. What's an ugly quilt, you ask? According to Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts , " this quilt is great for using up those fabrics in your stash that you’ll never want to use. They might not be in your colour zone. They may not be your kind of pattern. Or you have simply matured as a quilter and realized that they no longer fit with the projects that you like to make. " And trust me when I say I have fabrics in my stash that I ask myself "What were you thinking buying this!!??" That meant I had plenty to work with when it came to getting fabrics together to make an ugly quilt. And so did Michelle. We decided we would share ugly fabrics with each other to make our own quilts. A blending of our friendship so to speak. We would have Thing 1 and Thing 2. We had a quilting day together at her house and it was sew much fun! Thing
If there is one thing you need to know about me, it is I love animals. I am a supporter of several animal rescues including the Idaho Animal Rescue Network. I recently started making doggy beds for them out of old pillowcases stuffed with fabric and batting scraps. It's great in that they supply the scrap batting. The founder of IARN has a family member that is a longarm quilter and she saves the leftover batting and fabric scraps. Perfect! Making a doggy bed is a fast and worthwhile project. First thing to do is to wash your pillowcases. Once that is done, it is time to sew! Start by turning the pillowcase inside out. We are going to box the ends to give the doggy bed a little shape. Align the side seam of the pillowcase (or the fold line if no seam) with the bottom seam (or fold line). Pull it into a point and smooth out. I used a 3" seam so I measured down 1-1/2" from the point and marked my sewing line. Stitch twice across line, backtacking at ends. This helps