Puppy dogs and sticky tape

Don't worry, no animal cruelty here. The sticky tape was used only on a fabric dog and only to help enhance its beauty. Oh dear, I think I'm making it sound worse than it is. Let's just get on with some show and tell.

This daschund pup quilt is being made for two cute little daschund pups that I know and it is nearly finished! Just need to square it up and bind it! Woohoo!

Here's how it looks just now. Like my little helper on the side? She was smoothing the edges. Monkey see, monkey do. She'll be quilting by the time she's 5 at this rate.

 So some details. The pattern is "I'm a weiner" by Boo Davis from her Dare to be Square book. The only quilting book I own. But I am loving it! The patterns are fab, but she also includes some great info on how to sew, baste, quilt and bind. So I decided to follow her info on the quilting. Lots of straight lines. Not trusting my ability to do straight lines myself, and too lazy to mark it all with my chalky pencil... I followed another one of her tips. Well sort of.

No your eyes are not deceiving you. That is sticky tape. Awesome right? (Disclaimer: No quilty dogs were harmed in the making of this quilt though I did hesitate a moment before quilting right across the poor dog's eye). Okay so Boo Davis uses painter's tape to mark her lines and from the book, it seems does one at a time. But I didn't have painter's tape. Or the patience to mark one line, quilt, mark one line quilt (or the joints - man were my knees and back killing me after all this!). So! I used my handy dandy sticky tape and marked all my lines in one go! Woo! It made the quilt sound a bit crinkly while I was quilting it but that's okay.

After the quilting, there was a lot of this to be done. Good thing I have a willing helper. She thought she was a bit of awesome helping me pull all the tape off. I thought she was a bit of awesome too.  Oh yeah tip for those who might like to try the sticky tape thing (and hey, I have no idea if it's a good idea to actually use sticky tape on your quilt but it worked for me), don't sew on the tape. It makes it harder to pull off. Or so I've heard.

 Envrionmentally conscious folks, look away now. You've been warned.

It did not look like that much tape when I was marking the lines, really.

Oh and the back? No it's not boring and plain! I went with the cliche puppy paw prints! And I'm glad I did. Cuteness x eleventy.

I traced the pawprints onto fusible webbing then cut them out (8 footprints, with 4 toes, that was 32 itty bitty toes to cut out sheesh). I decided zig zag stitch would look nuts so I FMQ'd around each little toe and pad to keep them in place. It's not the neatest thing ever, hence no closeups, but it works.

So a happy little puppy quilt (measuring roughly 40" square) for some cute, spoilt little pups to keep them warm through winter. I can't wait to send this to them. I think I'll even address the package straight to them or do you think it might confuse the postie trying to find Anastasia Beaverhausen and Monika Legzakimbo?

Oh and any opinions on binding? I can't decide between a fun scrappy binding made up of all the brown prints of the quilt, or just stick with the olive green. Suggestions welcome - think I'll save the binding to do tomorrow.

As for my other wips - not much more info! The owl quilt is still waiting to be unfolded and at least considered for finishing off.

And the Diamonds in Squares quilt top - I can barely bring myself to mention. It is torturing me with it's repeatedly wonky borders. So guess what? I'm going to quilt it into submission and show it who's boss. If you never hear mention of that quilt again, well, reach your own conclusions on it's ultimate ending.

Linking up with Wip Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced :)