Pets On Quilts 2010

SewCalGal is hosting a virtual quilt show featuring pets on quilts.  For all the information , click here.

"Rex the Hamster"

This is a quilt that I made for a shop sample at Stitcher's Crossing.  To see the whole thing, click here.

"Rosie the Ever-Patient Berner"

Rosie in her super-hero guise wearing another shop sample from Stitcher's Crossing.  I made this quilt in summer 2007, before I started blogging.

I finished the thread work on Flora.  Unfortunately, I guess she doesn't really qualify as a pet on a quilt for me -- we can keep chickens in our back yards here, but no cows.  Yet.  And  no, I don't have any chickens.

"Kool Kat House Quilt: with Apologies to Fons and Porter"

I made this from a pattern in a Fons and Porter magazine a couple of years ago.  I had a blast using all my brightly colored cat and music fabrics.

When my husband was trying to get me to marry him, "pitching woo" you might say, he used to sing "Our House" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young to me.  We each had a cat when we married and so it was especially apropos.

"Our house is a very, very, very fine house,

With two cats in the yard, 

Life used to be so hard,

Now everything is easy 'cause of you"

                                                                           -Graham Nash

Yeah, I know that they're leopards -- but I didn't have any lions and don't all cats think of themselves as big cats anyway?

I also want to take this opportunity to point out a few of my favorite animal rescue sites.  First is A Place to Bark.  This is a dog and cat rescue operated by Bernie Berlin.  I had the pleasure of meeting Bernie a couple of years ago at a quilt show and I was terribly impressed by her dedication to this cause.  She makes and sells her artwork to help fund the shelter, but she always appreciates donations.  Please take a moment to visit and make a donation.  

The second site I want to draw attention to is The Wisconsin Puppy Mill Project.  Sadly, here in Wisconsin, puppy mills are not against the law.  Dogs are raised in horrible conditions for sale to unwitting buyers and pet stores all across the country.  Unlike farmers with cattle, sheep, or other livestock, puppy millers have no incentive to breed carefully or even care for their animals.  Once a dog is sold, it's gone.  Dogs must be socialized properly and are uniquely people-oriented; puppy-millers do not care. I know that some of the pictures are gruesome, but please take a look and help.

The third is an organization that is near and dear to me, Bernese Mountain Dog Rescue.  You can find the local rescue organizations from here.  These dogs are not for everyone, so think carefully before you take one on -- or any dog for that matter.  It's a lifelong commitment.  It would be more fair, perhaps, for the dog to choose the person.  It's the best deal you can get: 

"Unless a man has a natural love of dogs he will never make a success of keeping them, for he must be willing to cheerfully sacrifice his comfort and leisure hours doing what is necessary for them. He must see in them something more than simply a means to an end. The best animals in the world have always been bred for the love of them or the love of breeding and caring for them, rather than purely for the profit they bring; and the person who does not like dogs had better not attempt to keep them at all." 

-Milo G. Denlinger, "The Complete German Shepherd"

To see the other quilts in the show, click here.