Author: Pam Brennan

I made this quilt for Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue of Hudson,MA to be used as a fund raiser at their annual auction event being held this year on Saturday, May 4,2019.Along with this quilt a variety of items donated by other people will be available. Many of those items also feature Golden Retrievers as I have included on this quilt.If you can not make it to the auction but you still want to help,please go to http://www.ygrr.org where you will find many ways to get involved,and information about this wonderful group who have been helping New England’s Homeless Golden’s since 1985.

After seeing a story on a local news program about volunteers from this group traveling to Asia to rescue these beautiful dogs from the horrible dog meat trade,I just had to get involved! I have made and donated similar quilts to help actor/singer David Soul in his fight to end the dog meat trade in Asia.I reached out to David once again for his help on this one. He responded with his signature and a nice quote “Open the cage and let them out!” on some fabric I had sent to him.Thank you David! That piece of fabric is included in the lower right corner of this quilt.If you wish to help David In his efforts to end the dog meat trade in Asia,please support David’s Dogs at http://www.davidsoul.com where you will also find quilts I made and donated available for sale. You can also see quilts from David’s site that have already sold here on this blog in the Good Causes drop down.

What fun I had making this quilt for a friend’s mom! I’ve seen these quilts on the internet and have been intrigued by them. I enjoyed the research and coming up with my own “patches” and figuring out how to create them.

The purpose of this quilt is to keep someone occupied and I think this one does that with a variety of fun and meaningful designs. Behind the cloud is a smiling sun and a happy dog is hiding inside the dog house.

There is a flower with ribbon petals,a blueberry pie with a lattice crust that can be made over and over, some large fun buttons and a blue jean pocket to keep a key in.

Beads that can slide,rows of ball fringe,woven fabric strips,and a hair scrunchie help keep fingers busy.There’s even a zippered pocket to hold photos and trinkets in.

Finally put the binding on this quilt.All those triangles came together faster than expected.I think this quilt really sparkles!The quilting on this one is an edge to edge all over design of dragonflies and abstract wild flowers using purple thread.This quilt measures 85” x 100” and is available on http://www.eBay.com. Search for “scrappy batik quilts”.

I’m working with another kind of pre-cuts to make a scrappy style quilt.This time I’m using a group of ten inch squares from Island Batiks  named “All A Flutter”.This group is mostly pinks and turquoise with a little purple thrown in.I have added to the mix with some fabrics from my stash.I wanted to make the most of the 10” squares so I decided on turning them into half square triangle units.

I began by cutting each square in half then half again yielding four equal squares each.I paired two of one color with two of another color to get my palate for what will be each finished block. With right sides together, I drew a line on the diagonal on the back of the top fabric and then sewed 1/4” on both sides of that line.After sewing, I cut the triangle units apart and finger pressed them open.I made the block by sewing these units together in groups of four triangle sets as shown.To get a good variety,I made a lot of different pairings of fabrics.I’ve put a bunch of these blocks together and like what’s developing but I still have a lot more to go.

Working with a long distance customer,we tried something a little different this time.After texting pictures of requested fabric colors,I then snail mailed swatch cards with an assortment of fabrics to choose from.

The selections were narrowed down and we had our fabric palate.I then sewed these strips into log cabin variation blocks and played around with placement.While working on the blocks,the fabric pieces were jumbled in a pile and I thought they looked like a rose garden,and that was how this quilt was named!

The quilt’s name lead to it being quilted with a large rose vine design.This 56”x 67” quilt is now finished and ready to be enjoyed by the customer.