🐶National Dog Day Quilt 🐶

Happy National Dog Day!!! August 26th!!! In celebration, I have a new dog quilt, dog blocks, and dog photos to share!!! 

Check out the Dog Day Quilt Link Party by clicking on the button below!!! ⤵️

Quilt Info:

Makers: Myself + 4 Japanese quilters

Size: 18" X 24"

Batting: Quilters Dream Poly

Thread: Glide 60--Creme

Quilting: Freemotion Quilting ⤵️ A number of these blocks have beads, bows, lace or leather, which is impossible to computer quilt over the top of, so FMQ was a necessity!

Interesting Info: I've been a member of a small group of quilters in Fuchu, Tokyo since we moved there in 1999. We would meet at each other's homes once a month to hand stitch--five Japanese quilters and myself. We took summers off and in its place had "summer homework"--an annual block swap. 

We left Japan in 2007, but my quilt friends are continuing to include me in the now every-other-summer homework. Our homework back in 2016-2017 was to make 2 different dog blocks, making 6 copies of each--one to keep and 5 for the other members X two blocks.

The National Dog Day Link Party was a great motivator to put my mini dog quilt together. You may notice that instead of 12 blocks, I only have 10. That is because one member now lives in Hawaii and in the summer of 2017 her apartment building burned down! Yes, she was in her apartment at the time, on the 26th floor! She was safely rescued by the fire department. One can only imagine the trauma of that!

The first block I made is of Lincoln, our first granddog, photo here as a puppy. ⤴️ 

His block is top row, middle. ⤵️

Sneaker, second row, right, was our dog in Tokyo. ⤴️ 

Sneaker was a Keeshond, a Dutch barge dog, although she originally came from the USA. ⤵️

Close-up of the lower blocks!  ⤵️

Makers: 

Row 1--Akiko Abe, me, Mihoko Hirose

Row 2--Yoshie Takamatsu, me

Row 3--Setsuko Suzuki, Setsuko Suzuki

Row 4--Mihoko Hirose, Akiko Abe, Yoshie Takamatsu

The fill-in fabric at the two sides is from Japan. It says "Wantame", which was a Japanese computer game in the mid 2000's where the player got a virtual puppy to feed, teach tricks, take for walks and dress up in clothes!!! ⤵️

Here's a close-up of my backing, with corner sleeves, hanging stick and 3-M Command Strip.

My quilt, along with five dog woodcarvings made by my dad!!! ⤵️

Now, for 2021, our summer homework was from a pre-selected pattern of the Japanese 12-year cycle of animals. We each made the animal from the year we were born. I was born in the Japanese year of the dog, so once more I found myself making dog blocks! ⤵️

Before you say--that looks like a cat, like both my DH and I did, let me tell you about this dog. It is a traditional Japanese folk toy made of paper mache and looks exactly like this figure. It is called "Inu Hariko" and Japanese will recognize it as a dog right away. Also, Japanese dog breeds typically have stand up ears, rather than the floppy ears we see so often in other breeds.

Here are my six blocks--I kept one and shipped the rest to Tokyo. I'm watching the tracking, as mail to and from Japan is very slow at this time in history!!! I mailed them on August 16th and so far they have only made it to Chicago. Update: my blocks arrived at my friend's home in Tokyo on September 1! 😷

Now, here are photos of our granddogs!!! 

Here's Lincoln💝, our older daughter's first rescue dog! He's all grown up and 6 years old now! ⤵️

This is Fozzy 💝, short for Fozzy Bear, our older daughter's second rescue dog!!! ⤵️ They live together with our first grandchild!!!

And meet Sable💝, our son's English Shepherd, pictured here with me!!! ⤵️

Happy National Dog Day!!! And by the way, for all you cat people, October 29th is National Cat Day. Watch for a new cat quilt here, another "summer homework" swap, at Grace and Peace Quilting, and a Cat Quilt Link Party at QuiltFabrication, too!!!

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

You'll find quilt inspiration at the Show Me Something Applique, Favorite Finish, National Dog Day Quilt Party, Freemotion Mavericks, Wednesday Wait Loss, NTT, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF, Whoop Whoop, Off the Wall Friday, Peacock Party, Finished Or Not Friday, From Bolt To Beauty, Traffic Jam, Patchwork & Quilts, DrEAMi.