Close But No Cigar

     Well there is nothing like a linky party to keep you pushing along to the end.  I've been working like a demon to get the Dog Gone Cute quilt done...and I didn't quite do it.  As my dear departed father would have said "Close but no Cigar".
But I'm linking up anyhow with my almost finished Dog Gone Cute quilt.  Here she is.

     All completed except for sewing down the last two sides of of binding.  I took the photos at 7:30 am on my frosty back porch wearing my pj's and a sweat shirt.  If my neighbours don't already think I'm nuts I'm pretty sure this will do it.

     I know that my quilt looks quite a bit like the other quilts in the link up but here's the exciting part.  I made this quilt for my first grandchild who will be born in March!  My son and his wife told us they were expecting pretty much at the same time that Lorna released her pattern and started the quilt along.  They both love dog's so I knew that I had to make this for them.

     The pups are made of scraps and the background fabric is Kaufman's Quilters Linen that I had in my stash. If any of you saw this little orange pup before you can see that I performed dental surgery on her before completing the quilt.
I was aiming for gender neutral in the choice of fabrics and I now know that the baby is a boy.

     What I love about this pattern is that the pups are all slightly different and I when I was putting together I could imagine spending time with my grandson counting the puppies and looking for similarities and differences.  The backing fabric is What a World  by Jill McDonald of P&B textiles.  I managed to get yards and yards of this on sale about a year ago.  It's a great print for sparking imagination.

   The binding is Modern Home a Monaluna design.  I bought the last scrap which was just enough to bind the quilt. It's a great little print and I'm wishing I bought more of it when it was current.

    As time was running out before the link up I opted for the wavy line walking foot quilting that Lorna used on her sample. I like how it looks and I'm sure I'll be using this type of quilting on future comfort quilts.

       My puppies were the smaller size, and I put lot's of negative space around each of them.  The quilt finishes at a small lap size 45 inches by 57 inches.  I'm joining up to the linky party at Sew Fresh Quilts. and if you want to get in on the voting go here  Thanks Lorna it's been lots of fun!