A sewing room usually has two occupants: the one at the machine and the one asleep on the fabric pile. Dogs of the Quilting Room hands the second one the rotary cutter. It is a collection of soft, storybook-style portraits in which the dogs do the quilting themselves, and each one arrives with a proper guild name to match.
At the machine
Gwen Lowhem, a corgi, stitches at an antique treadle machine inside a round little meadow scene. Colette Bobbinette, a brindle French bulldog, perches on her stool with a patchwork quilt pouring off the table, and Roxie Battwrangler, a boxer, keeps a firm grip on hers. Daisy Steadyseam, a sunny yellow Lab, feeds a striped quilt through with total concentration. Sasha Snowbinding, a husky, sits wrapped in a sea of blue patchwork, and Fifi Biascurl, a poodle whose curls match her pastel fabric, lets a ribbon of color swirl off the treadle.
Cutting, piecing and laying out
Heidi Straightgrain, a German shepherd in a work apron, lines up her rotary cutter over a block of crisp triangles. Bitsy Fussycut, a Yorkie wearing a thimble for a hat, trims tiny triangles at a table built to her size, folded fabric stacked beside her. Bindi Blockmuster, a blue merle Aussie, lays out a whole quilt top of blocks with a mountain meadow behind her, and Scout Trailpatch, a beagle, sits right in the middle of a star block among the spools, which is exactly where a beagle would sit.
Hoops, frames and hand work
Charlotte Hemsworth, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, embroiders a rose at her frame, draped in stripes of pink and teal. Mei Ribbonhem, a Shih Tzu with a pastel streaked coat, works an embroidery hoop on a heap of cushions under a garland of peonies. Frankie Longbinding, a dachshund in a tiny quilted coat, stretches the full length of a quilting frame, and Goldie Threadfetch, a golden retriever, rests beside a quilt on its frame with spools scattered at her paws. Nell Straightrow, a border collie in a patchwork bandana, skips the sewing altogether and stands tall on her hind legs, clearly the member who greets everyone at the door.
A seat saved for the dog
These portraits belong to the quilter with a dog-shaped dent in every finished quilt, the one who plans her piecing around the afternoon walk, and anyone who introduces her dog by full name at guild. Somewhere on this roll call is the breed who shares your sewing room, or the one who would happily steal your fat quarters. And before you fold that quilt, check underneath it. Someone is probably napping there.
Written by Jenny. Thanks for reading.
