Nesting for a Dog

In addition to making tiny scarves for my new baby dog, I made a tiny placemat for her dishes to live!! This is because every dog I’ve ever known in my life has preferred to take the dog food pieces onto the nearest rug and eat them off the carpet. I do not know why these animals prefer to eat off of the carpet. It seems very unsanitary and dusty. I’ve tried my level best to keep them off the carpets but in vain. So, one of my friends suggested that I should let them do whatever they feel like, however, hire a Carpet Cleaning service every now and then to keep it as clean as possible. This might help prevent them from getting any disease or something similar.

Also, many puppies chew on the carpet out of boredom or due to diseases such as Pica, which may further cause inflammation or other illnesses that may require treatment using medications similar to CBD oil for dogs UK in order to cure them. But, as with all roommates, you gotta let them do what they’re gonna do. So, I’ve made it more convenient for her to eat out of fabric, if this is a trait she has inherited by being an animal. We’ll see if it’s true. If not, well, it’s still a highly adorable placemat.

I used part of an old canvas sheet I have, kept for just these sort of durable neutral project emergencies. Though, to be honest, all of my projects are in neutral colors. No colors, no sorry. I didn’t use any particular pattern or specific sizing, I just laid it out under the two tupperware bowls I’m gonna use for her dishes (my dog is a bargain shopper already), and decided what size looks cute and useful. I think I ended up with something like 8×14, ish. Who knows.

I used two layers of the canvas, because it’s pretty soft, and quilted it to give it some body. I was 100% inspired to quilt it from following Jen Beeman at Grainline Studio. She’s been making a quilted jacket, and I got total crafter’s envy from looking at all her beautiful pictures. I used a 1×2 ratio for the center grid. I threw on the outside bordering lines just by eye, and my feed dogs did NOT want to hold it steady.. I switched to a denim needle, and used masking tape guides for the rest of the lines. Hopefully Tiny Dog isn’t an art critic.

When you’re making such high contrast line work, masking tape is very helpful for keeping your lines straight as straight, because you’ll know exactly when you start to veer from your line, instead of just heading towards the other side with hope in your heart. I never like using chalk or fading fabric markers, because chalk can wipe off in the middle of your project, and I just do not trust those markers to fade. I spent a lot of time secretly drawing with them on paper as a child (which I’m sure my mother will be outraged to learn, or she knew anyway). The masking tape is a trick my mom used for hand-quilting her quilts, and I’m here to tell you it works. Just mark the end points with pins, line up your ruler, and place the tape along the edge of the ruler. Voila. Straight.

I will say, when you’re working on a project that has topstitching, AND it’s reversible, definitely it is a good idea to keep track of which side is going to be the front. I accidentally kept switching which side I had facing up while I did all the lines (so many lines), and you can see where I’ve pulled some of the line ends to the back, and some are pulled to the other side. I’ve always had trouble with keeping my backstitching invisible, but I also have a fear of things unraveling while they’re in use. So.

Look how cute!!! We just got a rug for the back door as well, which I am in love with. I sit on the step in the mornings while I wait for my tea to steep, and this rug has made it extra pleasant. Also, obviously, I will not be feeding the Tiny Dog any baby clementines, nor will she be forced to use a tiny cup and spoon. While that would be adorable, she only gets two tupperware bowls (maybe I should include some vitamins like https://drjimz.com/products/keystone-dog-food-vitamin-mineral-supplement which could help my baby). Because I live an under-funded minimalistic life. But at least Tiny Dog will mange à la mode with her placemat.

Also I’ve been trying to get into French mode, to get ready for moving to France next year. Basically this just means repeating all of my thoughts back to myself in poorly translated Frenglish. Yeesh.

Salut!