I have gone to the Dogs!

Well, not literally! In fact, the dog has come to me! My grand dog, Floppy, is in the house!

dWhile she has been visiting, I have begun to make another happy village and what dog village would not be happy? Thank you to Karen Eckmeier again for her inspiration in making yet another "happy village" using her technique outlined in her book of the same title. I have shared other villages that I have created but I think that this one may be my favorite! (of course, I think I always say that!) This is an early picture in the process. I have been collecting dog themed fabrics for a long time. I wanted to stay in the same color family and I found so many. Dogs are a favorite of fabric designers too! I had a vision of dogs swimming in their own pool with the houses sporting doggie house doors. There would have to be lots of fire hydrants and treat stores and balls to play with in and out of the pool. So I started with the houses and the pool and added as I went along.

Many people ask me if there is a pattern for these villages. There is so specific theme patterns. Karen gives you the building block templates in her book. But you are free to create from your own imagination. She gives you the spark with the ideas and templates and then you can take it as far as you want. 

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dIn this photo you can see that I have added some more details. I made small slits in the pool water to slip the doggies into the pool so they appear to be floating. I found beach fabric for beach balls. I even put floaties around some of the dogs. I did do something that Karen does not mention in her directions. When I fussy cut something very small and liable to fray, I put some light weight fusible behind it before cutting. I find that it helps to stop the threads from coming apart on tiny pieces.  

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After I am happy that it seems complete, I leave it for a day. When I come back, I can see what is missing or needs to be rearranged. For example, I eventually removed those pink hearts in the middle because my eye landed there too much. I will add some decorative buttons that are dog themed after quilting. Bones, toys and such. The complete village before quilting is below. If you look carefully, you will even see an intruder in the neighborhood. HINT: just northeast of the pool. There is no clock in my dog village because anytime is dinnertime or playtime or naptime! :)

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Below is a picture of a fabric recreation of a water color that was painted by my son's father in law, Phil. He is an incredibly talented artist of many mediums.
For their wedding, he and my daughter in law, Alison, welded a gorgeous sculpture that stood next to the altar. It now resides in their backyard. The other piece is at her parents' house. Such a memory. 

Every year he also makes a watercolor for the holidays. The watercolor is photographed for adding to the holiday cards. This year the picture told me to make a fabric version. I received permission to recreate the drawing. This is my start. I am going to use Karen's techniques in terms of laying out and then using the tulle to cover and quilt. The original photograph is on the piece in progress. I tried to keep to his original themes. I cut the buildings freehand so they may be a bit bigger than the originals. 

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I have added the snowmen who are guiding the floating balloon but no details as of yet. I used satin for the snowmen with light weight fusible to keep fraying to a minimum. I am looking forward to finishing this. Karen's technique can be used in many different ways. 

On his site, he has this quote: 

“To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there’s no such thing as perfect.”
– Alexander Calder

I will leave all of you artists with that thought. 

Piecefully, 

Trisha