All the Presidents’ Dogs
The trip last weekend to the Houston International Quilt Festival was a feast for the eyes. This year the festival had a special “Raining Cats & Dogs” competition category. I wanted to share these amazing quilts with you. Enjoy your trip through this virtual art gallery! And if you have a favorite, do comment and let me know. They are all so wonderful!
This post is part of a Wednesday blog hop. Please click the “Blog Paws” button in the sidebar to follow all the other wonderful pet blogs. Happy Blogging!
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Caught in the Act, by Barbara McKie
Lyme, Connecticut
Techniques: Digital imagery, threadpainted, trapuntoed, free-motion quilted
I urged my cousin’s cat, Taz, to come to the kitchen sink to drink, and she obliged as I captured her in this funny pose.
Kool in Ketchikan, by Ingrid Cattaneo
Grass Valley, California
Techniques: Fabric collaged
Kool in Ketchikan was inspired by a photograph I took of two dogs – both wearing upside down sunglasses, perched in an open window of the Bayside building in Ketchikan, Alaska. It was drizzling, I looked up and there they were. The pit bull mix dogs, mostly white with black spots, are iconic to Ketchikan, both to locals and tourists. I wanted a playful reminder of our visit to Ketchikan, consequently one dog is pink and the other dog is blue. It literally rains and pours at our local shelter with pit bull mix dogs. Won’t you please consider offering a “forever” home to a dog from your local shelter? We did. His name is Yuba. He, too, is part pit bull and a big love.
Cornered!, by Wendy Starn
Alexandria, Louisiana
Techniques: Hand-stamped, threadpainted, collaged
In August of 2008, my son found a tiny kitten under the hood of the car, covered in grease and fleas. He cleaned her up and she won his heart, as well as the scorn of our other two cats. Boris, the black cat, is determined to be Alpha male, and is also proud of his prowess at catching (catnip) mice, while Moose, the orange cat, is the might hunter of lizards and bugs, who’s afraid of everything. Oslo the kitten sleeps, dreaming, no doubt of how best to annoy her big brothers.
Charlie, by Melinda Sword
Port Charlotte, Florida
Technique: Pictorial quilting with machine applique
Materials: Cotton batting, thread, décor bond, cotton and batik fabrics
This quilt was made from a snapshot of my weimaraner, Charlie. He is lying at the foot of my bed waiting for his daddy to get home from work to play with his ball.
Yogi Bear, by Kathy Zieben
Houston, Texas
Techniques: Raw-edge appliqued, machine stitched and quilted, design from fisheye lens photo
The inspiration for creating this Yogi Bear quilt came from a special love I had for my pet, a shelter dog we rescued at 16 weeks old. Yogi had the most adorable face that peeked out from his cage. I felt it best highlighted his unique character. Everyone who was him commented on his unique look. Yogi Bear was only with us for a short five years. Making this quilt has helped me to deal with the loss of Yogi.
Live Free, by Kathleen Everett
Batavia, New York
Techniques: Improvisationally pieced, printed, free-motion quilted
After creating a collage on a playing card, manipulating it in Photoshop in a class by Red-Dog Enterprises, my pup was printed by a large format printer onto fabric. I pieced varying sized improvisational star blocks using Marcia Derse fabrics, quilted my adorable lab and stitched him to his background. He would be at home anywhere!
Unfortunately I do not have the details for this quilt.
Artie Facts, by Joyce Paterson
Ukiah, California
Techniques: Hand and fused applique, machine quilting
I have long known that dogs have their own set of rules and facts about how the world works. So, when faced with a Mendocino Quilt Artists challenge to create a quilt based on the theme “Artifact,” my mind went to dog facts. Artie is the representative of the dog world, and these are some of the known dog facts.
Sherri, by Sue Bleiweiss
Uptown, Massachusetts
Technique: Hand-dyed, raw-edge fusible appliqued, machine quilted
As soon as I found ou about the “It’s Raining Cats and Dogs” special exhibit, I sat down and sketched out this quilt. The pup on the quilt is keeping a wakeful eye out for any bone thieves!
I’m Watching You, by Barbara McKie
Lyme, Connecticut
Techniques: Free-motion threadpainted, trapuntoed, disperse dye printed, free-motion machine appliqued, free-motion machine quilted
A friend’s dog had the habit of lying on the back of the couch and watching me while I stayed with them. Fortunately, I had my camera and transferred the photo to polyester using disperse dye digital transfer.
Shade, by Mary Davis
Sunnyvale, California
Techniques: Fused applique, machine pieced and quilted
I began this quilt in a class taught by June Jaeger in Sisters, Oregon, It’s from a photo of my dog, Shade, when he was a puppy. I wanted a small dog. He was 19 pounds at the time. He grew up…now he’s 80 pounds. While his name may be Shade, he brings a lot of sunshine into my life.
Sassmuffins 
Thank you for sharing, these are amazing. I can’t believe someone created some of them out of fabric. Wow!
Actually they are all created out of fabric. Each and every one, even the ones that look more like photographs. Those started as photos and then were transferred onto fabric and had other quilting techniques applied. Glad you enjoyed them!
I thought that first one was a really great painting but a quilt?! Wow! These are so impressive and they take cuddling up with your cat or dog to a whole new level.
Yes, a quilt! Even the ones that look like photos are all made from fabric. Very artistic!
They’re all wonderful but I think I like the dog on the bike best.
Yes well you know I have a fondness for that one also. Gotta love terriers! And I love all the little sayings that are stitched into that one…”Dogs never lie about love”…and all the others.
Very nice – some of these (like the cat drinking water) look so real… thanks for sharing these treasures. WOOF
They do look so real. People were stopping and really looking to see how they had been made. The two that look most like photos had a lot of free motion thread painting. You have lots and lots of different stitches…kinda like “painting” over a photo with thread, if you can visualize that. The metallic threads gave an especially interesting touch to these, making the fur of the animals almost look real too. It was amazing!
Amazing and so lifelike!
Totally agreed, although I do like how everyone has completed their quilt in a different method. Some are more traditional while others are very contemporary, and then are those life-like ones…
Those are all quilts?! Impressive!
Yes. But certainly not the kind of quilts you sleep under. Nothing utilitarian about these; they are pure art!
Holy Cow!!! Those are all incredible.
Yes they were incredible. Never seen anything quite like them before. I’ll have another post later this week with some more. There were some simply stunning contemporary quilts. There were so many that I didn’t even get to see them all! But I did try to group the pet ones together for my post today.
These are beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed.
These are GORGEOUS!!! I love the cat drinking from the faucet. I think even more I love the stories that go with the quilts. The pit bulls in Alaska was the best story.
I agree the stories just brought the art to life. It’s so neat to see what inspires artists to create their work. And yes, I really loved the story about the pit bulls from Alaska. And really, really love that quilt too. I think it’s the beautiful colors!! And the upside down sunglasses! 🙂
What beautiful dog art! I want to redecorate my house with it.
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind redecorating my house with it either!
I’m glad you shared these! I’d so love to see the real thing, so much work has gone into them.
Yes Clowie the photos truly don’t do them justice. They have to be seen to be totally appreciated. When looking at them you can really tell just how much work has gone into each and every one. And some of them are also quite large, which can’t be depicted in the photos. I was glad to be able to get photos of many; some of them you were not even allowed to photograph. And you were not allowed to touch any of them!
These are amazing! Our favorites are the “Caught in the Act” and “I’m Watching You.” They look so realistic!
They really did look realistic. I think they were really surprising all the folks at the show!
My favorite is Kool in Ketchikan. Thanks so much for sharing these!!
I really did like that one too, although have to admit I just loved them all. But I think the bold colors in that one (and the lovely story) made it one of my favorites!
These are amazing quilts! So fun!
They were fun…I wish everyone could have been there to see them with me. I will try to post some more of the quilts I saw today or tomorrow, but for now have much sewing to do!
Wow these are incredible! I thought they were paintings, not quilts. What I’d give to get a close look at the stitching and the textures. Just beautiful.
Just stopping by to invite you to come join us for NaNo, we’d love to have your dogs write a paragraph for our story! We still really need writers. 🙂
Yes they were definitely best appreciated being seen first-hand and close up!
WOW! PAWsome. Can’t believe its fabric. Golden Thanks for sharing. Happy BlogPaws WW. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
Yes, Sugar, definitely fabric, as unbelievable as it seems! These aren’t your mamma’s quilts!!
Those are quilts!? Oh my gosh, amazing! That first one has kind of a 3D sort of effect going on that is breathtaking! And I do really like that rainbow-ish colored quilt with the cats on it too.
Ann, yes they did have a 3-D effect with all the top stitching on the “photo” realistic ones. I can’t even imagine how long it must take to make one of these…hours and hours and hours…
these quilts are absolutely fantastic. all the president’s dogs is very clever and artie facts is adorable. oh, i can’t pick a favorite. thanks so much for sharing. i can only imagine the quilts you didn’t photograph.
wags, bailey unleashed
Well, I will be showing some more soon so won’t have to imagine all of them. Most of my other photos are of very contemporary quilts. They were quite outstanding!
Those are amazing!! And there sure are some very talented people out there! 🙂
Wags to all,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
Hey Snoopy! Yes those were some incredibly talented people from around the globe (although these pet quilts were all from American artists). There were many others from various countries, and quite a few from Japan!
#4, #8 and #11. beautiful.