It's a "Dog's World" Fun and Games Quilt

I was super excited to get to work with "Dog's World" fabric from Red Rooster Fabrics...

The prints are so much fun and the colours are so bright and cheery...also being a dog person...they just make me smile! 

 I mean how can you not love these doggie selfies???

You can't possibly look at these and not smile....no way....

I knew right away what I wanted to make........
Soon after I started quilting I bought a very simple design software and made a checker board quilt for my nephew. I have since added a version of that checker board pattern to the back of a friends quilt, so her boys could use it as a game board, and I've always meant to make one for my home too!
It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this fun collection of prints....so off to EQ7 and this is what I came up with......I'm calling this one "Fun & Games" Quilt

 Checkers on one side....
(Did you notice the doggie selfies? One set of three faces, face each player......they are so cute)

and on the other side....Tic Tac Toe....4 different boards.....

again with the cute dogs at either end....just couldn't help myself....still makes me smile!

 And what does every games quilt need....a cute pouch to hold the game pieces of course!

I didn't have a pattern...the checkers are 3" wide, (thank you Cracker Barrel! My Mother-in-law picked them up for me a few years ago, on a trip south of the border) so I knew I had to make the pouch a good size to hold them all.
I came up with a cross between a pouch, clutch and the Sew Together Bag....and I'm happy to say it turned out.

Yes, there were a few false starts, some stitch ripping and even some lost fabric.....and....

I promised a story about the cute little white paw label...

Let's just say it was messy, a needle's life was lost and fabric was hurt.....yikes

So I fussy cut a paw, folded fabric bias tape style and put a "bandage" on it!! 👍🏻👍🏻

and how cute is that? 

and you won't give away my secret will you.... 😉

I was hoping to share the patterns with you, but they all need further tweaking and testing so keep your eyes open for them in the near future. If you don't want to miss anything, think about following along via email or BlogLovin, both can be found in my sidebar. Also all my patterns to date can be found in my Craftsy Pattern Shop and that link is also in my sidebar. (enough self promoting)

How about a giveaway.....

Red Rooster has generously donated a FQ Bundle of their  Dog's World fabric line for one of you to win and make your own cute project with!!

Let's make this a simple one...

a Rafflecopter giveaway




*sorry open to Canada and US only this time

#74 Tic Tac Toe Game Board Tutorial

Merry Christmas early!! My last tutorial post was my gift to all of you. I want to say thanks for taking time to come over and see "What I've Been Up To". I hope that you will enjoy the pattern and maybe even make a few. I would sure like to see pictures if you do!!

So last Christmas I was part of a blog hop and designed a Travel Blackboard Mat which features a straight blackboard area and side chalk holder. I have tweaked this pattern to incorporate the Tic Tac Toe board and voila, another pattern is born!!

Tic Tac Toe 

Title is the link to the PDF file with the written instructions and measurements. The pictures are just for clarity sake. I didn't take time to re-write the whole tutorial again. Hope you enjoy it!!

Assembling the Tic Tac Toe Board:

 

Quilting the backing:

Adding the pockets to side pieces:

 Left side is chalk pocket in sewing position, and right is after it is pressed up:

 Measure for the next chalk holder:

 Second set of Chalk pockets in sewing position:

 Sewing lines to divide pockets for chalk:

 Measure for last pocket:

 Adding the top flap with an 1/8" seam:

Attach the left and right sides to the game board middle section. (Totally forgot to get a picture of this.)

Make your quilt sandwich (backing right side down, batting up, game board section right side up) and stitch the top and backing together with an 1/8" seam.

I also stitched in the ditch around the game area.

 add your label and your 2 elastic loops :

finish sewing the binding down:

A mini with

 (a little disclaimer if you will....these are patterns I have come up with and am sharing for free with all of you, please do not copy and redistribute. Link people to my blog, if you want to share. If you do make any of the patterns, and share via social media, I would love it if you give me credit for the pattern and again link to my blog . I am sure this one goes without saying, please don't take these patterns and  try to sell them, even if you tweak them a bit....that's just not right) Thanks everyone

#03 Hugs & Kisses Blog Hop

This is my 3rd Blog Hop and 2nd with Mdm Samm!! 

I want to thank her for allowing me the privilege, again, of participating.

Feb 12th

Lady Carol

just let me quilt

Lady Sandy

Upstairshobbyroom (me)

Lady Cynthia

dreamquiltcreate

Lady Pat

scrapatches.blogspot

Lady Jolie

Jolie Maxtin

Lady Susan

desertskyquilts

Here is the link to the complete list of participants!!

 I had all this lovely Valentine's fabric I bought last year on sale, so what better Blog Hop to get involved in. I had so much fun figuring out what to do with the paper piece patterns from Soma of Whims and Fancies too!! (There were 3 patterns total, I only used 2.)

Again, I know you don't have time to read a lot of words and just want to look at pretty pictures, but read to the end. Don't miss out, I've  rounded up 2 great prizes for you.

Feyza from ikaprint is donating 90 labels and if you've been reading my blog you will know that I love my labels!! Don't forget to use the discount code upstairshobbyroom (5% off) if you are looking for labels and decide to place an order.

And Jennie at Zipit is donating a $25.00 gift certificate!!
 Again don't forget to use upstairshobbyroom to save 15% on an order if you are looking for great zippers.

These are two places that I shop and love!
( I always have the discount codes and  links on the right side bar of my blog. The pictures are the links just click on them to go!)

OK, on with the picture show.....

 A Table Runner

Then I printed the pattern at 60% and made a pouch (of course using a zipper from Zipit), and 50% and made coasters/Tic Tac Toe game pieces (and the table topper game board of course!!)

And a treat/card holder!!

I made 2 blocks for this, folding the one a little over the halfway point and adding some fabric to the bottom to match raw edge. Then quilted both, layered them on top of each other and added the binding and ties.


You could make one for everyone's chair!! A mixture of X's and O's.

Same rules as last time. Prizes are open to everyone, just follow the instructions to enter below!!

I apologize for anyone who didn't get a reply last time around who maybe returning. Again there are a lot of comment coming in and it is hard to keep straight who I have replied to and who I haven't. (between phone, computer and blog) So this time around, unless you ask a question, I'm going to say to everyone right now....

Thank you so much for taking time to stop in and check out how I used the paper pieced pattern!! I really appreciate everyone's feed back and support (I read every comment!!) and I hope that I have inspired you to get creative!!
Happy Valentine's Day (a little early )

Ok so here is the give away!! I learned after the last Blog Hop it is a lot of work to try and randomly generate numbers, than count and not get lost through the comments....so I figured out Rafflecopter, I think!

a Rafflecopter giveaway