Carolyn: Coco Is Our Joy

Coco - 11 Weeks Old

I knew immediately when this theme was announced that my quilt had to feature our dog, Coco.  She is a 2 year-old Havanese that we have had since she was 11 weeks old.  When a newborn, her coloring was chocolate and white - chocolate on her ears and around her eyes and middle.  As she grew she became a Golden Havanese just like her mother – mostly white with golden-tan markings. 

Havanese are an interesting hypo-allergenic breed that originated in Cuba. Intelligent, agile and quick to learn, they have strong hind legs and curly, soft hair rather than fur.  These attributes make them perfect circus dogs.  Coco loves to jump, play and learn new “tricks.” With her sweet personality and fun-to-watch antics, she has stolen our hearts and provides us with daily joy.

I used a Kaffe Fassett print and batiks for my quilt.  I took a photo of Coco playing with a ball, electronically eliminated the background around her, and transferred the image onto a VV Graphics cotton fabric sheet.  The photo was fused using Wonder Under 805 to the background.  I used the same fusing technique for the beach ball and the “movement” streaks in the design.  I hand-embroidered a zig-zag design onto the turquoise lines on the ball, and machine-stitched a scarf around her neck.

The image of Coco is machine-stitched using tan, peach and silver threads along with threads in corresponding colors for the rest of the design elements.  Once the stitching was completed, I used Prismacolor pencils to highlight Coco’s curly hair and to add dimension to her nose, mouth and eyes.  After heat-setting the colors, the quilt was bound in a golden/orange batik.