pet bed

And her first appearance on the blog....our Beagle Pepper!  Sorry if there aren't a lot of dog fans reading this, but I had a really fun opportunity pop up!

I've been volunteering for my local Humane Society, the Coulee Region Humane Society for almost five years now.  Each year they have a banquet that raises funds for yearly activities and supplies.  It's a really heart-warming event because they invite families who have adopted pets from the Humane Society and ask them to share their happy stories of how the pet changed their lives. 

I was able to donate this pet bed to their silent auction.  I had actually hoped to make a quilt, but just couldn't squeak out enough time to get one going.  I had seen a cool pet bed in a BHG magazine earlier this year, but couldn't bear to spend the $10 or whatever it is to actually buy the magazine.  Lucky for me this tutorial from Sew4Home showed up!

I stayed up way too late the night before the banquet making it, but I'm really please with how it came together.  The only difficulty I had was with the gusset section stretching and then not aligning with the top and bottom parts.  I had planned on this happening, so I started stitching at a point where I could take in some extra fabric if I need to (and I did).  If anyone has ever done a project similar to this, I'd love to hear if there's a good way of avoiding that problem. 

Anway, the bed raised a nice chunk of money and I was pleased to see the new pet bed owner walk away with a smile!