Sleepy time for Daisy!

So I was trolling around Pinterest and I came across this fabulous dog bed.

and I just had to have it for little Daisy.  Eric and I have been looking for a cute bed to buy for her.  She needs to have her own place in our living room to go to when people come over or we are busy.  It took us a while to find a suitcase that we could use for this fun project but finally we came across one at DI for $3.  Eric went with me to Brooks Fabrics here in Bountiful and we picked out some great on sale fabric.  Some feet, tape, and a can of spray paint later we were ready to go. 

Luckily the weather was fantastic and as soon as we got home with our treasures we cleaned the thrift store suitcase and I sent Eric outside with the spray paint.

It took about 3 coats until we ended up with this...

Then Eric took it inside and McGyvered some feet onto the bottom for me.  I'm not sure what the wooden balls that we used are actually for but there were 4 of them in the pack and we needed something relatively short.  Daisy has little legs.   Personally, I think they turned out pretty great.

While Eric focused on the suitcase I went to work on the cushion and blanket.  I used the pillow form out of an old throw pillow I had on our bed upstairs.  It fit perfectly.  I made an envelope pillow cover so that we can take it off and throw it in the washing machine when needed.  It was my first time making an envelope cover and I was super nervous but it's not too difficult.  

And hey, the pillow even fit when I finished sewing!  Bonus!

As an extra side project for me I decided to use the rest of pillow fabric to make a small quilt for Daisy.  I've been wanting to try a pinwheel quilt for a while but making a full-sized one was just too intimidating.  But making a mini 27" x 23" quilt for Daisy seemed do-able.  Here are some of my tiny squares that I started out with.  

The sewing of the pinwheels actually went pretty smoothly once I got going.  I scared myself in the middle because none of my triangles seemed to be lining up correctly but once I made one full square it all worked out.

I didn't take pictures of the final few steps on the mini-quilt because I was getting pretty frustrated with it all.  I put a thin layer of batting in the middle and followed with a solid back in the reddish color.  I finished by trying to do a double-fold edge, which was pretty much the worst thing I've ever done on a sewing machine. I didn't take any close-up pictures because it was so bad.  Uneven and crooked.  I never understood why everyone complained so much about making a bias tape until I tried doing one myself.  Hopefully I'll never have to make one again.

After the quilt Eric completed the final step of the project.  We lined the ugly, black fabric inside with our remaining pretty blue fabric.  This was probably his least favorite step.  He wanted to make sure it looked really good since it will be in our main living area.  Combining nervous, sweaty hands with lots of spray glue didn't make the best combination but he did a great job.

So without further ado...Daisy's finished bed!!  We looove it.

And Daisy thinks it's pretty cool too.  We snapped a few photos of her while she was testing it out.

If she can get the quilt the right angle she likes to burrow up underneath it and fall asleep.

She mostly uses her bed during the evenings when Eric and I are up and moving around the house cleaning or making dinner.  I think she really likes having her own safe place to go where no one will bother her.  Our next goal is to train her to go to her bed whenever someone knocks on the door.   Having a little yappy dog at the door each time someone comes is starting to get a little tiring.  We'll let you know how the training goes.

So, what do you think of our bed?  Pretty cute, huh?  Anyone else out there spend entirely too much of their weekend making a bed/quilt for a 3 lb dog or any great dog-training tips to share?

xo,

Carly