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Saturday, September 29, 2012

Step by Step How to make a JRT Biscuit / Puff Quilt

biscuit puff quiltFinished this quilt a while back.  It was very challenging for my neck, so it took a while.  It is mostly sewn by hand.  Since I've had Jack Russell Terriers (JRTs), I decided to make a JRT biscuit quilt.  The biscuit or puff quilts looked like so much fun, and I had some foam from a previous dog bed that had gotten torn up.




I took great photos this time to walk you through the process:

biscuit puff quilt
I had an old plastic cutting board sheet. (2 for a $1 at $1 store)

biscuit puff quilt
Cut a 5" square marking the center with a dot
biscuit puff quilt
Put the transparent square over my dog fabric, centering around the JRT
biscuit puff quilt
Marked with my favorite Secret Fabulous Sewing tool.
biscuit puff quilt
Cut with a rotary cutter (with mat underneath, of course)
biscuit puff quilt
There were different JRT faces, so I marked and cut each one out.
biscuit puff quilt
These were the three faces, although, I only had a couple of the one on the left for some reason.
biscuit puff quilt
Cut as many squares as you like.  The finished quilt will not be the same size.

It will be much smaller.
biscuit puff quilt
I didn't have enough JRT squares to make a quilt, but I had this cute fabric, so I cut some squares of it.
biscuit puff quilt
Then I cut 3.75" squares using a ruler and rotary cutter.  I did not do this for the JRT squares because I wanted the faces centered.  The blue, it doesn't matter.
biscuit puff quilt
The JRT and puppy fabric will be the tops of the quilt.  The blue squares are backing.  The whole quilt will also get a backing.

biscuit puff quilt
With WRONG sides together, pin the top to backing.
Pin one corner.
biscuit puff quilt
Pin second corner adjacent to 1st corner.
biscuit puff quilt
You'll see it puffing in the middle now.
biscuit puff quilt
This is the tricky part.  You want to fold the top so that it fits flat with the backing.
biscuit puff quilt
You can mark the center of each JRT/puppy top piece to make it easier.

Pinch the center of the top fabric.
biscuit puff quilt
Carefully push down on fold to create another fold like this.

It takes practice, but don't worry, you'll do this umpteen times.

Then pin in place.
biscuit puff quilt
The top should now fit flush with backing.
biscuit puff quilt
I tried gathering the fabric, but it really turns out better to do the folds.
biscuit puff quilt
This is what it should look like when done properly.

biscuit puff quilt
Repeat folds for all sides.

biscuit puff quilt

biscuit puff quilt
Carefully sew a 1/2" seam almost all the way around.


biscuit puff quilt
Sew right before a fold, and stop right after the last fold, leaving open one corner.
biscuit puff quilt
This is where you will add your stuffing.
biscuit puff quilt
I had some old memory foam from a mattress topper which I had then turned into dog beds.  One of the dog beds was starting to fall apart, so I took the foam from that one to use in this puff quilt since it needs pieces.  Great way to reuse materials!
biscuit puff quilt
For foam, I found I needed to cut it into small pieces.

You could use anything to stuff the quilt with really.

Polyfil tends to flatten over time.  With foam, the quilt gets heavy, so I use it as a bed rather than a cover.
biscuit puff quilt
Squish the foam into a tight ball
biscuit puff quilt

biscuit puff quilt
Start stuffing until it feels full.

Stuff corners first, then the center.
biscuit puff quilt
It will look something like this.
biscuit puff quilt
I tried sewing the last corner up, but realized I would have to sew the seam when putting the pieces together.

biscuit puff quilt
So this step is not necessary, unless you find your stuffing is coming out.  Just baste it if this is the case.

biscuit puff quilt
Line up all your biscuits in the pattern you want.

I alternated the faces and the blue puppy fabric.


biscuit puff quilt
With RIGHT sides together, pin one biscuit to another.
needle and thread
Yep, you're gonna hand sew.  Thread your needle, and knot the thread on one end.

The foam made it to difficult to get the seams under the sewing machine properly.

I used hand quilting thread because it's strong.  You can use whatever you want.

I find gray is a good thread color to use while quilting different colors of fabric.  It doesn't really stand out on any other color.
back stitch
You can pin a row of them together at a time so that you don't have to stop, pin, sew, stop, pin, sew, etc.

This is called a back stitch.  It is the strongest hand sewing stitch - similar to a machine stitch.

From the back side of the seam, bring your needle forward close to the edge.

You can use a 1/4" seam here.  (This photo shows the needle a little too far out from the seam.)
back stitch
I tried sewing on or inside of the 1/2" seam, but it's very difficult to get the needle in in the center of the seam.  So, the 1/2" seam threads will show on the front, but that's ok.

Now put your needle in the fabric to the left of the first stitch.  Make the stitch as wide or narrow as you want.



back stitch
From the back again, come out about a stitch length to the left of the second stitch.
back stitch
Here's where you back stitch.

Put the needle in the fabric near the second stitch.
back stitch
Repeat bringing the needle up one stitch ahead, then a back stitch.
back stitch
Continue across the seam.

Do the 1/4" seam, unlike in this photo.
back stitch
If you make a shorter seam, the biscuits will be further apart.

The further in the seam, the closer the biscuits are.

BUT, the smaller the quilt will be.
biscuit puff quilt
Here it is with a close to 1/2" seam.

Again, it's hard to get the needle in there when it's close.

biscuit puff quilt
 Continue sewing all the rows of biscuits together.

biscuit puff quilt
Make sure you keep your pattern.

biscuit puff quilt
Pin and sew together the rows.
biscuit puff quilt
Not pictured, but put a backing and create a ruffle if you want.  The ruffle is about 3x the perimeter of the quilt in fabric.

Baste the ruffle on one side, and gather the bobbin strings.  Evenly space and pin the ruffle to the quilt.

Cut a backing fabric piece and hand sew.

I know that was quick on that step, but I forgot to take pictures.


There you go, your biscuit quilt.  Spec sits on it in the kitchen while we eat :).

I like the way it came out.  It will not work for covers though.  You would have to use a very light weight stuffing.  And since we live in San Antonio, TX, it would be too hot to cover up with.

Overall , fun to make if you want to do some hand sewing work.

I give it 4 buttons up, mostly because it's not neck friendly work.
4 buttons up



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