Quilted Doggie Placemat

My goodness, it's been so long since I, The Project Chick, have actually posted about a project and I have to say, it's felt really GOOD to be back at my sewing machine. When I'm pleased with the way it looks, I'll post pics of my little sewing nook in our spare bedroom of this rental house. With the medical issues I'm dealing with (I'll have an update on that this week), I'm finding that getting back to my hobbies is helping me to not just sit around and mope. Although I should probably work on picking up some more, ahem, active hobbies, considering my favorites are sewing and reading.

Now, back to the project. Ever since our sweet Louie has come into our lives, I've been itching to start making him things (since isn't that what you baby-having people do??), but have been hesitant while he is still in his destructive puppy phase. I whipped up this doggie placemat one night last week anyway to help out with his water-dish-splashing.

It's FAR from perfect and I plan to make a better, bigger one, but this one was kind of a sample/tester to see if he destroys it. He hasn't yet, though!

I decided to do this project because while I'm not a neat freak by any means, 

this messiness was really getting to me:

I started by finding these super fun doggie prints at Hancock Fabrics:

I cut and pieced the fabrics and then sandwiched them with some red canvas I had leftover from 

last year's corn hole board project and some batting to do some quilting.

After the quilting was done, I just had to do some binding and oh boy, did I not realize how hard it is to bind using canvas! Never again! As a result of the bulky canvas and being rusty on binding, my corners are TERRIBLE. Please do not judge me, and if you are a fellow quilter, consider me shamed. 

Had this project been for a person who would criticize me, I would've started over,

but: 1) I know my sweet Louie doesn't care if the corners are perfect and 

2) I know that it won't matter anyway if he tears this thing to pieces.

So without further ado, VOILA, finished product!

(Yes, I realize it's a little too small, I'll eventually make a bigger one)