Furry Fridays - They start today!

Most quilters love animals and most quilters know that quilts are "Cat Magnets" and dogs love them too. Most quilters also have pets and many of them are rescue pets. But there are many pets that don't have homes and need some help.

Therefore a group of quilting industry professionals partnered together with the Petfinder Foundation to raise awareness of those less fortunate who are waiting for their "Furever Homes". 

Each Friday for the next seven weeks, we will share pictures of shelter pets that need a home. Now they may not be in your area, however, if you are looking for a pet, you can go to the Petfinder.com page, put in your area code plus what type of pet you want and you will find a listing of all the pets needing homes in or near your area. 

We have two pets listed today. Meet Catnine.

Catnine lived a hard life before she was saved by Zeus' Rescues in New Orleans: Both her leg and her jaw had been broken. Still, she adores people, and she's ready for a loving home that will help her heal! For more information, please check here: Catnine info

Now meet June.

This gentle, housetrained 6-year-old gal is comfortable around adults, children and other dogs, and even lived happily with a gecko! She's waiting for a new family at Animal Care Centers of NYC in Manhattan. To find out more about June, please check here: June info

We are hoping that by spreading the word, these two will find their new homes. Please share as they just might be the "purrfect" cat or dog for someone you know.

Now Catnine is at Zeus' Rescues shelter in New Orleans and June is at Animal Care Centers in New York City.  These two shelters have received Kennel Quilts from the TQPM Kennel Quilt Team. Have you heard of the team? Well if not, find out here. 

Kennel Quilts are so much fun to make and there are FREE patterns on the Kennel Quilt page plus I just recently made some Kennel Quilts with some lovely Island Batik fabrics and directions are included.

I have talked about the shelter pets, now let me introduce you to the wonderful  Quilting Industry Professionals who are animal lovers and started an initiative last fall called "Piece for Shelter Pets".

The Quilt Pattern Magazine partnered with the Petfinder Foundation after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to help animal shelters affected by the hurricane by making Kennel Quilts. Many times  pets have to stay in carriers when a shelter is affected by a disaster as they usually have so many rescued or displaced pets in their care. The TQPM Kennel Quilt Team was started and today there are over a thousand members on the team. We hope you will join. Over 10,200 Kennel Quilts have been distributed to shelters in the USA and Canada. Isn't it wonderful that so many of our furry friends have found a warm, soft place to nap in a shelter?

Kennel Quilt using Island Batik Fabrics

Aurifil Threads made a Small Kennel Quilt Thread Kit and a portion of the sales goes to the Petfinder Foundation. The kitty on the cover is "Pretty Girl" who is the SpokesKitty of the TQPM Kennel Quilt Team. She was a former resident at The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region during the fires in 2013. 

Aurifil has added two more
thread collections -
Fifi and Fido and Happy Hounds to match the lovely Island Batik Fabrics. Again a portion of the sales is donated to the Petfinder Foundation. 



The dog on the cover of the Fifi and Fido collection is Gary, a rescue dog owned by an Aurifil Staff Member.

 



The dog on the Happy Hounds cover is Holly and she is owned by an Island Batik Staff member. Holly is also a rescue dog.




 
Island Batik Fabrics designed two wonderful fabric collections as previously mentioned with a portion of the fabric sales donated to the Petfinder Foundation. 

Here is the Fifi and Fido Collection.

Here is the Happy Hounds Collection.











Quilty Box  made a "Special Edition" Kennel Quilt Quilty Box with 100% of the proceeds going to the Petfinder Foundation.

Benartex Fabrics designed "The Joey Collection" in honor of a shopowner's rescue dog. Joey is blind in one eye.  A potion of the fabric sales is donated to the Petfinder Foundation.

Hancock's of Paducah is helping to spread the word about Furry Fridays as they are animal lovers and want to increase awareness about shelter pets.

I hope after reading this, you want to help too. Well you can plus you can have fun doing what you love, make new friends  and help our furry friends all at the same time. 


On March 18th and 19th which is National Quilting Day Weekend, The Quilt Pattern Magazine is going to host a virtual Kennel Quilt Retreat. We will be able to all work together that weekend and share our progress with our Kennel Quilts with other quilters and animal lovers at this virtual "online" retreat.

Onyx from Missouri Humane Society

Island Batik, Aurifil, Quilty Box, Benartex and Hancock's of Paducah are going to have some wonderful goodies to give away. If you have never been to a retreat, but always wanted to go, this is your chance. You don't even have to leave home to enjoy this retreat as it is all online. 
You can get all the information on the retreat here. The goal is for the group of quilters/animal lovers to make at least 100 Kennel Quilts (we hope there will be more) at this retreat.  I hope to see you there as it is a great way to help our animal friends doing what we love together.

It is so nice that many Industry professionals who are animal lovers have come together to help these animals in need and to help the Petfinder Foundation with their generous donations. 
Please thank them when you have a chance and help in the effort to "Piece for Shelter Pets" by making Kennel Quilts

Thank you for stopping by.

Until next time,

Nan