Puppy Portraits and a Stitch-a-long

I am beyond excited to finally be sharing this nearly 3 year long project I've been working on with Erin over at Aurifil and the Aurifil company. I had a chance to talk to Erin a bit and shared a lot about this project and why I love Aurifil. You can read all about it over on their Auribuzz blog. 

Many people over the years have sewn my dog blocks, which started with the French Bulldog block and expanded to eleven more…with other breeds to come later this year. I was at my Mom’s childhood home one summer and saw a wall that was once filled with numerous framed portraits and family reunion photos. She was packing to move and I missed all of the photos. At the time I was trying to think of another fun quilt layout that would work for all 12 dog blocks in the series and thought of a wall of frames. I quickly decided I didn’t want to sew all those 12 blocks again, so I turned it into a cross stitch pattern instead.

When I thought of bringing the cross stitch pattern to “market”, I knew I didn’t want to make money from it, but wanted to do good with it. Oftentimes, designers are asked to give away free patterns to boost sales for one company or a certain product. But when I came up with this idea – there was no product, just the pattern. My idea was to find a way to encourage those that can afford it, to pay for the pattern with 100% of the proceeds to go to various charities. As mentioned, this idea has been in the works for well over a year…and on my end it’s actually been upwards of two and a half years, which was long before Covid. When Covid hit everyone was struggling one way or another, I knew all my prep work was worth it and this was the purpose for the project. To help others with the money raised from the pattern sales. Even though it wasn’t ready to release last year, we knew it would still benefit so many people and continued work on it. Aurifil offered to create the Puppy Portraits spool collection to make it easier for folks to get the colors I used and to help raise awareness to the project. I’m so grateful to work with companies that are actively helping to make a difference for everyone.

We are so excited to share that the Puppy Portraits Stitch-a-Long officially kicks off TODAY (June 10th). Can you guess three of the dogs that might be included on the portrait wall? Reserve/purchase your patterns by filling out the Puppy Portraits Google form linked via the button below.

We are not charging for this event in the traditional sense. Rather, we simply ask that participants make a donation to a charity that is close to theirs hearts or homes to offer passionate and targeted support to those in need. The signup form will require the following details:

— When and where a donation was made (donations must be dated June 10, 2021 or later)
— Donation amount (minimum of $12)
— Screenshot or other proof of donation

We’re excited to track all donation totals as well as charities, organizations, and foundations included. We’ll share details at the end of the stitch-a-long. Participant names and individual donation amounts will not be shared and will remain anonymous.

Upon signup, your name will be added to our pattern distribution list and you’ll receive a PDF download with the Stitch-a-Long frames. The first puppy portrait will arrive in your inbox on July 8th (if you’ve signed up by July 7th), with all subsequent portraits arriving on the 2nd Thursday of each month for 12 months. The frames are numbered in the order in which the puppy portraits will arrive, so please be sure to stitch them in order as noted. When you finish your new ‘puppy of the month’, you can then continue working on the frames.

If you'd like to order the Puppy Portraits collection and the Lugana precut linen (as shown above), you can find it in my Kid Giddy Etsy shop. These are pre-orders and will ship when the product arrives. We appreciate your patience!

We truly hope you will stitch-a-long with us over this next year and feel good about being a part of this special project.

Disclosure: There are no affiliate links. Thank you.