The 4 Ps: Practice Pup Portrait Potholder
 

I should change my screen name to Practice Pup. How can something that seems so easy cause me so much trouble? Have a lot of practicing to do.
Why did I think trimming off the corners at a 45-degree angles would be easier to bind than the perfect square corners I had? I then wound up with 8 corners instead of 4!
I'm good at making my own bias binding but I cut to 2" instead of 2 1/2".
I didn't look up how the loop would come about until after I sewed it in ahead of the binding: mistake!
The points on my star are way off too, I wanted an 8-pointer I think this is Lemoyne Star but I didn't research how to do exact points and so...oh well.

YET- very happy with the most important part - the pup portrait...which I tried to paper piece (I don't know how to do that either lol) and decided to hand piece after the pp'g went awry. So here I'm presenting our Larry, in fabric. I got the idea from seeing the 'Doggone Cute' quilt pattern and re-designing the face so it would resemble Larry. Someday, soon I hope, I will start a real quilt, when I have skill.

I think that you have "captured" Larry very well.

We all have to learn and you are certainly off to a good start but I have to say you did pick a couple of "advanced" ideas to start with.

It is good to challenge ourselves and come out of our comfort zone - keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

fantastic quilt of the dog!!!

Absolutely wonderful! I know, the piecing isn't perfect, but so what!? You made something out of love. (And it looks just like Larry.) Everyone here had to start somewhere. Thank you for posting this.

Love the dog, such a great mini quilt. you did fantastic on him.

Wow great job on Larry!! You are off to a terrific start!!!

Love your story and love your result. You are on your way to being a great, creative quilter. Keep it going!

Thanks everyone for the kind & encouraging words. Almost didn't post a picture of the back because it is so far from perfect, and I haven't seen anything so wonky posted...all the pics I see on whatever forum are examples of great skill.
But then heck, how will I document my future vast leaps of improvement? ;)

I think you done fantastic on your first try. Keep up the good work & don't be so hard on yourself. There are some great tuts on MSQC that I get lots of info from.

I think Larry is absolutely great!
My personal preference is to do faux Le Moyne's using HST's, but the trick, I'm told the trick is to pair up diamonds, then pair the pairs, then put together the 2 halves, carefully putting a pin through the center connection, then pinning in place. I've done it successfully, but don't really enjoy it. For a real expert, check with Quilterdale.