Our SEFAA neighborhood in Chamblee is home to the DeKalb County Animal Shelter, managed by the LifeLine Animal Project, a nonprofit that cares for over 46,000 animals per year. They are our “across the street non-profit neighbor,” on the corner of W. Hospital Avenue and Chamblee Dunwoody Road. In the spirit of neighborliness, we are planning a fun project to support their mission of caring for thousands of animals needing veterinary services and forever homes. We plan to create a Dog Portrait Quilt to be donated to LifeLine and auctioned at their April 2027 Good Human Gala. This will be a 25th anniversary for them!

Ready to join in on this fun project? We are looking for SEFAA members who would like to create one of the 12 squares for the finished quilt. Here are some details:

The quilt

We will be creating a “portrait quilt,” using face photos of dogs from the Dekalb County Animal Shelter website. We need 12 squares for the quilt. These will be assembled into a finished quilt size of 48” X 63.” Below is an image of a completed quilt—we want the SEFAA quilt to be similar in design, in that each square would be a dog face, as opposed to a whole body, or a word, or a dog accessory image.

Images and design ideas

25 photos from the Dekalb County Animal Shelter website have been selected and added to a Flicker file, accessible here:   https://www.flickr.com/photos/150626396@N07/albums/72177720332366522/   We would like participants to select from these 25 and indicate their choice. If we have more than 12 participants, we will create an additional quilt, or pillows.

Square sizes

Each square needs to have the design fit within a boundary of 12” x 12”. Please leave a 1” border (at least) on all four sides, so that the working size of the fabric is at least 14” X 14.” This will create the necessary seam allowances when the quilt is assembled.

Techniques

The design approach you take can be entirely your own, with one restriction: the base fabric needs to be a quilt-weight cotton and the finished surface needs to be flat and without embellishment, so that a quilting machine can pass easily over the surface. We may add a few dimensional elements after the quilting is completed. 

As examples, below are some images of pieced portraits and the photographic image that inspired the portrait. 

Deadlines for participation

Click here to fill out an interest form and submit it by September 30, 2026. We would like to have the quilt completed by January 1, 2027.

Drawing for a free year of SEFAA membership!

Project participants will have their names entered into a drawing for a free year of SEFAA membership!

Questions?

Call or text Roxanne Brown, SEFAA Secretary, at (404) 374-8856

 

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