I've never made them or seen them. Most of the younger dogs I've had take the stuffing out of every toy they ever had. I'd think stuffing was not a great idea. Maybe a layer or two of an old washable blanket would work.

bkay

Donna, our quilt guild makes about 200 pet beds per year to donate to our local animal shelter. First, don't go to a lot of trouble. The shelter will well you that many of the animals will destroy the beds over night.

This is what we do. We use a heavier fabric like an upholstery fabril and make like a pillow case with one end open. Then we stuff them with a mixture of scrap fabric and scrap batting. Make sure your pieces aren't too big and that there is a good mix of fabric and batting. In the event that a bed survives and the shelter washes them, they get too heavy if they only contain fabric. Once your pillow case is filled, just sew across the end and you are done.

We make all sizes to accommodate animals from kittens to larger dogs, just depends on the size of the heavier fabric that we have. Many of the ladies will take a pillowcase and have that lining their trash can to fill with scraps. When it is filled, they bring it back to the guild and take another pillowcase. It is a nice way to recycle your scraps and give to the shelter.

Check with the shelter. The ones in my area are very particular about donations. For example, one only accepts Kuranda beds and fleece blankets (no quilts).

Lynn, thank you - that sounds perfect! Using the pillowcase method I can probably make 50 beds with all the fabric and batting scraps I have! I can always make string blocks to make donation quilts.

JLT I will check with the shelter. In the past I've given them towels, litter boxes, and even laundry detergent.

Donna

According to the shelter I donate to, the pillow cases are too small for them (they are dogs only), but I know of shelter with cats that like them. I used old sheets stuffed with pieces of cotton batting and fabric. However, I can see where a dog could scratch through that rather quickly. They wanted them pretty thin so they were easy to wash and dry. Here is a link to some ideas. http://shelterbeds.blogspot.com/

I use old pillowcases I get at yard sales and toss small pits of scraps as I trim. When I think they are "stuffed" enough I sew them shut. There isn't much invested, so if they want to toss them they can. I also have scrap pieces I use to test patterns on the long arm that I bind or zigzag around the outer edge. The animals don't mind if they are not perfect.

I’ve made quilts for my dog in a variety of colors - blue and white, greens, pinks and purples. I mainly just cut squares and sew them into rows, rows to other rows and once the front is finished I use a solid color for the back, thin batting and Wright’s extra wide double fold binding. I also do triangle squares in 4 block arrangement even though that means I have to press and stitch down to keep the front flattened properly.

I also do a mixture of scraps and stuffing to make pillow forms for our home decor, gotta have pillow forms to go inside the wide selection of covers I’ve made. Right now I have the fabric cut already for some Asian patterned covers, the material is lovely and has silvery accents which is rare in cotton quilt fabric from the Asian category which usually has bronze and gold. It’s not a big deal to wash the covers because the dog sleeps where she wants to sleep, but the pillow forms I’ve had in the past didn’t do so well when laundered. Dog specific beds I have a pattern I came up with on my own. But those are only large pieces of fabric and a third piece to create a ‘flap’ that tucks into the other part once complete.

I made my cat a bed using fabric and batting scraps and I ended up throwing it away after I washed it and after 3 hours in the dryer, it still was wet inside. I don’t think a shelter would like that. I would imagine they’d rather have something like old towels folded over and sewn on the sides. Not the most comfy, cushy beds but better than nothing.

I’ve also seen where shelters are putting recliners in some pens for the dogs to sleep on. Those dogs look happy.