Lessons from an Old Scottie Dog Quilt
To watch the video, click HERE or on the image above.
About This Old Quilt
Some quilts just walk right into your heart, tails wagging. This one does exactly that. This quilt that is featured in this Lessons from an Old Quilt video is not exception. This sweet scottie dog (or Scottish Terrier, if you want to be formal) quilt is full of charm, personality, and a few delightful surprises stitched right into the blocks.
Scottie dog quilts have been popping up in American quilts since the 1930s and 1940s, when bold, playful designs were especially popular. Their simple shape made them easy to recognize and fun to piece, even with scraps. These quilts often showed up as children’s quilts, picnic quilts, or cheerful bed quilts, bringing a bit of whimsy into everyday homes. Some believe this attraction to Scottish Terriers was popularized with Bette Davis and her dog, Tibby, in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
So where did this particular pattern come from? I believe it was a pattern that could be ordered through local newspapers. According to the book Clues in the Calico by Barbara Brackman, this pattern was designed under the name Alice Brooks. In the book on page 31 there is an illustration of the pattern and under the illustration it states, “Alice Brooks is one name under which a needlecraft syndicate has sold patterns since the early ‘30s. Quilters could order the Scottie (dated 1936) and hundreds of other full-size designs by sending a dime to their local papers, which forwarded the orders to the New York company.”
If you want to see more of these videos, here’s my Lessons From An Old Quilt playlist.
Let’s see what we can learn from this particular old Scottie Dog quilt.
Details-At-A-Glance:
Size: 51” x 80”
Age: 1940s-1950s, possibly newer because of the batting.
Acquired: I received this quilt as a gift from my parents for Christmas in 2026. They purchased it at an auction for less than $50. Since it was a gift, I don’t know the exact price. :)
Quilt History: Unknown
Number of Blocks: 23 scottie dog blocks set on point; there are 14 setting triangles (four on each side and three on the top and three on the bottom), plus four corner setting triangles.
Sashing: None
Cornerstones: None
Borders: There are three borders on this quilt: pink, white, and blue, in that order.
Construction Technique: This quilt is made completely by hand. The scottie dogs are all pieced.
Quilting: The quilting was done by hand using white thread. There is a small grid pattern around each scottie dog, with hand quilting on the actual block. There is a wider grid quilting pattern in the setting triangles, and a diagonal grid in the second (white) border. The pink and blue borders have quilting along the sides.
Fabric: The scottie dogs are all the same. The dog is made with a navy blue solid fabric while their cute little “jackets” are made with a small red and white checkered fabric that looks like pink. Their little noses, mouths, and eyes are embroidered in pink.
Batting: I think this is polyester batting, which helps some with the age of this quilt. There is some clumping in the border, however, which makes me think it is cotton. So interesting!
Binding: The maker of this quilt used a self-binding technique, where the backing was folded to the front and then hand-stitched down.
Backing: The backing is solid white.
Condition: There are some stains and wear in this quilt, but not much. Some of the scottie dogs are putting apart where the stitches popped.
LOOK at These Puppies!
There are a total of 23 scottie dog blocks in this quilt, each made with the same solid navy blue fabric for their bodies and the same red and white fabric for their little jackets. The red and white fabric appears to be pink because the print is so small. Their embroidered faces make them come to life, however. Their eyes, noses, and mouths are embroidered in red, which pops well on the navy blue background. Each scottie dog measures 6.5” tall and 8.5” long. The blocks themselves are set on point (diagonal) and are 9.5” square. The dogs are all hand pieced, even though they look like they are appliquéd.
Quilting
The quilting is amazing in this quilt. It is all done by hand in white thread throughout, with different patterns depending on the section. In the scottie dog blocks, the dogs themselves are quilted along the edges of their bodies, enhancing the pups. The background of these blocks is quilted in a small grid. The setting triangles are quilted with a larger grid, giving this quilt a really cool look. The first and third borders are shadow quilted along the seams, just like the scottie dogs, while the middle border is quilted in a cross-hatch pattern. All of this quilting works so well together!
Details in the Quilting
But wait! There’s more! In the center of each of the dogs, there is a letter quilted in it, or at least I think they are letters. It is so hard to tell! There is definitely something quilted in each dog and they appear to be different motifs. I can make out one of the letters (if that is what they are) as the letter A, but the others are tricky to tell. Maybe it is a child’s name or the maker’s initials. I really wish I could figure this mystery out!
Triple Borders
One of the coolest features in this quilt is the triple borders, each approx. 2.5” wide. They really do frame this quilt so nicely. The first border (closest to the dogs) is a solid light pink fabric. Even though the dogs have red and white jackets, they read as pink so this border compliments the jackets nicely. The next border is white, just like the background of the doggie dogs and the backing. The final border is blue, but is more of a royal blue, while the blue used in the scottie dogs is a navy blue. Still, the different blue works so well with this quilt.
Binding, Backing, & Batting
The backing of this quilt is one full piece of fabric and is used as the binding as well, with the maker using a self-binding technique of wrapping the backing around the quilt top after it is quilted and stitching the binding down on the front of the quilt. Interestingly, the batting is polyester, however. Although polyester was used as batting as early as the 1940s and 1950s, it wasn’t really popular to use in quilts until the 1960s, according to the book Clues in the Calico by Barbara Brackman (pp. 52-53).
Condition
Although this quilt is in remarkable condition, there are some seams that are coming apart and a few stains. I think they will be relatively easy to stitch down and repair. I haven’t washed this quilt yet. I want to wait until warmer weather and hand-wash it. I also want to repair it before washing. it.
Lessons We Can Learn
What can we, as modern makers, learn from this old Scottie Dog Quilt?
Triple Border: I love the triple border! Not only does it add to the size of this quilt, it also frames it well. One of the coolest things is the colors. The maker used pink, even though the dogs technically have red and white jackets on their cute little bodies. Also, the blue used isn’t the same as the dog fabric. I often look at these as a maker myself, of course, and wonder what I would do. I think I would have a tendency to match the dog fabric. This teaches me that you don’t have to do that.
Color Choices: And speaking of the fabric choices for the borders, let’s talk about the choices for the dog. Okay, I will admit that the red and white jackets are perfect for these scottie dogs, but I think I would have used black fabric for the dogs themselves. Now admittedly, maybe these were made with black and the fabric color has changed due to age and light exposure, but I would think I would see that in the seams that are lifting. I believe the maker did, in fact, use navy for the puppies. I just love that choice!
Quilting: This quilting is so smart! I love how the maker changes the quilting design in different components of the quilt, with the smaller grid being in the blocks and the large being in the setting squares and even a different design in only one of the borders. And I can’t forget about the white quilting design around the actual scottie dogs and the quilting in the middle of them! So cute!
Self-Binding Technique: This is a wonderful way to finish a quilt. I love seeing this technique in old quilts because it shows that we don’t have to make everything so stinking complicated! We do tend to do that with quilting, or at least I tend to. This shows we don’t have to. There are so many ways to make a quilt.
Details!: Although I can’t figure it out (yet), there is definitely something special quilting in the dogs. As makers, we could do something similar, right? Adding those little touches is like adding mascara or lipstick. It is a small detail with a big impact.
Thank you so much for reading about this beautiful old quilt.
Kris
