Cats, Cats, Cats!

I love cats. There were always cats around when I grew up on a farm.

For this charity quilt I gathered all the cat fabrics I had, and some fish fabric (cats got to have food, right?!).

I couldn't get myself to cut up the fabrics in small pieces, so there had to be big blocks. The fish were smaller, four patches were OK for those.

 For interest I added some longer strips of cat fabrics bordered by yellow solid, and made this cross over the quilt. The background fabric is a neutral with a subtle leaf print. The quilting is "straightish" lines in diagonal done with the walking foot.

The finished size of the quilt is approximately 41" x 60".

 

 My favorite print in the quilt is this one. I wish I had more of this, those lazy cats are so adorable!

This is my charity quilt number 18 for the year, and number 62 all time for the children's ward at the hospital.

 

 

 

Cat's Heaven

Here's my latest charity quilt, Cat's Heaven. Our little houseguest is the perfect model for the quilt.

She loves sitting on the window sill watching the birds outside.

It all started when I got this Accuquilt die with the cute cat, I had to appliqué the cat on something, and why not on a charity quilt?

I searched my stash for suitable fabrics and found a few that matched well. Among those were the bird fabric.

The dark cats are watching the birds, ready to chase them. The cats are raw edge appliquéd on the quilt with a blanket stitch. I used the walking foot for quilting a simple cross hatch design.

I used every bit of the scraps to assemble the six inch squares for the patchwork.

The backing is the icing on the cake, a sweet print with tiny birds and bird houses. The binding is sewn on by machine to make it durable and withstand a lot of cuddling and playing.

Finished size is approximately 39"x50".

This is my charity quilt number twelve for the year, and number 41 all time for the children's ward at the hospital.


Keep on quilting!

Scrappy Meadowland Quilt Top

This quilt is inspired by the Meadowland Quilt designed by Then Came June. I started making one test block of 16" back home before I went on vacation. I packed all these bright and beautiful fabrics in my suitcase and hoped I would have time to work on this in between the good food, hot weather and all the sightseeing. Most of the sewing took place when the rest of the crowd was sleeping in the hottest time of the day, and one block here and another one there add up to a whole quilt top in no time flat (almost)!

My scrappy palette is bold and bright, and I am especially pleased with the chartreuse against the blue. The navy was a very good choice for the background.

The top will travel home with me to get quilted, I have already chosen the quilting design, that will be revealed later.

I have to show these super cute photo bombers as the last picture. They are half wild kittens, but we have mutual respect for each other. A daily breakfast is served to them, and they stick around and are nice to talk to.

I'm having a great summer, and I hope you are, too!

Quilt for a Cute Kitty

The cutest little kitty moved in with DS2 and his girlfriend. What else is a quilter going to do than making a quilt as a welcome gift to the little furball?!

I used squares of recycled jeans and shirts, a home decor fabric for backing, and used cotton batting. The design is simple patchwork with crosshatch quilting. I machine sewed the binding, and that's a good thing, because the little cutie started attacking and biting the binding when she got the quilt.

The quilt is definitely one to grow in, she looks so cute!

She will have a great time using her new quilt for resting and sleeping. See you soon little kitty!

Cute Kitties

Spring came late this year, but yesterday was time for the first lawn mowing this season. These cute kitties love a fresh mowed lawn! Flannels in golden to dark tones make up a gorgeous bunch of cats!

These are the two first test cats I made from a tutorial by Missouri Star Quilt Company. It is a fast and simple block to make, and I sewed most of the kitties on a sew-along gathering with my local quilt guild. Mostly I used a variation of flannels, but to make it a little more interesting I added two made of a cat print.

I got up early in the morning to take these last pictures. The sun had not heated up the air, yet, so it was quite chilly. The cats didn't mind, though, flannel "fur" insulates well against cold. Anyway, kitties love to get some warmth in the sun.

For the backing I used Britten Nummer from Ikea. The quilt will be donated to the children's ward at my local hospital, and it is the 17th quilt I have made for them, and the third so far this year. I quilted it with a free motion dogwood pattern in a caramel color that blends in with the kitties. This was a great free motion quilting practice!

Thirty cats can make a lot of fuss and be a wild bunch, but these are well behaved and good friends. Lets hope they will be good comfort to a cat loving child.

Keep on quilting!

Finally finished!

It didn't really take that long to make this quilt, just about 3 and a half week from start to finish. But it was a lot more work than I had expected, I am a little tired of Halloween fabrics right now. The resulting quilt is good-looking, though!

This will be a charity quilt for children at my local hospital. The size of the quilt is approx. 42" x 52". The design is 'Simply Spooky 2' by Red Rooster Fabrics. The quilt has a pieced backing, with leftover Halloween fabrics.

I added some of my own fabric from stash for the front, and I had bought the border fabric with a zillion black cats in the US. 

This is a bright and colorful quilt that will be popular among children, it has got all the appropriate ingredients for a Spooky Celebration! I even completed it in good time before Halloween! 

The back is ready

The quilting is done, so now I have to cut the binding and sew it on. I only show the back of the quilt now, because the poor cats won't show their faces before they get eyes sewed on. (One of the kittens is not ashamed, though).
I hope the quilt will be completely finished in a day or two, and then it will be properly displayed!

Quilt top finished

I finished the quilt top for the charity quilt late last night. Well, finished and finished, I still have to add some eyes and bow ties for the cats, but that will have to wait until the quilting is done.

The weather today was much more co-operating, grey clouds, but no rain. My old, dead plum tree acts as quilt display.

I would say that this is a colorful quilt! Siw at Quiltegården helped me choosing thread for quilting. The quilting will have to wait a while, though, because first I have to assemble another Halloween top since the bag of fabrics I got was huge!

I guess both quilts will get a pieced backing in order to get rid of most of the leftover fabric. It is fun to make charity quilts like this, but after two Halloween ones, I think I will I enjoy returning to quilts more my "own" style.