A Tale of Two Kitties

"It was the best of felines, it was the worst of felines..."

Speaking of books, lately I can't seem to keep my nose out of quilty ones, and looky!  Ain't they sweet?!

 

"Quilt Road" by Kaffe Fassett

(btw, these are the 'best' of felines...scroll to see 'worst'.)

The patterns are to be enlarged at 200%.  I made the first kitty using just an enlarged paper cut out.  Following directions, I made a patchwork rectangle, hand-embroidered the face, and THEN cut him out.

Now he's all ready for his back side and a tail.

After the sewing and stuffing was done, it was obvious something needed tweaking.

This first one I did is a rough draft...kind of a scary-cat, huh?

 

I cut out cardboard templates to make kitty #2.  

I might have to name her "Henrietta Pussycat", in memory of my brother, and Mr. Rogers.  

Noel and I loved to imitate Henrietta in our everyday conversations....and laaauuggghhh!!!

"Meow-meow want some fruit salad, meow?"

The backsides of #2 and #1, l to r.

The tail tip is cleverly attached to the body, for toddler to use as a handle. 

 

(the worst of felines)

Liking the tail shape better, but still a problem with the ears:  Too tall?  Too pointy?  

Yup.  Back to the scratching post...

Frog Flimsy

Late last year, showed the new Design Wall that hubby and I made, and the 5x5 purple squares stuck there hoping to one day become a quilt.  That day has not come, but it IS closer!

Here were the vibrant Dogs, Frogs, and Fish, in October:

I managed to get this much sewing done the other day:

Couldn't wait to choose a backing for it, and found a bolt of frogs on sale! It's much more vibrant in person.

And it's FLANNEL!

I decided to add a pieced border, and not having the rainbow colors in my newbee stash, I found these solids (also on sale ;-).  The red one is much more toward red than the orange that shows in the photo. 

Looking forward to figuring all of this out, and trying to decide which color to use as the binding...maybe the purple.  What do you think?

Mug Rugs

I finally jumped in and made my first mug rug, using direction from several blogs, including I'm Just A Guy Who Quilts;  Impera Magna; and a Video Tutorial for binding.  My first mug rug was an experiment in quilting:  I used a continuous quilting pattern, starting on the outer edge and working to the center.

Side A

If you click to enlarge, you can see the quilting pattern (of sorts).
Don't look TOO closely though.

 Side B

This one went to my Sis, who for years collected Cherished Teddies, and also an excellent seamstress, created specialty Teddy Bears for her loved ones.  She must have made 60 or more.  Here's mine:

( I heart you Sis)

The 2nd mug rug attempt was made in the ticker tape design, and since I love puzzles, I thought it might be an enjoyable challenge.  I made a scrappy one, using Stitched in Color's Bottled Rainbow directions as a guide.  What fun!  Since my scraps were limited, I created some from yardage and a couple of precut squares.

Front

Back

My first 2 times of actually quilting!  I know, they don't look very professional, but I had fun in the process.

A fellow vendor at the market, creates new styles from vintage clothing, and over the weekend she  gave me some of her scraps:  I see more ticker tape mug rugs in my future!

Design Board

I stole this joke from a FB friend; it's somewhat related to sewing (and a whole lot related to me):

The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was
Sir Cumference.  

He acquired his size from too much pi.

ROFL!  Now Pick yourself up and check out my new addition to the sewing/guest room!  It took a little extra  time, but worth the wait.  Because Mr. T is a full time student, it was on hold a few days until projects and tests were completed.

The screw holes still need spackling, but I'll get to it later.

The pink blocks are for the Jacob's Ladder quilt of course.  On the left, I arranged the 5 inch squares (from the new stash!) for a baby quilt, hoping completion of a smaller project would spur me on to 'loftier' quilts (heh).

The design board was made with some felt yardage on sale, (it is recycled something...water bottles?) and we covered a 4ft x 8 ft sheet of 1/2 inch polystyrene sheathing (used for insulating homes...less than $10).

 

My handy hubby routed some wood to form a cleat, which holds the board in place on top and down one side.  On the left side, he used a washer and screw for support.

Below was my first design "wall", an improv using a black felt scrap I had from something I made for my son a few years ago.

 

Note the gap on bottom left...

I used a glue stick on the door to complete the blocks :-)