The name of my blog, the Quilted Cat, comes from my love of quilting and from my chief fabric and quilt inspector, Tiger. He is my orange and white cat buddy who always gives the final paws up or paws down on projects. I thought it was time that I made a fabric portrait of Tiger by using one of my pictures of him and making my own appliqued pattern from it.

I started with a close-up photo of Tiger that really captures his focus and intensity during the quilt inspection process. I then created the appliqued portion of the quilt using Sue Olsen’s technique called “design to free-motion line.” This is a fun technique where you build your fabric image on a muslin foundation and then free-motion quilt using your regular domestic sewing machine.

Once I completed the applique portion, I decided to add an inner border of black to frame the design. Then, I added the batik dark blue as the outside border. To punch up the border and to draw the eye in towards the cat figure, I paper-pieced some corners using the same fabrics that I used in the cat. I used the 3-inch fan block from Carol Doak’s book, 50 Little Paper-Pieced Blocks.

Here is a look at the completed quilt:

Tiger, the Quilted Cat

Here are some close-ups of the free-motion quilting and the paper-pieced corner blocks:

Tiger, quilting close-up

Fan block

Here’s my favorite picture of this quilt with Tiger inspecting it. I think he approves!

Tiger inspects his quilt

I’m really happy with how this project turned out. The technique allows you to be very creative with fabric choices and stitching so give it a try!

Happy quilting!
~Jennifer