Meowville Finished Quilt

Posted on January 17, 2025 by nwquiltedcat

Last year, I completed work on my epic tiny house quilt. I started this quilt in 2023 as a weekly sew along with tiny 6″ foundation paper-pieced houses by Quilt Art Design.

When I last shared my progress, I was about 2/3 finished with the quilting. My goal was to finish this quilt so I could display it at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show last July. I realized that I never shared my finished quilt!

My husband and I hike and backpack regularly so I decided to take a picture of the final quilt at the start of a fantastic trail in the Columbia River Gorge called Eagle Creek.

Here’s a look at the finished quilt with all the beautiful greens from the moss and vegetation:

If you’ve never hiked along the Eagle Creek trail, I highly recommend it. One of the picturesque falls that is easily doable for most hikers is called Punchbowl Falls. It’s about a 5-mile round trip hike. It does have a few sections with steep drops so be cautious, especially with children and dogs.

I have hiked all the way to the top to Wahtum lake when I was a teenager, which requires either a car shuttle or backpacking. On this particular trip with my quilt, we decided to do a long day hike. We had lunch at Twister Falls and turned around at that point. Tunnel Falls is approximately a 12 mile round trip hike with Twister being about 1/2 mile beyond. If you do hike to Twister, there is a very steep drop often called the “Vertigo Mile” that might be challenging if you’re afraid of heights. There are cables attached to the rock to help you navigate that section if you need them.

A Section of the “Vertigo Mile,” the approach to Twister Falls along the Eagle Creek trail with my hubby and dog.

We hiked this in April 2024 so the waterfalls were flush with water. So beautiful!

I did enter Meowville into the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show so if you visited in July 2024, you might have seen it.

Here’s a look:

Meowville at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, July 2024

Each of those house blocks has a cat or two pieced into it. If you zoom in on the picture, see if you can find all of the cats. There are some really tiny pieces! I really enjoyed creating this quilt, and sewing one tiny house each week for 36 weeks.

Let me know in the comments if you saw my quilt at the show!

Happy quilting,

Jen

Epic Tiny House Paper Pieced Quilt, Part 2

Posted on April 2, 2024 by nwquiltedcat

I last blogged in January, but I have been working on various projects to submit to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I have some quilt tops that have been pieced for a while and need to be quilted plus I wanted to submit some post cards for the annual fundraiser at the show.

For the tiny house project, I had to decide how to piece the top because there is no pattern for the final layout.

I decided that my “Meowville” quilt needed the pieced name to be on the top, but the quilt was still missing something. Hmm, what could I add? How about a giant cat face peeking out at the viewers? I found a great pattern from Quilt Art Design called “Cat Helper” that would fit my idea with a few modifications.

A partial cat head, perfect for mischievously peering down at the Meowville tiny houses

I now had the final blocks of my quilt assembled and ready to be set into a layout! I thought about a layout for a few weeks, and decided to place my tiny houses in rows without sashing strips. I set the blocks using a fun Ruby Star Society from their Starry line. I used Starry in the Smoke colorway, which is a beautiful deep blue with black stars. Finally, I added an outer border using a black print from my stash to give the quilt a nice frame and to meet the minimum width requirements for the quilt show.

Last weekend, I loaded Meowville onto my frame to start quilting. I’m using Glide thread in Celery in the giant cat head and letters, and using Glide thread in black for the remainder of the quilt. I’m going to keep the quilting very simple to keep the focus on all of those wonderful tiny houses!

I’m about 2/3 of the way finished with the quilting, and I expect to finish this week. I’ll post a picture of the completed quilt soon! I have 2 more quilt tops ready to be quilted for the show so I need to get to it!

Happy quilting,

Jen

An Epic Tiny House Paper Pieced Project

Posted on January 19, 2024 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone!

Last year, I participated in a weekly tiny house sew along designed by Quilt Art Designs. These are 6-inch blocks with very small foundation paper pieced sections with a total of 36 houses. This project was designed as a scrap buster, but my scrap bin is still overflowing!!

I kept up with the weekly sew a long and you can find all of my individual houses posted to my Instagram account @nwquiltedcat or by searching on the hashtag #meowvilletinyhouses.

For my houses, I decided that I wanted to incorporate little cats into each house. I fussy cut various cat faces and cat bodies and pieced them into each block.

I put these blocks to the side for a few months to ponder how I might finish this project, and I recently put them up on my design wall. These are all of the tiny houses pieced together in rows, but the rows are not yet sewn together.

I decided to call my little village, Meowville! I used paper pieced letters designed by Sam Hunter in her book, Quilt Talk.

Meowville banner for my tiny house village!

I’m leaning towards adding an inner solid border around the tiny houses, and then adding a wider outer border with the Meowville banner, some paw prints, and maybe a paper pieced cat or two. Stay tuned!

Happy sewing,

-Jen

A Cute Cat Jack O’ Lantern Block for Halloween

Posted on August 26, 2022 by nwquiltedcat

Are you looking for a cute and not scary block for Halloween? How about a cute little cat face on a pumpkin? This adorable block will work on trick-or-treat bags, table runners, mini quilts, and larger quilts.

Pattern

For a limited time, this cute cat jack-o-lantern quilt pattern is on sale in a favorite Halloween craft magazine. You can choose to purchase a hard copy that is mailed to you or a PDF download, which you can download to your computer.

Here’s a look at my block:

I loved using a pumpkin-themed fabric for my cat face! Aren’t those little cat-faced pumpkins with fangs just adorable? I want to make several different fabric combinations using different oranges, blacks, and low-volume backgrounds and create a lap quilt.

For my block, I used the following fabrics:

Background fabric: white dotted fabric from “Too Cute to Spook” by Me and My Sisters Designs.
Cat and handle fabric: purple/orange pumpkin fabric from “Bring Your Own Boos” by Cotton + Steel
Pumpkin fabric: orange fabric from “All Hallow’s Eve” by Fig Tree Quilts

This block is a great stash buster, and you can really have great fun with different fabric combinations. I love seeing a cat face block with the whiskers. It adds a nice element of whimsy to the block.

The quilt pattern in the magazine has a great layout with plus-shaped blocks added between rows of cat jack o’ lanterns and makes a finished quilt at 45″ x 48″.

Time to get started on those Halloween projects!

~Jen

Cats in Space Cuteness Overload!

Posted on May 11, 2022 by nwquiltedcat

It’s no secret that I’m a cat lover! I’m currently owned by three cats, including one special foster kitty named Gracie. The three cats take turns playing musical laps, rotating on my lap so that each one gets some special petting and snuggle time. When I saw a new pattern by Elizabeth Hartmann called Cats in Space, I just knew that I had to make it as soon as possible.

I had a short quilt retreat recently with my sister and two of our quilting friends. I tossed this pattern into my bag along with some fabrics to make one cat block. Usually, I like to precut pieces for a quilt retreat, but I didn’t have time with this project.

I started by cutting out each section according to the pattern, and I labeled the sections with these amazing little plastic squares called Alphabitties. I take each label and clip it to the fabric piece using a Wonder Clip. These Alphabitties labels are game changers for patterns with tons of little pieces that can be easily confused with one another.

I did notice a possible pattern error related to the diagrams. If you look at the picture on the pattern cover, the space pack on the cat’s back is higher than in some of the pictures inside of the pattern. The pattern pieces (V, GG, and HH) are sized so that your space pack comes out shorter than the pattern cover photo. I adjusted these few pieces so that my kitty’s space pack is the higher version.

Here’s a close-up view of the space kitty:

Isn’t the background fabric fun? It has little fireflies, shooting stars, and constellations. It’s called Night Sky by Dear Stella. The other fabrics are from my stash. I used some Alison Glass pink fabrics for the space suit details, some sparkly Essex linen for the helmet, and Kona cotton solids for the kitty.

Once I had created my kitty block, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep it as-is or go ahead and add the three stars surrounding the kitty. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to turn this block into a mini quilt so I thought that the three stars would just up the cuteness factor.

Here’s a look at my finished block:

Swoon! This block is so adorable. The kitty looks like she’s coming in for a hug with her favorite human. I love it so much!

I’m still leaning towards keeping this space kitty as a mini quilt to hang in my sewing room. If I decided to make the small size quilt, I’d need three more space kitty blocks.

What do you think? A mini quilt or enlarge it?

Happy quilting!

Jen

Cat Themed Fourteen Squared Quilt

Posted on January 26, 2022 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

I’m catching up on some quilts last I finished in December. I made several fat quarter friendly quilts last year to have on hand to give as gifts. The pattern that I selected is called Fourteen Squared by Hunter’s Design Studio, and it is a quick and easy quilt to make. I love it so much because I can work from my stash and find ways to use up some of my fat quarters.

The first one that I made is cat themed, of course! My quilt inspector practically demanded it. He was so happy with the cat fabric that he couldn’t wait to help me piece the backing!

For quilting, I did an easy all-over meandering with some free-motion hearts thrown in for good measure. My goal on these quilts is to use everything from my stash so I pulled a fun chunky stripe for the binding, again with the inspector’s help.

I used pinks, oranges, dark grays, and low volume fabrics for this quilt. The cat prints are from a variety of manufacturers that I’ve collected over the years.

I finished the binding just in time to get pictures of this quilt outdoors with a little snow that we had in December before it melted. My teen helped with the photo shoot while my outdoor quilt inspector lingered just out of view.

I have so many ideas for this quilt! A Halloween version is a must for me at some point. I plan to make a few more this year to give as gifts and to donate to charity. The pattern is such a great stash buster.

I’m participating in a couple of swaps that I will blog about soon. One is a block swap, one is a bag swap, and one is a mini quilt swap. Stay tuned!

Happy quilting,

Jen

Grinning Cat O’ Lantern Quilt

Posted on October 21, 2021 by nwquiltedcat

Have you heard about the Spooky Box from Fat Quarter Shop? Each year, they release a Halloween themed mystery box, filled with quilting goodies including a project with fabric and notions! You can still buy the 2021 box at Fat Quarter Shop with this link.

For last year’s 2020 Spooky Box, the quilt project was a fun Cat O’ Lantern mini quilt. I pieced this quilt last October, but then set it aside in my to-quilt pile. I was inspired to pull it out and quilt it recently as I was decorating my yard for Halloween.

I made a few modifications from the original pattern. I swapped the black and purple fabrics so that I could have black cat popping up from behind the pumpkin. I also changed the shape of the cat’s eyes and nose from squares into diamonds and a triangle. I knew that I’d quilt in more face details such as whiskers and the famous cat grin.

I did all free-motion and hand guided ruler work using Glide thread in Apricot Blush for most of the quilt and Glide thread in Black on the cat.

Here’s a look at a little spider that I added to each of the black triangles at the top and bottom portions of the quilt:

In the orange triangles, I quilted little ghost shapes. I did some basic fills in the background portion, and a swirly pumpkin fill in the purple behind the cat.

For the cat face, I added some eyebrows, whiskers, pupils, and grin. I later enhanced the pupils with an outline of black thread.

I gave the cat a little dimension by quilting some swirls on the forehead, checks, paws, and tail. For the pumpkin, I kept it simple with straight-line quilting to keep the emphasis on the sweet cat!

We went to pick pumpkins last weekend, and my son held the quilt up while I snapped a quick picture in between other pumpkin hunters. I love a striped binding so I used this black/gray/white striped fabric in my stash that I think really frames this little Cat O’ Lantern quilt perfectly.

Happy Halloween from the cat at the pumpkin patch!

~Jen

A Completed Tula Nova Quilt!

Posted on October 4, 2021 by nwquiltedcat

I started working on hand piecing my Tula Nova quilt during summer of 2020 and just finished the binding in October 2021. I’m going to call my quilt “Tabby Nova” because I used a great deal of Tabby Road fabric by Tula Pink (now out-of-print).

This quilt is entirely hand pieced using a method called English Paper Piecing or EPP for short. In EPP, you use paper templates and baste them to fabric, using either thread basting or glue basting. I use the glue basting method because it is much faster. I used Aurifil 50 weight threads for the piecing, in colors to match the fabrics.

Once the pieces are sewn together and stable, you remove the paper backings. The advantage to EPP over machine sewing is that this method is portable so you can take your sewing with you. I often stitch while waiting for my son at sports or other appointments. I even stitched the initial center block while camping last August.

I decided to quilt my Tabby Nova using a combination of ruler work and some free-motion swirls. I used straight lines to echo the pieced shape out into the background 5 times. Then, I quilted swirls in the remaining spaces. I used a Rainbow thread called “Lilac Bouquet” by Superior Threads, which is variegated and beautifully accents the colorful fabric.

My backing is another out-of-print wide back fabric by Tula Pink called Free Fall with large dots and birds. I had this small piece in my stash for a few years, and I thought it went pretty well with the quilt top. The backing fabric is a purple Moda grunge, and I used Tula’s True Colors in Tourmaline Mineral for the binding with a small color burst of Citrine Mineral on the lower right-hand side.

Are you ready to see this quilted explosion of color?? Here are a few pictures that I took this weekend, with the help of some very special quilting inspectors and assistants.

My “Tabby Nova” with the fall leaves and my husband’s feet!

“Tabby Nova” on a play structure at a local park

“Tabby Nova” getting a quality cat scan from Cow in the dappled sunlight

“Tabby Nova” getting a second inspection by our neighbor’s cat. Do you see him?

I really enjoyed making this Tula Nova quilt. It is my first completed quilt using EPP. I have since started a second quilt called La Passacaglia using Tula Pink fabrics. This one is going to be huge and take more than a year to complete.

Enjoy and happy quilting,

Jen

Fierce Cheetah Mama

Posted on March 25, 2021 by nwquiltedcat

Happy spring, everyone! The days are getting a little longer, bulbs are blooming, and birds are singing. I’m very happy that we’re heading into the warmer spring days because it means more hiking and gardening.

For Christmas last year, my sister sent me the Cheetah Abstractions pattern by Violet Craft. This is a foundation paper pieced pattern that usually finishes at 48 inches by 60 inches, but I decided to shrink it down to 75%. I like to print my foundations using Carol Doak’s Foundation Paper because it is really easy to remove after sewing.

I challenged myself to use only fabrics from my stash. The fabric audition process can take a few days and, for this quilt, my hardest decision was the background. I knew that I’d need about a 2 yard piece in a solid or mostly solid color with enough contrast to make the cheetah body pop. I auditioned creams, grays, grunges, and others until I came across a mottled light aqua fabric. Perfect! It reminded me of a partly overcast day.

Once I had the background fabric, I pulled different solids and lightly patterned fabrics to audition for the cheetah body. I like to use Violet’s included color palette to tape small swatches of my fabrics so that I remember which fabric goes with which symbol while paper piecing.

Cheetah Abstractions – fabric selections

I started with the cheetah face first. I was just so eager to see it come to life in fabric! The head section is the most complicated, especially at just 75% size. If you’re new to paper piecing, just go slow and remember to reduce your stitch length. Here’s the start of the cheetah with the pattern for scale.

Over the next few days, I tackled sections of the cheetah body. I sewed the smaller sections and laid them out before joining sections together. It is much easier to fix mistakes this way! Isn’t her expression great? Her gaze is so intense and focused.

I pieced my cheetah fairly quickly in just a few weeks. I put all my other projects (mostly) on hold. Once pieced, I thought about how to quilt her for a week or two. I didn’t want the quilting to detract from the magnificent cheetah mama.

I decided to do some straight-line quilting all over the cheetah face and body using Glide thread in Sand Dune. For the background, I did some free-motion leaves using Glide thread in Cool Mint. I also used 2 layers of Quilter’s Dream Poly Select batting for extra texture!

The double batting does make this small quilt heavy, but I plan to hang it on a wall rather than using it as a lap quilt. For the binding, I used a dark brown fabric for three-quarters of the quilt and then used a piece of the backing for the remaining one-quarter to accent some of the colors from the cheetah.

The backing fabric is called Kenyan Cats by Alexander Henry Fabrics, which I thought worked so well with the cheetah theme.

I really love how this fierce mama cheetah quilt turned out, and I can’t wait to display her on a wall behind my work desk at home.

Enjoy!

~Jen

A Ghastlie Reveal!

Posted on November 13, 2020 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

Two years ago, I attended a quilt retreat with my sister and some friends. We decided to do a Ghastlie themed round robin, where we would each create our own center block. We determine a round robin order, and then send our centers to the next person. We had 4 total members and had no restrictions other than using Ghastlies fabrics with blenders.

The Ghastlies is a line of fabric by Alexander Henry, featuring a splendidly creepy family including a cat! It is unusual, whimsical, and funny fabric, and definitely outside of traditional quilting.

For my quilt, I really wanted my theme to be Sebastian, the Ghaslie cat. I used a foundation paper pieced pattern by Linda Hibbert of Silver Linings Originals called Miss Teree. I don’t see the pattern on her website, but you may be able to email her if you are interested in the pattern.

Here’s what my center looked like in December 2018:

Coincidentally, the other 3 members of our round robin all selected the same Ghastlie fabric for their center block, but added personalized details:

All the Ghastlie center blocks for the round robin

Aren’t they fun? From 2018 to 2020, we added rounds and mailed them to the next person. The last round finished up this September, and we each received our completed tops in October.

Here are the completed Ghastlie quilt flimsies!

Our plan is to quilt them and enter them into a quilt show in fall 2021,and we’re hoping for the COVID crisis to be lessened by then so that we can have in person quilt shows again.

We had so much fun with this round robin, and we’re planning another one. The next round robin will be different. Instead of complete quilt flimsies, we are thinking about a Ghastlie themed block swap.

Happy quilting!

Jen