Grinning Cat O’ Lantern Quilt

Posted on October 21, 2021 by thequiltedcat

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

Blogger’s Quilt Festival 2014, Art Quilt Entry

Posted on May 23, 2014 by thequiltedcat

Happy Friday!

Many talented quilters are linking up some fabulous quilt projects this week over at Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival for 2014.

At first, I was uncertain whether to add a project that I worked on this past year that has special meaning for me. I did blog about this art quilt earlier so long-time readers may recognize it. The art quilt is a fabric portrait of my very special cat and quilt inspector, Tiger. This is my first time entering the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, and I’m loving all the entries!

This quilt is my own design based on a photograph that I took of Tiger. I used different orange fabrics to imitate the orange stripes in his fur. I also accented the piece with free-motion quilting on my domestic machine. This quilting really accents his fur, the clouds in the sky, and the illusion of grass in the lower background.

I did some paper-piecing on the corner border blocks to draw the eye into the center of the quilt and to accent the colors in the cat’s fur.

I really love how this project turned out, and I now use a cropped image of the cat face as an avatar for various social media sites.

Here’s a view of the whole quilt:

Tiger, A Quilted Portrait

Here’s a closer look at the free-motion quilting:

Tiger, quilting close-up

And a look with Tiger himself!

Tiger inspects his quilt

Close-up view of a paper pieced corner:

Fan block

I hope you enjoyed my entry into the art quilt category. I really loved making this unique quilted portrait of my cat buddy!

You can pop on over to the festival here and look at all the wonderful entries in many categories in the festival and vote starting May 24th.

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Cat Quilt-Along

Posted on December 7, 2013 by thequiltedcat

Hi everyone,

I started working on the one-block-a-day cat quilt-along project by Elizabeth of Oh Fransson! She has created a cute sampler quilt that is the perfect scrap buster. The completed project will be 30-inches by 35-inches and features 25 different patchwork cat blocks.

I finished up the first week’s batch of blocks today. Each block comes together very quickly. It takes me longer to choose the scraps and fabrics from my stash!

You do need a yard of fabric for the background. I had a piece of Painter’s Canvas by Michael Miller in gray (#CJ-4816) in my stash that I’m using. I love the subtle texture to the fabric.

Here’s a look at the first 7 cat blocks:

Cat Quilt-Along, Week 1

Elizabeth has also named the cats so I’d love to somehow work the names into the finished project. I’m not sure how yet!

In the photo, the cats in the top row from left to right are: Ferdinand, Bernadette, Sunny, Mia, and Ralphio. In the second row, from left to right are: Chowder and Krista.

Of course, I tried to ask my quilt inspector what he thought of this project. I think he loves it!

Tiger Likes the Cat Blocks!

I’m really enjoying this project since the blocks are so quick to make, and I can wedge them in between my other projects! My goal is to work on them as I can throughout the work week, and then play catch up on the weekend. I will keep my blog updated with photos of my cat quilt-along blocks.

If you’re participating in the cat quilt-along, I’d love to see your blocks!

Meowy quilting!
~Jennifer

Tiger, a Fabric Portrait of the Quilted Cat

Posted on October 2, 2013 by thequiltedcat

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: