sewing | NW Quilted Cat

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

My almost 7-year-old son asked me recently if I could make him a new cuddle blanket for traveling and going to grandma’s house. I agreed. He then gave me very specific requirements: it must be soft and it must have birds on it! So off to the fabric store I went in the hunt for fabric.

I had a difficult time finding a bird print that wasn’t too babyish or too girly. I knew he wouldn’t want cute little owls on a pink background! As I was searching, I spotted the perfect fabric. It had crazy penguins and ice cream cones and it was a soft flannel.

I purchased one yard and took it home to wash it.

Next, I trimmed off the edges to make it even. I folded each edge in 1/2 inch and then a 1/2 inch again for a nice hem. I pinned it and sewed each edge using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. The whole sewing portion took under 30 minutes!

Here’s what the finished blanket looks like, a bit folded on my ironing table: