Cats on Quilts

I just wanted to let y'all know that I started a photo blog featuring cats (and other pets) on quilts. www.catsonquilts.com.

Not much quilting done this week

Because I've been making costumes for an upcoming High School production of Arsenic & Old Lace. There will be photos, but not yet.

Third Baby Quilt Done

This is also a donation quilt, but for my daughter's High School parent group's Tricky Tray (a "raffle auction" to those of you who don't live in New Jersey and have never heard that phrase before). It's basically a really cute kids' panel with some pieced borders:

A close-up of the center panel:

As you may or may not see, I quilted around all the animals and the leaves (and toys and larger shapes) and did some "texture" quilting in the other areas. I quilted a meander in the border. The binding is satin  blanket binding (which I like to use in baby quilts because one of my earliest memories was of a satin blanket binding on my face - I loved the way that felt). I used that cute animal print on the back that I used on the cat quilt.

In other news, I started working on a commissioned bargello messenger bag (I'm taking pictures along the way to document the process for a future pattern), and I have costumes to build for Arsenic & Old Lace (my daughter's High School  production, but on the Main Stage at Kean University), which opens in less than 3 weeks! And finally, a local Realtor is thinking about buying gift certificates from me to give as closing gifts. So I'll hopefully be making wall hangings for people (but more likely placemats or table runners).

Quilts for Kids - ready to ship!

I decided to do a cat-themed quilt for the stash quilt, and I used some of my coveted Laurel Burch cat fabric. I think it came out really nice, and I suppose I'm going to have to make another one for the house.

I am also planning to publish instructions for this quilt, so keep an eye out for that over the next couple of weeks.  I think the total time from start-to-finish for this quilt was probably close to 2 full days' work. I am also glad my spool of varigated thread lasted long enough to cover the quilt top. I did a random meander on this one, rather than try to do a design (like the hearts I did on the dog quilt).

the backing fabric isn't a great match for the front, but the fabric is so cute, and I have a lot of it, I had to use it.

Quilts for Kids - One quilt done!

• http://www.quiltsforkids.org/Threw an awesome sweet 16 party for my daughter friday: check!
• Pieced & quilted the Quilts for Kids quilt Saturday: Check!

Putting a quilt kit together is a breeze! This is my first kit, and the fact that I didn't have to measure or cut was really a pleasant experience. There were only a few scraps left over, too - and I'm glad there was something left over, because I want to make a "keepsake" block for a journal quilt - something someone in one of the guilds I belong to does for the quilts she doesn't keep, and I think it's a great idea.

I still have to make a second quilt to ship back with the first one. I will most likely use cat-themed fabric (since I have a LOT of that, and this quilt is dog-themed), but I'm not sure I'll duplicate this pattern or make something else. This is a very simple pattern and I assembled it in about 2 hours. It took about 6 hours to quilt it. My spring-action foot broke about halfway through quilting it, too - the bar that activates the spring and raising the foot off the fabric snapped off (maybe because I put it on wrong this time? I don't know). I'm somewhat upset about it because it's much harder to use this way, and the foot wasn't cheap.

I may wimp out and just do another of the same pattern, because I have a third baby quilt to make for the High School Tricky Tray raffle next month, and they are getting antsy about gathering the gifts together, and I just have to get these done.

And if you want to participate in Quilts for Kids, visit this website: http://www.quiltsforkids.org/  and order your kit!