It's time to try a blog.
I've been working on a quilt top and it is taking over my life. So I thought I'd find out if there is anyone else who has this happen.
I've done a couple quilt tops before. I've been sewing since I was a school girl but sewing for quilt tops is fairly new to me. I have 5 tops from a class series I took and one finished quilt off to it's new life as a gift. But this is the first quilt that is MINE ALL MINE from idea to completion.
I want this to be a silly, warm and cozy quilt to curl up with on the couch. And since I keep trying to convince myself that "there are no quilt police" I am plunging in without concern about if I am breaking any rules. I am calling this my Cat Nap Couch Quilt
I have gathered as many paper pieced cat patterns as I could find for free on the net or in books either purchased or borrowed from the library and perhaps redacted from images on the net but not purchased by me. I have decided that since this is a quilt for curling up with that the cats will be arranged in concentric bands. That way it will have no top or bottom and I will always be able to see some cats right side up.
Our personal history with cats includes 6 years when we were "on a list" and kept cats with Feline Leukemia. We lost 11 cats in 6 years. Now we have two merry healthy felines to share our lives. After finding a pattern for cats with angel wings I decided that I will make one angel for each cat we have lived with. They will be the center of my quilt. It never crossed my mind to use fabrics with cat patterns on them. I have been selecting colors for the angel cats to represent each of our past and present friends and have had lots of long angonizing hours trying to take a moderate paper pieced pattern and increase its complexity to add more color or weight to some cats. You know what, it is kind of hard to find fabrics to make basic brown tabby cats. I may use traditional blocks like Puss in the Corner to space them out a bit. Then a row of ~3" blocks of small paper pieced seated cats in lots of great colors and not the least realistic, and some little kitten faces with appliqued paws about the same size also in silly colors. Then a row of the Fancy Dressed Cats from Bella On Line. I have two sets of 12 done from that set of patterns. 12 silly blocky yellow cats dressed in all manor of bright clothes and 12 grey ones. I plan to use Mobirds Sleeping Cat from Paper Panache for the outside row maybe 8 of them with other blocks paper pieced cats and traditional blocks with cat like names. I have 4 of them done too. Lots of color, lots of silliness. I am using several blue cloud fabrics for the backgrounds for most of them. I expect I'll want to use some kind of spacing between the rows and DH has suggested I put each cat into some kind of frame. Currently I am planning to use Attic Windows in deep blues and greens around them.
The problem is that my quilt is all I want to work on. I would gladly slip into the "quilt eat sleep" lifestyle if I could. But real life intervenes and I have spent days house cleaning and prepping because all of the kids are coming home with their spouses and pets for a family reunion and Memorial Service. I've been good, really I have but I'd rather be up in the sewing room Playing with my quilt.
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