5/17/13

Blogger's Quilt Festival: A Kitten's Tale

AmysCreativeSide.com

Thank you for viewing my entry to the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'm so glad you stopped by!  For this entry, I'm showing you my combination embroidery/applique quilt, A Kitten's Tale.  


This quilt was a block-of-the-month from the pattern by the very talented Lynette Anderson, who uses her own cat and dog as her models.


In fact, they are standing on Lynette's version of her quilt in this image.  Cute, huh?

The following images will show you each block individually.  It was such fun to make this quilt.  Lynette's critters are so adorable that it made her pattern a delight to work on.  Here is the happy family:


This next block was the first of the series.  I hadn't yet dedicated myself to hand embroidery, and so this one was free motion machine embroidered on my domestic sewing machine.  After doing this block, I decided to get into the swing of hand embroidery and the rest of the blocks on the quilt are all embroidered by hand.  Those of you who read my blog regularly know that where embroidery is concerned I've never looked back.


Quilt Along with Kitty:


Forever friends (is this adorable, or what?):


Home Sweet Home (looks a lot like my house):


Welcome friends:


Here's another block that looks a lot like my house.  Kitty is pretty comfortable on that pile of quilts:


Kitten in the tree:


The last blocks were the top and bottom inner borders.  This was my first experience with yo-yo's, and these are about the size of a dime.  I ended up making 74 yo-yo's in all.  


It was quite a learning project to work on this quilt.  It was my first experience with yo-yo's and my first experience with raw-edged applique.  It was also one of the first hand-embroidered quilts that I completed.

I was fortunate to already have a perfect backing fabric in my stash, although I only had half as much as I needed.  I was able to purchase the additional yardage I needed and the back turned out just as cute as the front.


This quilt was quilted by a very talented long arm quilter named Tami Ortega.  Tami broke my heart when she left the business a couple of years ago.  I asked her to quilt paw prints and hearts on it, but otherwise left the design up to her.  It was quilted free hand on her long arm machine, and I think she did a great job on it.  Her quilting is the reason this is one of my favorite quilts ever.



I hope you've enjoyed seeing my quilt.  Thanks for stopping by!  To return to the Blogger's Quilt Festival, just click on the button at the top of this post.

22 comments:

Michele said...

Just adorable and you did a great job on it. I totally agree..the quilting is fantastic. That is a great quilting pattern idea, I'll have to remember it for the future.

Debbie said...

Wonderful, fun and a beautiful job on both of your quilts.

Quilting Babcia said...

I love this quilt! Don't think I've seen this one before - great job! No wonder it's one of your favs.

Lynda Halliger Otvos (Lynda M O) said...

First i remember seeing this one too and I really like it, Barb.

CitricSugar said...

Beautiful work. Must have taken you forever!

Marjorie's Busy Corner said...

What can I say except WOW!!!!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I don't think I have ever seen this - Oh, this could come live with me - the color, design, pets, quilting - super.

Sandy said...

Ooooh, my cats would love this quilt. A perfect furbaby quilt!

Junebug613 said...

Wow. What a fantastic quilt! The design and all of your work are really amazing.

Sher S. said...

I love this quilt and I'm amazed at how neat your stitches are. They all seem the exact same size and are perfect. How did you learn such neat stitches and are they backstitches? did you learn from a book?
Love the quilt and all the cats.

Brown Family said...

Very sweet kitties and doggies! I love the quilted paw prints!

Nan

Lynne said...

So cute -- very you!

MalinisQuilts said...

This is quilt is so beautiful with all those kittens. Love it.
Quilting is awesome. Paws are my favorite FMQ when it comes to quilts with puppies or kittens.

Sue Daurio said...

What a great quilt!! Love the picture of the kitten and puppy on the quilt, super cute!

Karen in Breezy Point said...

Very cute--I love the kitties!!

Anonymous said...

Hi! Your quilt is beautiful and very special! It's full of lovely details and I'm sure you enjoyed making it! Your cats are also so sweet! x Teje

vexa said...

Oh, these applique are just adorable. So much to look at and adore.

quiltzyx said...

Beautiful job Barbara! What fun to see the original models too!!

Janine @ Rainbow Hare said...

This is beautiful! I love the combination of applique and embroidery :)

Vickie said...

You got my vote ! Wow !

Tami C said...

Not sure how I missed this one last summer. This is just adorable and I love it!

Val's Quilting Studio said...

Forever friends IS absolutely adorable! I found myself "awing" outloud. LOL!!! So glad you linked them under our dog them....