Frankenstein's Cat

Before proceeding, I should warn you that the images I'm about to show you are the stuff of nightmares.

Seriously. If you must proceed, at least cover your eyes.

So I told you I was going to try to needlefelt my pretty Gracie yesterday. Oh my. If I were in a joking mood, I'd say, "Nailed it!" But what I'm about to show you is so horrifying that it's no joking matter. Continue on if you must.

Here's what I was aiming for:

Yeah, that cute little thing on the right there, only with Gracie's coloring.

The book I was working with is all written in Japanese, and so I had only the illustrations to prompt me. Here's what I was working from:

Okay, so I sort of get it. First I made the head. So far, so good. The ears are a little large, but they are the right shape.

Then I gave it a body...okay, it's getting a little weird, but I'm still learning.

Then I added the legs and tail. Hm. Now it's sort of looking like some mad scientist has crossed a rabbit with a cat. There's a problem with the tail, and pretty much all the rest of its parts.

"Oh well," I tell myself. "I'm still learning." Then, what I did next had me screaming and running from the room. It looks a little like the killer rabbit from Monty Python. 

So, what do you think? Which is the better likeness?

Obviously, I need more practice...and another class. 

One thing I know is that the face for the one yesterday isn't made as well as the first one I tried. Yesterday's face is made with a ball of fibers for the head, and then a smaller ball of fibers felted on the front to be the nose and cheeks.

When I did the first one (below), I used a small ball of fibers for the nose, but then even smaller ones on each side of the nose for the cheeks. It's still a scary face, but I think the nose and mouth are an improvement over the one I made yesterday.

This is how we learn, right? Practice, practice, practice. Hopefully, we don't take ourselves so seriously that we give up, because then we miss out on the fun...and the eventual success. These little pieces will remind me where I started, just as my first quilt reminds me where I started as a quilter. 

I'm searching out more classes in the Portland area, and there is one being offered in two weeks on the other side of town at a shop called Gossamer. It's a two-hour class, and they'll be making this sheep:

Cost of the class includes all materials, so what the heck? It occurs to me that in my class last month, I learned to make a human figure, a flower, and a sheep that was only two dimensional. It can't hurt to learn to make a three-dimensional, four-legged creature, even if it isn't a cat. And honestly, can my cats get any worse? It's a frightening question to ponder.

Once I'd determined that the monster I'd just created would not attack and kill me, I got to work making Block #3 for Lisa's quilt. This one is for her husband, Ron. Here's the original block:

Here it is rendered in fabric:

For whatever reason, there was a lot of digital noise generated when I took the picture. I've amped up the saturation to try to get rid of it. The red isn't actually that bright. You can get the idea though. (One of these days, I'll remember to reverse the applique.)

The next one I'm going to do is this one, created by Lisa's son, Michael.

With that finished, I got to work quilting the Aspen Tree, and this will be my focus until it's finished. I'm starting by stitching very close to the edge of the tree in black thread.

The gray fabric is very tightly woven, and I didn't want my needle to make obvious holes in the fabric.

I've shortened my stitch length and I'm using a microtex 60/8 needle. I worried that it might cause my thread to break, but it's going along fine so far. I'm using a rayon thread for all the top-stitching. 

I have a green cotton thread in the bobbin, and here's how it looks from the back...a little hard to see, I know.

Today I'll just continue on with that. I'm thinking that I'll top-stitch the leaves using thread to match the leaf color, but I may decide to stick with black. We'll see. I'll decide once I have the tree stitched. I'm also going to stitch in the characteristic Aspen markings as it was done in the photograph in the book:

I like the way the quilting extends the tree into the border, and I'm going to give that a try as well. I may decide to switch to cotton thread when I do that part.

So there you go...my day in a nutshell. I'm still a little worried about that cat. I might decide to put a little chain around its neck just to be sure it doesn't escape.