How to Build a Cat

You'll need a cat for this:

Cats make excellent color consultants.

The first step is to create the face. The nose is three-dimensional.

Every well-dressed cat sports a bow tie, and so you'll want to add that next:

When that is finished, you can proceed with the chest, a paw, and the tip of the tail.

Optional accessories might include the blue bird of happiness:

Finally, you'll want to add the business-end of the cat. It will give the bird a place to perch.

This part of the cat will take an entire day of fiddling. When you have it that far, you'll be adding a narrow black border, and then the scrappy red sashings. Eventually, you will have all the cats you need, and you can sew your cats into a finished quilt.

Before that, however, behold the pattern cover and realize that you've made your first two cats with their associated birds facing in the wrong direction.

Here's the first one I made a while ago:

These are a little tricky to put together because of all the flippy triangles. Sometimes I have to study the instructions to make sure I'm sewing them to the correct corner, and in the correct direction. Frustratingly, the directions are the same for both right and left-facing cats. The quilter is helpfully told that the cat can be made facing in either direction, but the directions are set up to create the left-facing cat. This matters not at all, but in both cases, I wanted to make the right-facing cat. I didn't realize until I was well along that the cat was facing in the opposite direction. 

And, just let me tell you, I tried turning the bird to face left for yesterday's block, and this reverse in direction is much easier said than done. I found myself looking at the diagram in the instructions, and then turning my unsewn piece this way and that, trying to envision how it would look if it were flipped over to face the other way. So, I got 'er done, but I'm still needing to face the cat the other way for the final two sitting cats. Now, I've written myself a note directly on the instructions to make the cats face the other way. This matters not at all beyond my effort to convince myself I am not old and senile, and that I'm still able to follow directions.

Today I'll add in details to the cat's face, and then piece together the sashing from red scraps. Since this will all come together in the end, I sometimes need more sashing pieces, sometimes less. I believe this one will be of the lesser variety, but I'll still have to cut all those little squares individually if I want a good mix.

And, no, I did not get out for a walk yesterday. Frankly, I wish you hadn't brought it up. The weather was chilly and cloudy and lazy. That was me...the lazy part...but I'll blame the weather. Honestly, I'm having a hard time blasting myself out of the house. It's very comfortable inside. We're expecting nice weather all next week. Maybe that will get me going. Or maybe not. It's anybody's guess. Feel free to create a betting pool if you'd like. There could be big money to be made. For now, I'll just get back to my slow-stitching. I'm coming down the home stretch.