Flat Cats

When I left off yesterday, I was finishing the eighth of nine cats for the Ties & Tails quilt. There were still 84 red squares to be sewn together for the block border/sashing. It's all finished now.

There's just one more "tall cat" to make to finish all the cats for this quilt. If I'm remembering correctly, it has an outer border too. It's turning into a very large quilt. These are all the cats I have so far.

Smitty was still a little worried about all these other cats in his sewing room. He thought he might have to knock the stuffing out of them. But then when he saw them laid out on the floor, he realized they were just flat cats. No stuffing. Kind of like paper tigers, only with fabric.

From there, I cleaned up and moved the next project into my work space. These are the fabrics I pulled to get me started. I won't use all of them, but they hold potential.

Then, I taped some transparencies together and taped the picture and the transparencies to my cutting mat.

Then, I proceeded to draw out a pattern. Since this is a thread-painting exercise, the pattern is less detailed than I would ordinarily make it. I just need pieces to act as a foundation. Most of the work will be done by the thread detailing. 

I've only tried this technique once before on a quilt that was smaller and less detailed. This was for a doll quilt swap some years ago.

This is the book I've used as a reference.

So I started by making a background piece.

And then I continued by creating the tower. Eventually, the blue space below the tower will be covered with sunflowers and leaves. Just looking at this, I can see I need more green for coverage.

It was getting late in the day, and so I wanted to get started, but I didn't want to get too involved. Once I start on something like this, it's very hard for me to walk away. I decided to distract myself by looking at thread possibilities. These were pulled from the rack, and I probably have more stored with the supplies I keep near Eliza, my mid-arm machine.

Meanwhile, Sadie was taking a lesson from the quilt and attempting to become as flat as those cats.

When Smitty saw that I'd unceremoniously hung all of them in the closet, he thought he could practice his flat cat relaxation skills as well.

While we watched the news, I stitched up what remained in my embroidery hoop.

Today is a grocery shopping day. I was hoping to put it off until tomorrow, but we're nearly out of kitty treats. Running out of kitty treats would be a cat-tastrophe. So, we're going. I've created a week's menu, but I still need to make a list. When we get home, I'll get back to work on the art quilt. I'm hoping to get well along by the end of the day.