Cattitudes

Cat's Meow flimsy

I am going to get better at posting more regularly-really I am.  Went to a trunk show of my friend and teacher, Susan Axelrod, who does the most amazingly precise and intricate applique and small scale quilts.  She is a precision piecer in the tradition of Sally Collins who is her idol.  I love Susan's work and after viewing 30 pieces of it I was inspired to be more careful with my piecing, more extravagant with my applique and to make a quilt that will incorporate both. 

I just finished the above "Cat's Meow" flimsy.  I will piece a back next week and take it to Quilter's Paradise where I will load it on the longarm and quilt it with a cat and mouse motif, then bind it and add 2 eyes on all 12 cats (I will do that on the road trip to Utah in the fall when the quilt will be presented to my sister-in-law who is the biggest cat lover I know).  This was a stacked quilt-12 layers of cats and 12 layers of flowers then the patter was cut like a jigsaw puzzle and the top 3 fabrics moved to the bottom.  This makes each cat unique.

There were close to 30 pieces in every cat and another 13 in every flower.  I added cat whiskers on each cat by machine, then the flower blocks had appliqued stems and leaves added and embroidery freemotion flower centers.  I got dizzy going in circles!  I love this quilt.  I will post the finished quilt when I get there.  Back to working on my Home Sweet Home Applique quilt (pictures to come).  Happy quilting!