I can't believe it! I tried all day to put this picture up and Blogger kept saying, "I don't think so!" LOL!This is the first applique I ever did. It was done as an online class with the Frenz group in either October 1998 or 99. The original pattern can be found here if anyone is interested. I didn't quite follow the pattern as written. Everyone else did a nice fat pumpkin in the center of theirs. But of course I had to be different and do a cat on mine. What else would you expect from me? LOL! I just enlarged the cat that is in the print on the background fabric. I'm not much of an artist and can barely draw a straight line but I didn't do too bad a job of drawing the cat. Of course it helps that the one in the fabric was kinda folkartsy so it didn't matter if it's a bit wonky. If I had it to do over again I'd have made the cat a little bigger to fill up a bit more of the space in the center. But in general I'm pretty happy with it.
Boy I look at it and can really see how far I've come in the last 7 or 8 years. See the nice friendly (wavy!) borders? Back then I just sewed the border strips on and then cut the excess off. Who needed to measure. Not me! Besides being my first applique it was also my first attempt at free-motion quilting. It sat around as a top for 2 or 3 years until I decided to try my hand at stippling. Since this is not a top that was dear to me I decided it would do as a practise piece. It's obvious if you see it up close that it's a beginner project but from a distance it doesn't look too bad so I'm happy with it.
12 comments:
Hey - it's really cute! We in Blogger-land can't see little flaws, you know. Have to giggle at the Friendly borders -- LOL! Didn't we all?
what a great idea putting a cat applique on it. Love the background fabric you used.
Wavy borders! I finished a quilt recently and it had wavy borders LoL. I had to unpick some of it and quilt something different on the borders so that it looked better.
Cats, imagine that. I suppose they think they've collected you. =)
That wall hanging is adorable, the background fabric is so perfect!
So sorry about Tic. Even though we love all our fur "kids" there are certain ones that we just form an extra special bond with. My shepherd Rush was like that for me.
That is a darling quilt!!! I love it. Your collection of cats is cute too!
I think this quilt is lovely, and not bad for an early attempt! You should see my first one -- well, actually you never will because it was never finished! :) Let's just say that you can't start off with 5/8" seams and finish reading the quilting book and then go to 1/4" seams. Nope, doesn't work! LOL!
Great kitty collection, and a very special one! Thanks for sharing it. Much more interesting than my collectibles!
Hugs
Love your kitties all congregated on the ironing board... was it warm still? I use one of those little ironing pad things that flips over to a cutting mat, and my cats love to get on it after I've just used it. :)
I'm also trying a chocolate and pink quilt - and mainly because of all the ones I've seen on blogs!
And didn't I say "I want one too" and skip right over to print those directions. I did resist. I have an enormous stack of printed things to make. You are so bad to tempt me........
Love the cat.........
I would have been & probably still am too chicken to use my cat fabric like that... Good for you! (I was a Frenz for a while... I did one of the projects in light, lighter, & lightest - I was very value LOST)
I'm not really a fan of Halloween or Halloween quilts but this one is just too cute! I like the black cat in place of the pumpkin.
It's a great beginner project! You should be proud. I love that you changed the pumpkin to a cat!
It's cute, Nancy. So what if it was the one you learned on? None of us knew how to do this right off the bat, that I know of. I hope that I never do learn everything that there is to learn about quilting.
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