One of the first Blocks of the Month for the 2010-2011 Guild season was a pinwheel cat. Because Louie was still missing I decided to make something for Madison using a cat theme. When I finished the pinwheel cat block, it wasn’t quite “cat” enough for me. I found a book of paper-pieced cats (and dogs) in the Guild library and did a couple of samples. They were very hard, but I had a paper-piecing course coming up and knew I’d gain some of the skills I needed. I struggled to complete the eight cats I had chosen from the book, and I think I made each cat at least twice.
But eight cats are hardly big enough for a quilt. I looked online and found the Fashion Cats, also paper pieced but on a larger scale. I had such fun picking out fabrics to dress the cats in.
The quilt was taking shape, but I still didn’t have a design in mind. At the Guild year-end potluck a woman who had seen me working on the cats suggested they would make a nice border. That was all I needed and I could immediately see the design for the quilt.
The Sunflower Cat was another of the Blocks of the Month. This was a machine appliqué block and, since the practice piece worked well, I created three Sunflower Cats for the center. The last pieces I needed were corner cats and I found those online as well.
I realized after I had all the blocks completed that they were a combination of 6” and 12” blocks. In order to tie them all together I added 8” border blocks that were made up of small pieces of the fabrics I used in making all the cats.
The final piece was finding the right background, backing and binding material. I was able to find a star motif printed on both a black and a white background.
This was my first full-sized quilt and both Madison and Louie were happy with it.