If you are a follower of my blog, you know that I'm a cat lover, cat(s) owner, feral cat colony manager. So, it was only natural that I wanted to enter Sew Cal Gal's 2011 Pets on Quilts Contest.
This is Roxie ....and oh, how she loves to eat. She's sneaky too....and I hear her crunching in the night when I leave food in her bowl. I raised her by bottle after her Mama abandoned her at 4 days old. This particular quilt was made by my daughter as a gift to me after we had been to the International Quilt Show in Houston. It says "We went to the quilt show and all we got was everything!"
Here's a couple close ups of the details.....beads on the shoes, ribbon, threads, ribbons, buttons for the eyes....on the 3 Cats who went shopping at the Quilt Show.
Roxie was posing so well for me, I got another Kitty Quilt for her to "inspect". You do know she's one of my "quilt supervisors", don't you?
This one is called Beach Kitties and I used it for a quilt class in applique that I was teaching.
I hope you can see the fabric in the background of these blocks, as it's fish underwater.
My other two cats, Braveheart (the KING) and his sister, Princess, were getting jealous of all the attention Roxie was getting during our photo session, so here's Kitty City. I think this is my favorite quilt of all time that I've made, except for my King Size 1000 Pyramids quilt.
Each block depicts a different cat in a different profession; artist, beauty pageant winner, fireman, Dr., bird watcher, Sheriff, Chef, Pirate, Carmen Miranda, Amelia Earhart, etc. I bordered it with dimensional prairie points and cat paw fabrics.
Sorry, they're a bit blurry 'cause I was paying attention to the cats....not on my picture taking. Besides, I have to hurry and get this blog post finished to have time to enter it in Sew Cal Gal's contest...yikes!
Here's a few close up pictures of the Kitty City blocks.
Miss Kitty USA
Pierre' the Chef
The Sheriff.
The Bird Watcher
If I haven't bored you senseless .......YET, .....there's more to this Kitty City quilt than meets the eye.
Did you notice the fruit bowl in the Carmen Miranda block?
Well, after I was finished with all the detailed quilting (you can see some of the different background quilting in the close up photos) when I was trimming some threads, I cut a small 'v' shaped hole in the sashing on the bottom of that block. I was just heartsick, 'cause I was entering it in a Quilt Show that next week.
I called my sister, told her what happened, and was almost in tears. She came right over (we live about 1/2 block from each other) and took a look at it, and said......"well, looks like Carmen's fruit bowl spilled some fruit" She told me to think "outside the box" and I did.
The fruit appliques falling from her hat and underneath the block were added to cover up the small hole.
I added a fish bowl to the Chef's block, a bird's nest to the Bird Watcher.....etc., and what started out as a BIG boo boo, ended up adding more interest and uniqueness to my Kitty City Quilt.
I was even more pleased when it won a 2nd place ribbon in the Quilt Show.
If I had a glass of wine, I'd toast to everyone reading this blog....."Here's to quilting, here's to our beloved pets, and here's to winning a prize in the contest, but most of all ....here's to Sew Cal Gal for doing such a great job organizing this"!
When it's time to vote on
Thanks for visiting.
