Tessellating cats ...to the finish line

After the cats were on the background and border(s) added, it was time for some quilting.

I looked around for something big enough to use for the backing and got out my roll of "Thinsulate". I know most quilters buy batting in quilt-sized packages and you seem to get what you like. Long ago, I did the same but I was often disappointed with what I ended up with. Sometimes the batting migrated to the top in little pills. Sometimes it pulled away from the edges. Sometimes it was hard to quilt through. And, often it was not the size I wanted and I was either piecing it or throwing away the left-overs. Now I have discovered thinsulate, made by 3M. I love it! I buy it on the bolt and can piece it to any size I want. It comes in assorted thicknesses so I have several bolts. They stand on end in the back of my closet corner until I need them. The texture has a tacky feel so once it is made into a sandwich, it doesn't shift. And, it is nice to hand quilt. I know it is made to use in clothing and it holds up well to washing. I have heard they make it in quilt sizes but here in Japan I have never seen it.

This is the quilt line for the cat after quilting all the cats in the ditch. I use the three-finger-rule.
In the old days the quilting had to be very close together to keep the batting from shifting but with this batting, about three fingers width left open is fine.

Here is the finished quilt. It is about 34" x 41", good for  table topper or the back of a sofa.

The cat patrol was from a fabric with cats in rows and "CoCoLand" written between the rows. The fabric on the backing has been sitting in the bottom of a box for about 30 years. Once, a friend long forgotten, was asked to make quilt blocks for some project ... maybe to send to an exchange ... and she asked me to make them for her. She selected a kimono block and brought me the fabric. With all the lovely Japanese prints available, I was surprised to see this red floral print. I don't remember what the obi and background was but there was lots of this red fabric left over and it never seemed to go with anything I was making. I dug it out and the size was enough. The green binding matches the leaves in the print and I did not need to go out and buy anything at all. I may add a wandering path in the floor area but I may just call this "done".

I hope anyone wanting to try this pattern can get enough information by going to the sidebar for the tessellating cat posts ... or drop me a line and I will try to answer any question that arises.

The Bible quilt class met again this week and here are the blocks that were finished. Jacob's ladder, David and Goliath, Joseph's coat, Children of Israel, and Garden of Eden.

Wither thou goest, is almost together.

The women are dividing up the Star of Bethlehem to take for homework. One more was cut out to be finished by two other members of the group.

Today is Mother's Day. Here is my mother's day shirt I wanted to wear. It has hand and foot-prints from all my kids and foster babies and even a cat and dog or two but... if you look a bit closer, you can see that Nikko has given this shirt a chewing. (her foot print was not on it)

Do you think she was jealous? No, this is a result of separation anxiety ... when I go out, it is always my stuff that gets chewed. She had to go all the way up to the third floor bedroom to get this one.

Here is what I wore instead. This was hand painted by a little old man in China while I watched. You can see my two boy chicks fighting over a worm. Two big sisters are trying to break up the fight and two other sisters are looking on from above. I have the world's greatest peeps and they always solve their own problems.

As I look back today, I am so pleased with my wonderful children and a bit sad that my own mother always found me such a disappointment. And while I was selecting and cutting fabric for the Bible quilt block, Whither thou goest, I thought about my dear mother-in-law and pulled out a heart print.
She did not feel responsible for my short-comings, of which there are many, but loved me just as I was and I think I know how Ruth felt.

Tessellating cats, part 5

A few more additions, and this will be ready for quilting. Once all the cats have faces embroidered on, there is an opportunity to add a bit more color ... or to balance out the colors you have already used by adding balls or other objects. The balls added here are about an inch and a half across. They can be made rounder by cutting a round of batting the same size and making a sandwich when appliqueing them on. Since this is a table runner, I have left them flat.

Since the side margins of the cats move by the tails width, the background could be balanced by adding another ball or some other object in the wide spaces. On the larger quilt I moved the outside balls into a line and added a sideways cat at each end.  Here I am auditioning a butterfly.

Though the tweedy cat and the striped one do not seem to show up well next to each other in the photo, they do a bit better in real life. The hardest part of this cat pattern is selecting fabrics and placing the cats so each one shows up against its neighbor. Small prints that read as solids seem to work best. If I had made this quilt larger, I would have separated these two with a solid.

I have also added a night cat patrol around the border. Judging from the yowling we heard there must be at least this many. And, since I had gotten this fabric out too, I added a bit of the daisy field.

The hanging pot on our front gate has put on a show. It must have enjoyed the rain more than I did.

 
And one petunia in a pot hanging from the wall must have survived the winter and has begun to bloom. When I was a kid, my mother loved petunias but they had to have the finished flowers picked off each day in order to continue blooming. Since my mother could not get down that far, it became my task to tend the petunias and I never had a particular fondness for them. These days, there are new varieties that are perfect for hanging pots and never seem to need tending as they begin early and bloom all summer through.

When I get frustrated with new things (like blogspot "improvements") it is nice to see that a few improvements, especially when it comes to plants, are really for the better.

Tessellating cats move on (part 4)

A long trip into town and a long District Committee meeting gave the cat gang a chance for progress.

After listening to serenading feral cats for the last few weeks, I decided those cats need to be kept inside and since Nikko pointed out SHE is not allowed on the beds, I picked the wood flooring for a background.. I pinned the cat group to the background with safety pins (to prevent fall-out while travelling) and changed those to short applique pins as I came to them. The meeting was long enough to add a border of the quilt pattern.

The next step is to cut away the background fabric from behind the cats. That is something to be done very carefully ... scissors with a rounded point will make it a bit easier.

The next step is to embroider faces on the cats. It helps to choose eye color that will show up  on the cat prints. I added eyes, nose, mouth and whiskers on the one below I think there is a sleeping cat or two and one winking. My #3 daughter made a tessellating cat quilt for her former roommate's baby living in New Orleans and it was a Mardi Gras quilt with very fancily adorned cats. I wish I had taken a picture of it to show.

Since this quilt was named "Pearl and friends" and the design was inspired by my cat, Pearl, you can see her here with her odd eyes and kink in her tail.

I used two strands of embroidery thread and satin stitch.

 Yesterday morning, I was surprised to see that one of my cactus plants was full of flowers. I have had this plant for over three years and this is the first time it bloomed. Last night I looked at it before going to bed and all the flowers were closed. Some of those plants only bloom one day and not knowing this plant's pattern, I had grabbed my camera to record the event. Well, this morning all the flowers had re-opened and I noticed flower buds developing on the smaller section.

Another of my cactuses has also bloomed. These blooms last quite a while. This is "golden week" here in Japan but the days have been very rainy. Those plants seem to be doing their best to provide a touch of gold.  Several more have flower spikes and I am so happy to have found a plant that can take the extremes of heat and cold my room offers and thrive on neglect when I go camping for a week.
Happy Golden Week to you too!

Herding cats - part 3

Sunday, after all the cats were joined in pairs, I played with the group to find an arrangement where each cat would stand out. The black and white cat might have had a better partner but I am not going to change that pair.

After all the cats were joined, I basted around the outer edges and now the cats are ready to be appliqued on a background.
Today I pulled out some fabrics I might use on the background. I had been thinking of putting these cats on a quilt and I found this printed hexie fabric. It might be OK but the white and yellow cats are a bit hidden

Then I tried a pink quilt print but I don't like that as well.

Maybe the cats need to get off the quilt and go outside. The color of this daisy print is a prettier green than this picture shows... definitely a possibility.

Here they are on a purple print. Hmmm, not so great.

Last of all, I let the cats back inside and told them to stay off the quilts. here they are on the floor.

This might be a good choice. I will take the no-go prints back to the box and hold the yellow quilt, the daisy field, and the wooden floor out for consideration.

A quilt group friend used this pattern and solved some of the problems by alternating print and solid fabrics in the cat pairs. Certainly a solid background would be easier to use but have less interest. More color can be added with the embroidery and the balls.

The Kerria (or yamabuki, as it is called) is now in bloom on our garden path. The tall building to the South blocks sun for all but early morning so we get to enjoy this flower a bit later than other plants in the neighborhood.

I love this hardy bush. I started it from a cutting at my last house. (A good move because I noticed on my last trip through that area that the house owner had ripped out all the lovely shrubs. They take frequent pruning to keep under control and I have noticed the new renter does not care for any of the plants. I suppose they asked for the gardener to come and do the work and the home owner balked and had the bushes removed. The gardeners had come less and less over the years we lived there). I miss that lovely sunny garden. I miss the insulated house. I miss a parking space on the property. I miss the big kitchen and a real guest room. BUT... this morning after making the rounds with rice balls for the homeless, I am thankful for what I DO have and the happy yellow blooms are a good reminder of how suddenly things might change.

Tessellating cats #2 and blogging friends

Pairing cats
Each cat is cut out leaving a quarter-inch seam allowance. Once I decide an arrangement, I put the cats together in pairs. First I pin the darker of the pair to the pencil lines on the lighter cat.
Since darker cats are marked with a white chalk pencil, the lines will disappear as I applique and the pencil lines on the lighter cat will be covered. This also prevents a certain amount of shadowing.
I have some very short basting pins which I have used on the first pair.
Even with short pins, the thread often gets tangled in those pins. I prefer to baste the two cats together. Not only does it avoid tangles but for carry-along work, I do not have to deal with pins that might fall out or need to be put in the pin-cushion during sewing.
After all the pairs are sewed, I will repeat this step combining four cats.

And now, for friends...
After about a year and a half of blogging, something I didn't expect has begun to happen. Every now and then you might comment on a blog. Then you might get a reply and before you know it there is a conversation going between bloggers. Sometimes you may see a comment on another blog that just clicks and when you check that person's blog, you find someone who seems to be thinking in much the same way as you. Like the stitches that hold fabric together, this communication begins to link you to others, and just seeing their name in your in-box makes you smile. There are people out there that I wish I might meet in person.

How wonderful it was, then, that the opportunity arose. I could hardly contain my excitement!
It was an adventure to a new (for me) part of town, an exhibit by Amy Katoh of her collection of vintage indigo fabrics and then some strolling and shopping and snacking for the rest of the day.
But, more than the activity, was the friendship that turned out to be as wonderful, if not more so, than anticipated.

Lis, you made my day and I am still smiling when I look at your picture. I wish we had asked someone to take a picture of the two of us together... maybe sitting out under those cherry blossoms.

Finally the tulip bulbs I got for my birthday have begun to bloom

The grape Hyacinth popped up in the planter among the geraniums.

And the magnolias on the south side of the street, it the shade of the apartment building, have opened. Imagine looking out of your balcony and seeing these big flowers!

Two warm days and my down jacket is off to the cleaners, then into the store-room. Rain is forecast for the next few days but I am smiling.

Herding cats - part 1

A number of people have asked me about the tessellating cat pattern. The inspiration for this quilt was my white cat, Pearl. (Actually she was a princess disguised as a cat). She had a small kink in the tip of her tail so this is how I drew her on squared paper. The pattern is very easy to draw and consists of squares and half-square triangles. The size of the square will determine the finished size. I have made my squares 3/4".

The next step is to cut a pattern. You could cut it from cardboard or any other thing but if I am going to use it for many cats or over many years, I like to use a piece of plastic. (this is from a file folder)

On my templates I like something to keep them from slipping when I draw the lines. I put some double-stick tape on the back of a piece of sandpaper. Then I cut strips and fasten them to the back of the template.

One other advantage of having sandpaper on the back, is that you will not mistakenly cut some of the cats facing the wrong way.

Another advantage of the clear plastic is that you can audition the print and mark it to the best advantage.

Here is the cat marked out on fabric. I use a white Karisma pencil for dark fabrics and regular pencil or disappearing ink for light fabrics. Since cats are appliqued together, they need to be marked on the top of the fabric.

You can make as many cats as you wish but here are some points to consider. With each row of cats, the margin moves over the width of one square. That means the side margins are not even. I did not figure this in the first time I used this pattern and after putting five rows of eight cats, I solved the problem by putting cats sideways at the two wide corners. Next point is that each cat abuts with as many as six other cats so it is a bit tricky to find the right placement that shows up each cat.

Here is a sample lay-out. I have done this with as many as 42 cats and as few as 4. 8 will make a nice square quilt of about 38"x38" with a border. Part 2 will follow later. I am greatly anticipating meeting tomorrow with my blogging friend, Lis, of "Piece'nPeace", who has arrived in Tokyo.

Today is windy with sputters of rain from time to time. This is how the street looks ... well, maybe it is a bit pinker than this. The funny part is, there is not one cherry tree in sight. These flower petals came from a tree across from the park two blocks away!