Purring For You!

Last month, V asked if I would participate in a group quilt for Tonya, creator of the Free Pieced Alphabet. I was on vacation, and had some free time, so I agreed. The only requirement was to use solids. I don't usually work with solids, and I didn't have a big color selection.

What to say? "Get well soon" sounded so trite, and I wanted something fun. Tonya and I both have cats, so when "Purring for you" popped into my head, I knew it was perfect.

I wanted to make my letters look like a proper font, so I drew them out ahead of time, and was very careful to make them all appear connected somehow. Notice the tails on the "g" and the "y" and the "4" and the little slants on the "P" "u" and "g." When I got to the "o" I knew I had to include a heart.

After all the letters were carefully placed together, I decided I wanted to add the cat emoticon. I sewed it up, and then tried to figure out where it would look best. To add it, I had to unsew parts of the word "Purring."

The panel and the cats are on the back of this two-sided quilt.
You can see the front of the quilt, and read more about the ladies who participated at Tonya's blog, here: http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2009/10/belated-thank-you.html

I'm really happy it turned out so well.

Gizzy Quilts

I finished up a couple of Gizzy kitty quilts yesterday.
My son really likes this Rusty colored one, and wants it, even though he doesn't have a cat.

This one is going to a Tuxedo cat who lives in Nashville.

Millie + Monty Q

The internet is a strange and wonderful place.

This is my cat, Millie.

I found out about Millie because she had been struck by a car and rescued by a passerby. He asked for donations because she needed surgery to insert a pin in her leg. She was a feral cat, and the bill was estimated to be over $1,000. I sent my $20 to help out. At the time I had two black-and-white cats. But one cat was sick, so after a couple of months, when Millie needed a home, I adopted her. You can find the entire story here. It's quite something. I started blogging to keep Millie's fans up-to-date.

After a few months, I started making kitty quilts (now known as "Gizzy Quilts"). That's another story, and you can read it here. During this time, I met Tracey, who asked about a quilt for her baby daughter. She had also just adopted a cat, Monty Q, and started a blog for him. Monty took an interest in Millie. Tracey and I have a lot of fun with it. Over the coming months, Tracey and I became good friends. (I never did make the quilt.)

I'll be visiting Tracey and her family next week. Indeed, I am to be godmother to her newest child, and will be bringing a quilt with me. (You'll have to wait until July 25th to see it, though, so stay tuned.)

I thought it would be fun to make a kitty quilt for Monty, telling the world that Millie and Monty were sweet on each other. I knew I wanted their names, and some wonky hearts, but when I started, I wasn't quite sure where it was going.

Obviously, Tonya's alphabet has had a Big Impact on my quiltmaking.

It really seemed to need the cats. I thought this batik fabric was a great stand-in for a brown tabby cat. And of course I had to try to present Millie the same way.I even bought a walking foot for my sewing machine so I could machine quilt the quilt.Here is the finished quilt. It's 22-1/2 x 26 inches. The letters are 3" tall.I used this great Laurel Burch fabric for the backing, which suggested the binding fabric.
Millie approves*.

* It's very interesting, but folks who buy these quilts actually ask me to have Millie romp around on them so their cats will have something to smell. I've made over 150 of them, and I've never had a cat reject a quilt. One cat even drags his around the house to wherever he wants to nap. Multi-cat families with a quilt for each cat report that each cat knows which quilt is his, and often they don't share. I don't do anything special to them. No catnip. Just 100% cotton, and a lot of love.