Cats and Dogs - Part 13

Last night was the York Heritage Quilters Guild meeting and our small quilt group Quilter's Pet was quilter of the month. We presented our Cats and Dogs quilts as well as one additional quilt. The presentation went very well but the best part was I got to take my quilt home with me that Jennifer M. made for me. The name of the quilt is "Fergie and Jordie's Fabulous Friends". Here is a picture of the front of the quilt. Jennifer used some gorgeous batiks in purple, blue and turquoise hues. She included some cute paper pieced mice in the corners since Fergie (and sometimes Jordie) loves to play with her furry little mice.

Here is a close up of the apartment block and there is Fergie and Jordie looking out the window at the birds as they fly by.

Then on the back of the quilt Jennifer paper pieced a portrait of Fergie and Jordie. I love my quilt and Jennifer did an awesome job of making it special and personal. Thanks Jennifer!!!

Cats and Dogs - Part 12

I have finished my cats and dogs quilt and am very pleased with the results. I'm sure that Kathi T. is going to love it. We have our small quilt group meeting this Monday and I hope that Kathi will be there so that she can see the final results. Then a week Tuesday our group will be showing all the quilts at our guild meeting as we are the quilter of the month for April. So next I need to get my BOM for March and April out of the way and then I'm going to have a look through my projects and see what will be next.

Cats and Dogs - Part 11

It's been a couple of weeks since I have posted but that has been because work was extremely busy. The reason why work was so busy was that 2 weeks ago I put in my resignation at where I was because I had accepted a job with another company. This came about rather suddenly having been approached to join this other company where I will be working with some former colleagues that I have worked with in previous places. It really was time to for me to go elsewhere and have a few more challenges but with the economy the way it has been I wasn't certain about what was out there. Then Ann called out of the blue and said that they had an new position opening up and was I interested. It was a good fit and I'm looking forward to my start on Monday. So the last 2 weeks at the old job were very busy wrapping things up, writing up documentation and training. I had been with that company for 4 years and I really wasn't expecting much upon leaving but they did surprise me with this lovely bouquet of flowers.

I'm finally finished the quilting portion of the cats and dogs quilt. In the border I did a series of dogs going around the perimeter. If you click on the picture below you should be able to see the details better than in the small version.

Then in the cats and dogs blocks I did this stylized butterfly wing design in a cream coloured thread since given I had all different colours of cats and dogs but for the most part the backgrounds were of a cream tone it made the most sense to go with cream thread.

Then in the Bichon blocks I outlined the Bichon in a teal thread and did a different version of the butterfly wing design in the top right hand corner and bottom left hand corner since these areas had the most open teal fabric. In the other two corners the design would have interfered with the Bichons and I didn't want it to compete.

So now I just have to make up the binding and get it sewn on and the quilt is finished in plenty of time for the Tuesday April 20th meeting of the York Heritage Quilters Guild where our quilt group with be quilter of the month and we have to have our quilts ready to show.

Cats and Dogs - Part 10

I've been working on the embroidery details on the cats and dogs quilt. I had to add eyes to all but one set of cats and dogs, whiskers to all cats and noses to all but one dog. One set of blocks from one of the gals already came with little button eyes and the dog had a button nose. For the rest I used a decorative yarn and made French knots, brown for the dogs and green for the cats. Then for the cats I embroidered whiskers using rayon thread that I use for machine quilting. I used an off white for the light coloured cats and black for the dark cats.


Then I used brown embroidery floss end did the noses on the dogs.

So now I'm ready to make the quilt sandwich and start quilting the cats and dog quilt. The first step will be stitch in the ditch to stabilize the quilt and then I will start on my patterns. I've got an interesting dog pattern for the border and I'm still working out the details for the individual blocks.

Cats and Dogs - Part 9

So here are the rest of the quilts that were done using the paper pieced cat and dog blocks that we traded back in September. What is really interesting is just how different all the quilts look.

The first quilt to be presented last night was the one made by Kathi who unfortunately wasn't able to be with us. She picked Jennifer's name and this is the quilt she made for her and it was fully finished including the quilting. The border fabric really sets the cat and dog blocks off nicely and Kathi had some nice detailing of some scattered circles from the outer border fabric in the inter border. I didn't get a picture of the back because my camera decided to act up with a battery change and then a memory card full issue but it was made of some wonderful paw print and dog bone fabrics.

After Kathi's quilt was presented, I presented the quilt I made for Kathi which you can see on the previous post. Next was Jennifer who had picked my name and she did a wonderful job show casing the cats and dogs and then adding some personal touches that reflect Fergie and Jordie. In the top row is the apartment building that we live in and Fergie and Jordie are looking out the window. They love to play with stuffed mice so in the corners are little mice.

Then on the back are portraits of Fergie and Jordie surrounded by little mice. What an adorable touch.

Next came Joan who had picked Bernice's name. She made a wall hanging sized quilt which was also finished including the quilting but Joan still had some embellishment work left to do. I don't know if you will be able to see some of the details if you click on the quilt, but there were some adorable embellishments already on the quilt. Things like a pair of scissors, a bow made from measuring tape ribbon, a fire hydrant, etc.

Then Bernice presented her quilt which was for Cathy. Yes we have 2, one with a C and one with a K so at least we can keep our Cathy/Kathi's straight. Cathy has been busy with her cottage so Bernice added a paper pieced cottage as well as a fire hydrant to the mix.

Cathy has a pet boxer and Bernice found this boxer fabric that will become the back of the quilt.

Next up was Cathy who picked Charlene's name and she has a Cairn Terrier named Brodie who loves a treat called Greenies. So Cathy went to the local pet store to find out about Greenies and then she took a dog bone paper pieced pattern and modified it and made a Greenie which is in the top right hand corner. Very nice touch.

Next was Charlene who had Beth's name and she has 3 cats. (Sorry about the end table in the last 2 pictures but I didn't notice it until I was downloading the pictures to my computer last night)

Charlene found the series of fabric called 'XOXOXO, The Cat' collection by Wendy Slotboom for In The Beginning fabrics in the blue / brown colourway which is Beth's favourite colours. Charlene also paper pieced mice in the corners of the quilt and her quilt was also fully completed and hand quilted.

Finally it was Beth's turn and she had picked Joan. Joan is another dog lover, boxers to be specific. Beth added some paper pieced dog houses with dogs inside the dog houses and she had some cute dog house fabric in addition to the pieced dog houses.

So there are all the cats and dogs quilts. We had a fun evening last night but now it's back to work for several of us who still have to get our quilts quilted in time for the York Heritage Quilt Guild meeting on Tuesday April 20th when our group will be "Quilter of the Month".

Cats and Dogs - Part 8

Our small quilt group "Quilter's Pet" met this evening and we revealed our quilt tops (some actually had finished quilts) to each other. When we started this project everyone had filled out a one page survey about our pets as well as our likes and dislikes when it came to quilts and fabrics. I had picked Kathi's name last spring. She had a Bichon name Gilligan who unfortunately had passed away. I wanted to make a special quilt in honor of Gilligan but at first I wasn't certain what I was going to do.

Over the summer while I was working on the cats and dogs blocks for our trade in September I came across Silver Lining Originals, a paper piecing site that sold all kinds of animal and nature patterns: http://www.silverliningsoriginals.com/. I found the most adorable Bichon pattern and thought that this would be perfect but was concerned about the difficultly of the pattern. I finally bit the bullet at the beginning of this year and bought it. I figured that if I'm going to move forward in building my skills then what better way then to dive right in and do it. So here is the my quilt top that I made for Kathi. Unfortunately she wasn't able to make our meeting this evening due to a family illness so I have sent her an e-mail with the details for her to enjoy. The other gals loved it.

There are 3 Bichons on the quilt top. The one in the upper left hand corner is a classic white coloured one. The middle one is a beige one which is in honor of Gilligan who was beige and the third one is a mocha coloured one simply because I wanted 3 different coloured dogs and I like this colour combination.

Below is the pieced back. I had some interesting doggy portrait fabric but there was only 1/2 yard so I needed to figure out a way to stretch it. I also had some fun dog bone print and paw print fabrics so this is the result.

So now I have a month to get this quilted and bound.

I will post pictures of the other quilts that the gals made hopefully tomorrow or the next day so that you can see what everyone else did with their cat and dog blocks. Jennifer picked my name and she did a wonderful job on my quilt, it's so cute, it even has a Fergie and Jordie on it.

Cats and Dogs - Part 7

I have been working on the paper pieced cats and dogs quilt for one of the members of our small quilt group. This is where we drew a name of one of the members of our group and are making a quilt for that member. Initially everyone made a set of paper pieced cats and dogs that we traded back in September so that every quilt will have a cat and dog from each member. Then each person can add more cats and dogs, and or other items to the quilt. We need to get the quilt top finished for our meeting at the beginning of March to reveal to the person that we picked.

I did make a few more batik cats and dogs to add to my quilt top and here is the layout so far. Now you may be wondering what is going in the blank spots in the top left hand corner, the middle and the bottom right hand corner. Well I decided to take on my own personal challenge and I'm paper piecing something that is more specific for the person that I picked. The problem is I can't show you right now because it will become obvious who I'm make this quilt for by what I'm paper piecing so it will have to remain a secret until the quilt top is revealed on March 8th. Some of the gals do drop by the blog and see what I'm up to so unfortunately it will have to remain a secret until then.

Cats and Dogs - Part 6

Well here is the menagerie of cats and dogs with the exception of one set. One of the gals who lives just down the street from me was also madly sewing this weekend and just didn't have enough time to finish all of hers and asked if it would be OK if she could drop mine of later on. I said there would be no problem since I actually wouldn't be starting putting together this project until January so in fact she has lots of time. We have to have our quilts ready for our March meeting so plenty of time to finish. Check out the blue cat and dog in the middle row right side, they even have cute button embellishments.

Cats and Dogs - Part 5

I got the last of the cats finished over the weekend and towards the end I was getting the hang of attaching their tails.

As I looked over all the cats and dogs I wasn't satisfied with a couple of them so I decided to make 2 more sets and then the gals can have some extra choice. If someone is picky in how a block is pieced then they won't have to settle for one that might be slightly off kilter because there are a couple extra. Here are the 2 extra sets.

It's going to be interesting to see what fabrics the other gals used for their cats and dogs.

Cats and Dogs - Part 4

I've got 4 of the paper pieced cats done as of this evening, which leaves 4 more to go. So I'm on track for Monday. The trick with the cats is getting the tails lined up with the bodies. I had to re-sew two of the tails because they were wonky.

Cats and Dogs - Part 3

I had some time last night to do a bit of quilting and I got the other 2 paper pieced dogs done so here is the picture of them with the 2 I got done on the weekend. So now I just have the 8 cats left to do.

Tonight I'm finally suppose to get together with my friend Anne for dinner and give her the dinosaur stacked coin quilt. We had to postpone from last week because her mom had taken ill. So hopefully she is doing better and I'll be seeing Anne tonight.

Cats and Dogs - Part 2

I got 4 dogs paper pieced this weekend for our group trade in Sep. This leaves me 4 more dogs and 8 cats that have to get finished for the second Monday of that month. Paper piecing is still somewhat strange to me and the best way to describe it is it's like sewing backwards. I do like some of the effects you can get with this technique and I suspect that with lots of practice you do get better at it. But at this point it does take a fair bit of time to get things done.

Cats and Dogs

In the small quilt group that I belong to (called Quilters Pets) we have decided to do a block exchange and then with the blocks that we get, we'll make up a quilt for one of the members of our group. We will draw names and it will be kept a secret until we are finished are quilts and are ready to present them to each other. The size of the quilt is up to the one making it, but anywhere from wall hanging to bed size if you are so inclined.

The blocks that we doing are paper pieced cats and dogs. Each person will make a set of 1 cat block and 1 dog block for each person for the exchange. Then depending on the size of quilt you want to make, each person will make up the additional blocks. We will be picking our name this coming Monday, and our blocks don't have to be finished until the beginning of Sep for the exchange. Then the quilts are to be finished by year end.

Now this is a new challenge for me since I have never papered pieced before and below is my first attempt. Now I did rip out several seams and re-cut a some fabric pieces a few times because the first time the size didn't quite work. But for a first attempt I'm quite pleased with what I ended up with. According to the pattern the cats and dogs both have eyes and the dog also has a nose, which are done either with embroidery, beads, buttons, or other embellishments, so that would come later.