Hopefully today's post will make your wait for my return worthwhile!
Earlier this year, I started a quilt based on one of my cross stitch designs titled, "Patrick". It was a small complimentary design but always one of my favorites.
I'm particularly fond of St. Patrick's Day. Not sure why, I've got a few ounces of Irish in me but not alot. I think I just like the whole "shamrock and green" thing. St. Patrick's Day marks the beginning of Spring here in the US and Spring is my absolute favorite time of year!
I wanted to do a larqe wholecloth crazy quilt, with a cat in a hat and the shamrock theme. So I based my cat idea on my Patrick cross stitch design. I knew I wanted him in an oval in the middle of the quilt with crazy patch around him. What a challenge!
I first cut my foundation fabric and then marked the center where the oval would be. I then did my foundation piecing around the outside.
My fabrics include, velveteen, brocades, cottons, satins, foiled netting and batiks. Once I had the foundation piecing completed, I focused on the cat.
The cat and the hat are hand appliqued as is the ribbon. My mother gave me a buckle from her stash and she crocheted the shamrock on the hat which I then hand dyed. I embellished it with a satin flower, some small white flower buttons and real green feathers. Those are tricky to sew on!
The next thing I did with the cat was to hand color him. I used oil pastels to give him some fur and highlights, working in layers and heat setting as I went along with my iron. Then I embroidered his little face. This was mostly done freehand except for marking where the eyes, nose and mouth belonged. I then embroidered the whiskers and foo-foo hairs. Last but not least, I added the organza type ribbon, tacking it in place along the edges with blind stitches. The shamrock charm is vintage. I found it in April at a quilt show in a booth that carried antique and vintage embellishments. It was perfect!
I then put the cat to the side and embellished the quilt. It took me 3 months! I loved every minute of it! I made the pansies from a canvas type fabric using the pattern in one of Judith Montano's books. There are a ton of ribbon flowers on here which I did while housesitting for my sister. The silver leaves are actually hand dyed, half purple, half green. It may be a bit hard to see here but it shows well in person.
This quilt is loaded with beads, new and vintage buttons, charms, vintage jewelry pieces, ribbon, yarn and ribbon embroidery. I used the feather stitch on many of the seams mostly because it's my favorite stitch but there are a few others as well.
When the embellishing was complete, I used a basting spray to hold some quilt batting in place behind the oval with the cat. I then hand appliqued that in place and added some vintage lace that I hand dyed around the outside and embellished that with sequins and beads.
At this point, all that was left was the finishing. I layered it with quilt batting and a backing fabric of a dark green cotton and used the green velveteen for the binding. I tacked all three layers with buttons on the back and added my quilt label. The finished size is 29 inches square. And here is the completed quilt:
To see a larger photo of "Lucky", please click here. To see a few more photos of this quilt, visit my Flickr photo album here.
