A Batik Cat Quilt
(and some lessons learned)

 

 

 

This quilt is made from small batik squares that many quilt shops sell in a pack.  These were all cat squares.

Each kitty square is 4 inches, and I surrounded it with squares and half-square triangles forming a type of Pinwheel Block (called Eccentric Star).

Then, using the colors that were in the background of the kitty squares, I made a series of half-square triangle patches. 

Initially I was going to simply surround the center with the half-square triangles as one of the borders. 

However, I miscalculated how many I would need and had several extra patches.  Rather then putting them in my stash, I decided to continue to use them in the border. 

By placing a solid blue strip between the rows of half-square triangles, and using the same color patches on the other side of the solid blue, it created a Flying Geese affect in that border – I call it Broken Geese.

The cornerstones were created to fill in, since I couldn’t figure out a good way to line up the Broken Geese in the corners.  All of the elements in the quilt relate to cats (birds [the geese], mice in the very corners, fish blocks that surround the mice, and pinwheels – pure entertainment for cats).

Once I knew the size of the cornerstones, I needed to widen the border, hence the diamond shapes of purple.  And the outside black border was intended to frame the quilt.

Lessons Learned

1. This quilt uses all hand-dyed fabric.  As much as I love this quilt, it gets used as an example of the importance of washing out all of the dye prior to assembling the quilt.  Each time this quilt gets wet, more of the blue and purple bleeds into the surrounding patches and onto the backing fabric.

2. With better planning, some of the components would have been different.  However, my lack of planning often allows me to be more creative, since I need to solve a problem.

3. When you lay a quilt on a bed, a cat will surely find it:

 

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