Stretching a bit

Every now and again I'm asked to make something in particular that I realize is outside my comfort zone.   I'm grateful for this!  Gives me a chance to stretch a bit. 

One of my friends Lynn Douglass was showing off her CatNip quilt to her friends at her modern quilt group.  No sooner did she text me how everyone loved it, than my notification on my phone went from my Etsy store that someone purchased two of them! 

Turns out that someone was Dede Bruington (co-owner of Picking Daisies Quilt Store) Lynn's friendship group meets there.  Dede wanted CatNip Quilts for her kitties Sally, her calico & Presley her 'monster Tuxie'. 

I mentioned to her that she could request custom colors if she liked and so she asked to have Miss Sally's quilt focus on red. And a Black and White one for Mr. Presley.  I said sure!  

Now,  I'm not into red, really...  So I pulled a collection I was going to use for Christmas potholders that I never got around to and used them. They weren't Christmas prints or anything but I loved the red polka dots/apples print! 

 It was fun to attempt the 'slab' foundation piecing I found in one my modern quilting books.  It looks deceptively easy and I quickly found out that while 'wonky' is fun to start, you need a wide variety of different sizes in order to get it big. Since I was actually cutting yardage I did end up converting it back to 'right' edges to make that easier given I only had 4 prints to choose from.  

  

I am happy with how it turned out.  The catnip was put on the backside of the batting so it wouldn't be visible under the white. 

I always enjoy putting their names on.  

Here's Miss Sally enjoying her quilt.

Next was Mr. Presley's.  His was really fun and easy as it allowed me to make a sort of prototype for a much larger quilt I was going to make and had already pulled all the materials for.   

 I knew right away this would be the perfect opportunity to test my design idea.  

I love black and white and wanted to experiment making smaller, random blocks and then putting them together without an overall repeating pattern. 

Here is Mr. Presley enjoying his CatNip quilt. 

I really like this look.  I may yet make that larger quilt! 

Happy Sewing!