Playful Kitten

I just finished another small quilt.  This appliqué is my favorite one.  I'm calling this one "Playful Kitten".   Below shows some of the prep work I did a couple of months ago.  Yep, it has been sitting for a while.



Preparing for the applique.



I did the same ol’ pattern Crazy Eights with lots of bright kitty fun fabric.  I know I should come up with a new pattern, but I like how it uses up all those fat quarters I bought during a weak moment.  Okay.....Several weak moments!  I also like the fact that after the patchwork is done, it feels like a blank canvas just begging for me to appliqué something on to it. 

Playful Kitten

To give the ball of yarn a little more texture, I used the Portuguese Stem Stitch.  I think the twisting thread gave the illusion of twisted yarn.

Backing and applique

I found another quilting series!  I have already read all of the latest Elm Creek Quilter's series.  I am so happy I found Marie Bostwick's Cobble Court Quilters Series.  Marie's fourth book comes out on 31 May and I can't wait!  The first book starts out with a newly divorced Evelyn leaving Texas behind.  She decides to settle and open a quilt shop in Connecticut.  Soon she has a quilting circle filled with new friends.  There's no mysteries this time.  Just good friends supporting each other during the good and the bad with lots of quilting and quilt talk.....

Before we left Clermont, we got some photos of the local Sandhill Cranes. We have never been around Sandhill Cranes. Big bird! Very big bird! And very protective. We had a family come by a few times.  Mama and papa would dig around looking for grubs to feed to their younger ones. Yea, not so little. They were as big as mommy and daddy! While they were near our site we watched a stray cat trying to sneak by the family. One of the parents would have none of that! It sounded the alarm to warn the others or the cat. Now the sound they make – it sounds like something out of Jurassic Park’s movie. A little prehistoric sounding if you know what we mean. It certainly got all of our cats’ attentions! It then confronted the poor cat with its wings out. If it was trying to look bigger, it was succeeding! The poor cat decided to take a different route through the wood’s underbrush.



I'm the pretty one! ~ young Sandhill Crane



Sandhill Crane ~ parents

Happy Quilting!