Are YOU a Cool Cat or a Cool Cat-Lover?
If you love cats, today’s Tuesday Tutorial is for YOU.
Whether you choose to stitch a single cat in the center of each quilt block or stitch a clutter of cats along the border, this motif is sure to please all Cat Fans!
Begin by drawing a circle head and an oval body.
In the sample below, the head is approximately one inch and the body is twice as big-two inches.
The quick sketch will help keep the cat proportional, but don’t fret about this too much–there are Fat Cats and Skinny Cats–everywhere. It’s more fun to have cats with personality than cats that are perfect.
Start stitching at the top of the circle. Stitch around the circle twice and stop at the top.
Stitch two double triangles to create ears.
Next stitch several stitches around the left side of the circle.
Stitch IN to the center of the circle.
Then stitch ON TOP OF those stitches and OUT of the circle.
Stitch over those stitches to end in the center. (IN-OUT-IN)
End in the center of the circle.
From the center point, stitch out and in five more times to create all the whiskers.
End in the middle of the cat’s face.
Finally, stitch out along one of the whiskers and around the head to begin stitching the cat’s body.
Stitch around the cat’s body twice and spiral into the center.
OR be creative here and stitch a flower or other design.
Stitch to the bottom of the oval and stitch two paws.
Stitch to the right or the left to create the tail-a curved line and echo back to the bottom of the cat.
Now that’s one Cool Cat!
Stitch five more Cool Cats and you’ll have a clowder.
Wouldn’t this motif look great along the bottom of a skirt or on a small pillow?
Make the cat much bigger by maintaining the proportions and adding more detail to the cat’s body–add a mouse or a ball of twine and you’ll have a small whole cloth quilt.
Or use The Cool Cat to tie YOUR next quilt. (See Tying Quilts with Free Motion Quilting)
THANKS, BEA
Special thanks to our friend, Bea who provided the idea and inspiration to create The Cool Cat…she was persistent but patient!
Hope you have a ball with this new design!
Lori
PS…All tutorials, information and images are the property of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, Pin or share with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other purposes, please contact me at lckennedy@hotmail.com. Thanks!
