Spotty Cat Wallhanging - Embroidering, Quilting, and Finishing!

This post will talk about embroidering on the details and quilting the wall-hanging.  I first embroidered the details such as the cat and mouse whiskers, and the french knots for the mouse eyes.  Then I embroidered the mouse tails.  The embroidery was really quite simple just following the directions.

I forgot to get a picture just after the embroidery, so in that last picture you can also see that I put together  the quilt sandwich (tape down backing, then smooth batting over, then center the quilt top on the top and add basting safety pins.).  Once this was done, I began to quilt around the applique shapes, and along the edges of all the pieces.  I did most of this quilting by hand as I found it to be easier to get nice lines around all the little pieces that way.  I used dark red thread for my quilting, with the quilting stitches going all the way through the quilt sandwich.

As I got close to finishing this project, I got so into it a forgot to take pictures after a few steps, so this next picture is actually the finished project.  Quickly, after the quilting was finished, I trimmed off the extra batting and backing nice and close to the quilt top.  Then I prepared my binding (there are some good tutorials about this).  I lined up the raw edges of the double folded binding with the edge of the quilt top and machine stitched it to the back of my quilt with a straight stitch, mitering at the corners.  Next, I carefully folded the binding over to the front and selected an overlock stitch on my sewing machine (it basically goes up 2 straight along the edge of the binding but on the quilt top, then goes over 1 to catch the binding.  I liked the way this stitch worked).  I sewed around the binding with this stitch, mitering the corners and tucking in the end.

So...FINALLLY....here is the finished quilt!!!   I actually finished this a while ago, just kept forgetting to post here.  Next project is another wall-hanging - a blazing star pattern.

 

Spotty Cat Wallhanging - Sewing on the Applique

In this post I will discuss how I sewed on the applique pieces onto the background.  I hand sewed on all my applique for this project, since there were a lot of small pieces and hand sewing them gave me more control.  The strategy I used for sewing these on was to first assemble the pieces on the applique chart and compare to the included picture to make sure I had the order and positioning correct.  Then I moved a few of the pieces in an area onto the background and basted them in place with long stitches of contrasting thread.

I sewed each basted piece to the background and then removed the basting stitches.  For the cats spots, I basted them all on at once, then sewed them on.

Last to be added for the cat were the ears, face, and front paw.  I then painstakingly sewed around the edges of the vines and leaves.

Next post will discuss embroidering on the details, and quilting the wall-hanging.

Spotty Cat Wallhanging - Sewing the Background

To sew the background together, I sewed the narrow maroon strips to the large middle piece.

Next, I sewed on the top and bottom tan strips.

Then, I sewed two corner squares to each tan side strip, and sewed the completed side strips to the sides of the background.

This completes the background.  I then stitched around the edge of the background to help prevent stretching when sewing on the applique pieces.

Next post I will show how I attached the applique to the background.

Spotty Cat Wallhanging

So it's been a little while since I posted, but I've still been crafting away.  I've been working on a kit I bought from MaryMaxim.com, an online craft store.  It is called the Spotty Cat Wall Quilt Kit.  It came with all the materials to make a wallhanging quilt.  The kit looks like this: 

After reading all the instructions (*Tip: always read through all of the instructions for a project first before starting) I cut the included fabric as specified in the instructions.  (*Tip:  Be very careful to double, and even triple check your measurements, as it is easy to make a mistake.  With kits like this you aren't given a lot of extra fabric for mistakes.)

After cutting the fabric for the background, I cut out the paper templates for the applique (Applique is just the term used to describe when you cut a patterned piece of fabric to be sewn on top of a background fabric.)  After cutting the templates out I traced around them on the woolfelt with a chalk pencil and then cut them out.  (*Tip: I cut out all the templates that used one color of woolfelt, and traced and cut them before moving on to the next color.  This method worked well for me.  Also, it is good practice to lay out all the templates on the woolfelt and configure them so there is room for all of the pieces, then start by tracing and cutting the largest piece.)

Next post will show how I sewed together the background of the wallhanging.