My third quilt is finished.

Well, I am moving right along. This is the first quilt that I am giving away. When I was with my Aunt C. in Virginia for Thanksgiving we went to a quilting store (Quilter's Corner). She picked out the kitty cat fabric. (She likes cats and her favorite color is red.) I promised she would be the first person I give a quilt to, since she gifted me my Pfaff sewing machine!

 I think it turned out nicely. Below is close up picture of the fabric she picked out. I picked out the rest of the fabric to go with it.



I used a pattern that we got from the same quilting store. I changed it up a bit and used black for red and red for black. I also made the inner border black and the outer border the print.



 This is what it looks like on the back:

 My favorite back fabric was the "Meowsterpiece" from Michael Miller fabrics: 

And, I put my signature Wizard of Oz scraps on the back, as well as some ants, because she is my "ant." (It's an inside joke with us.)

Below I was getting ready to spray baste it on my design wall. I use tons of newspaper to make sure nothing else gets sticky!

I did a stippling (about an inch) all over the quilt.

I foresaw that the black thread was going to definitely show up on the white on white print, but I went with black because most of the rest of the quilt it would be unnoticeable. I just tried to make sure that I did not stop in the white, although as you can see in the photo directly above I stopped and the quilt moved before the needle went back to the down position. I left it in as a reminder that I did the quilting myself and I am just an amateur :) Besides, I think it gives it some character and reflects my hard work and how difficult it was.

I feel like I get better and better at it as I go along. The FMQ is starting to feel more natural. I owe a ton to Leah Day for her stippling quilt alongs at the Free Motion Quilting Project!

As you can see, it truly is a kitty quilt. For some reason, Mitch (kitty) loves cotton batting and finished quilts. If there is one in the room, he has to lay on it :) He likes to lay in the kitchen a lot, so I think I may make a mini quilt just for him. Right now, he lays on the rug or towels that we dry our feet on when it's wet outside.

Now I am working on a quilt for my mother, but I have also been dabbling a bit in a Block of the Month project from Craftsy. It was a free online course that is supposed to teach you several basic piecing techniques. I thought it was a good idea since I mostly sew rectangles and triangles together and I need to expand my abilities. I've never done anything like a Bee or BOM.

Until next time...

Mike.