I’m feeling good about checking off this item on my
Make Nine 2020 list. It's because it's my
Charity project goal. I finished this stack of 12 kitty quilts for the
Cat Clinic of Chattanooga during shelter in place.
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| Make Nine 2020 Charity project: 12 kitty quilts. One for each month of the year. |
Early in March, when the Coronavirus quarantine went into effect, I needed a purposeful project to counteract all the upheaval and uncertainty in the world. Improv patchwork and running fabric scraps and orphan quilt blocks through the sewing machine was good medicine.
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| Improv patchwork kitty quilt with scraps and fabric samples. |
There is little precision required for improv patchwork and the 25” x 29” size of these quilts made this project achievable. I felt productive and useful with each little pieced top.
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| Flannel samples were strip pieced for this quilt. |
Scraps, a leftover border print and a Christmas panel were all transformed into useful objects.
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| Charity quilt from a holiday fabric panel. |
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| Charity quilt using a border print remnant. |
It was satisfying to use up orphan and test blocks such as the star block in this quilt...
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A single star test block and strip set cut-offs assembled into a quilt top.
(I rather like how this quilt turned out.) |
... and several technique test samples—curved piecing, random string inserts, a paper pieced star and leftover strip stratas—that were languishing in the fabric stash.
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| Several technique samples are combined. |
These four quilt blocks were from a block swap. They seemed to shelter in place for 11 years... until now.
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| Four 9" blocks from a block swap. |
Making these quilts also gave me the opportunity to practice free-motion quilting and test new quilting designs.
Hooray for a learning opportunity!
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| Detail of back side showing the free-motion quilting of radiating petals. |
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| Free-motion feathers. |
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| Free-motion leaves. |
Several of the kitty quilts have cat fabric prints on the back.
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| Cat prints for the quilt backs. |
Some backs are pieced.
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| Patchwork backs. |
Bindings were done by machine and a good use for leftover 2.5" precut strips.
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| Bindings by machine. |
When our city reopens and the Cat Clinic is open to visitors, these little quilts will get delivered to the cats and kitties.
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| 12 kitty quilts going to the Cat Clinic soon! |
Four other items from my Make Nine list are in progress so I feel I'm on track this year.
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| Make Nine Challenge goals for 2020. |
