For me, this year's Japanese summer will be remembered as the tessellating cats in the sauna.I don't know when my sewing room has been so uncomfortable! No air conditioning up there and I was afraid to turn on the small electric fan because I was already having problems keeping all the little squares and triangles organized! So I just sewed and dripped.
Tessellating Cats doesn't have a border yet and there is still a lot of handwork to do (embroider eyes and whiskers on all these cats!) but the main THINKING part is done. All my cats are up there in bright cheerful colors!
I could have given a bit more consideration to my color choices... I thought I HAD! I planned this out but I see I could have pondered a bit longer. The purple cat is made of two colors and the darker triangles get lost next to the black. On the other side the yellow-pink cat got too mixed up with the yellow background. And here I thought I was doing so well putting it in the middle of the quilt... Ah well... That yellow by the way has tiny little mice on it with cheese blocks? Hmm. I guess that's what those are trying to be. I doubt that anyone is ever going to look that closely at this quilt but I liked the idea of the cats being surrounded by mice... See... I did give this quilt a lot of thought.I'm proud of myself for getting this done fairly quickly and for being so adventurous in using brights. Many of these are from way back when the Calico Cat sent me some of her bright left overs. And I'm proud of myself for not giving into the temptation to chuck it all and go take a nap in front of the downstairs air conditioning!
Work starts for me tomorrow again... Even though Tessellating Cats isn't finished I'm ready to start something new... (Can you see more UFO's piling up?)
11 comments:
Love the cats and fabric choices, perhaps some day we will both be in California at the same time. I enjoyed the Long Beach show last year, but missed it this year. I have you listed on my blog at oregonquilt.blogspot.com
I really love this little quilt Tanya, and may I say you're the most dedicated quilter ever....when it's that hot I don't think I could be touching fabric!
The cats look terrific--I don't see what you're seeing, but that's typical of maker vs viewer, isn't it? Sorry this project had to take place in a sauna! The curvy tails are wonderful and I like your mix of colors, truly.
That is a FANTASTIC quilt !! I have looked and looked for the pattern with no luck ... lots of variations but not that one. It is perfect for my DGD ... she loves kitties and optical illusions. So please where did you find it?
I believe your color choices are grand, it looks great from here! Well done~
It has been a really hot summer. You have made great progress on your quilt, and I think you deserve to start another quilt.
I like your cat quilt and your color choices. The mouse/cheese fabric comes under the heading of "whimsical" and adds a nice touch.
I think you need a small AC for your sewing room. Just a little 5000 BTU window unit would be plenty big enough. I was looking online earlier this summer and saw some that were called "mini" units so they'll fit in any size window. I have no idea what would be available in Japan. I just hate to think of you roasting and sweating away while you try to sew.
Your dedication paid off. This little quilt is WONDERFUL! You are being too hard on yourself...it looks amazing. I fear I would run away from a pattern like this, and I admire you for taking it on and producing a really nice quilt. And under such hot circumstances. Great job!
I ADORE this quilt, and I'm neither a quilter nor a seamstress. I stumbled on your blog quite by accident looking for 'kitty straight jacket' as I have a little girl who's a terror to take care of and she has a "condition". LOL I'm captivated by your kitties, your descriptions of your life in Japan, and your wonderful blog. I never understood why people would "follow" a blog. Now I do. Thank you!
I agree with everyone above, this is an absolutely wonderful quilt! I would love to make one like it for my husband and our 3 cats, but am not very advanced quilter. Do you think you could offer any advice to help me?
In 1993 I came up with a design for a cat quilt. At that time I had a white cat with one blue eye and one gold eye and a kink in her tail. Her name was "Pearl" so the quilt is called "Pearl and Friends". The trouble with my design was that each row of cats was two cm to rhe right so side edges did not line up.
Your design seems a bit more user friendly. I wonder what my dog would say if I started another cat quilt?
Julie Fukuda
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