Primitive Funky Cats Table Runner

I had started making some cat applique blocks (Alley Cat Tales Primitives Never Enough Cats pattern) with the idea I would make it into a table runner. I had stitched around most of the applique parts, when I got an email from a blog friend & customer of mine who wanted a Spring table runner. She was thinking of stars. I mentioned to her I was in the process of making a cat runner (she is a lover of cats) and I would send her some photos in progress. Well that was it, she said forget the stars she wanted the cats! LOL!!!

I then asked her about the other colors and made some fabric suggestions to the triangle color and the 4-patch colors. I made one 4-patch and selected some fabrics I thought would look good. One was a pink print, but she didn't want the pink. Anyhow, she did like the stripe fabric and the 4-patch and so I took it from there and put it together and quilted it. I knew if this runner made me smile, she would be beaming with delight when she got it. I did enjoy making this, especially the cats. I might just have to make another one some day, but in different colors. It always feels good when something I make goes to a good home.

To give the cats a bit of individual purrsonality, I placed their eyes each a bit differently and gave them each a different mouth too. I also wanted to place the cats each heading in a different direction to add more to the wonky, funky feeling as well.

Primitive Funky Cats Table Runner.

Since the cat blocks were not square, I had to add a strip on one side to make them square so the setting would fit correctly. I like how it looks, so it turned out to be a happy accident. 

I saw a setting similar to this online on a different table runner and liked it, so I decided to give it a try. 

Straight quilting in the triangle areas and free motion quilting on the rest.

Each cat's eyes are a bit different in placement. This one is horizontal.

This cat has diagonal eyes, angling in.

This one has vertical eyes. I didn't quilt on the cats, just around them. I wanted the cats to puff out a bit.

This cat has diagonal eyes angling out like a Siamese. As careful as I am when I photograph black or dark fabric, those dang littl lint monsters come out and just throw themselves onto my dark fabric!!! I can never see them in my camera or my naked eye because they are so sneaky and fast! But there they are once I load my photos. One day I will defeat you little lint monsters!

I took this photo to show how it might look with the pink fabric for the triangles. The pink fabric picked up the pink in the cat noses and the pink in the floral print of the 4-patches too. But it would have been a lot of pink, so I think the blue-green stripe that was chosen was the right choice.

I borrowed my daughter's oval table to photograph the runner on a real table.

Fits just right on my daughter's oval table. Now I can see how it looks on a table.

Pin It Now!

(MIY) Make it Yours Bag & Cat Fabric Folder

I finally got around to making the Make it Yours Bag (MIY), designed by my blog friend, Rochelle of eSheep Designs. I had liked this bag for a long time. It is a free pattern on Bluprint (formally Craftsy). As I was making it, I truly did make it my own! I make a lot of changes as I usually do anyhow. I will explain them under each photo.

Fanny Is here modeling the MIY Bag and to show the size of the bag.

I had this cute black cat fabric and thought it would look great as a bag. I paired it with some large polka dots and a lime green for the straps. I quilted it in wavy lines. I used a foam stabilizer so the bag stand up nicely. I added straps tabs and rivets too both the tabs and the straps.

On the back of the bag I added a zippered pocket. Rochelle does tell you to add whatever pockets you want to inside or out. I thought about adding this zippered pocket on an angle and then decided to just make it as I normally do. You might also notice the shape of my bag is a bit different too. Well I will explain. I started out making the non-pleated version and adding a gusset. But when I added the gusset, I didn't really care for how it looked. Maybe it would have looked better had I gone for the pleated version? So I ripped the gusset off the bag and boxed the corners instead. Since this bag shape was slightly curved, it was a bit different to box the corners on a curve. Well it didn't stop me, lol! So the bag has a bit of a curve that goes into a square boxed bottom. Well Rochelle, you did say to Make it Yours!

Handmade zipper pull I made.

Inside I added another zippered pocket. Apparently I didn't see that little black thread at the top!

On the other side I added a small slip pocket and divided a pen pocket in it. The bag closes with a magnetic snap.

On to the Folder~
I wanted to make an applique pocket for the inside of the MIY bag above, but it ended up being too large of a pocket, especially after the changes I made to the bag. So I decided to make one of my fabric folders (my own pattern) and put this applique cat pocket onto the front of the folder. So I just added another thing you can add to my folder pattern: a pocket outside! See I even make changes on my own patterns, lol!!! You can find the pattern to make a Patchwork or Applique fabric Folder on Makerist, as well as all my patterns there (some are free).

Applique Cat from Alley Tales Primitives: Never Enough Cats pattern. As you can see I used the same fabrics as the MIY Bag above.

Not enough fabric to make the diagonal pocket, so I pieced it together first.

The back of the folder also has a pieced strip. I quilted the folder as well.

Note: Remember this applique cat as you will be seeing more of them in a different project that I made recently too.
Pin It Now!