My Scrappy Cat table runner used up a fair amount of the scraps I had left over from making a larger quilt that I will share in the future, but there were still so many scraps left. Since I love the way the fabrics look together, I wasn’t quite ready to split them up by color and relegate them to my scrap boxes. I knew I could get at least one more project out of them. I liked the way the table runner turned out and how cheerful it looked in the kitchen, so I decided to make something similar for the kitchen island. Rather than doing a long runner, though, as I would usually do, I decided to mix things up a bit.
Using the pattern for a block named “Memory” from Quilter’s Mix and Match Blocks, I made four blocks, each measuring approximately 12 inches. I used the cats as the focal point, placing them in the center of the block. As I was dealing with scraps and wasn’t paying close enough attention as I was fussy cutting, the cats did not end up exactly in the center of each square. I shrugged this off, knowing from experience as a cat owner that cats are often found where they shouldn’t be, and let them be off-center. (Note the photo of Belle. She’s on the kitchen table, where she doesn’t belong, daring me to tell her to move.)
I used the Folded Corner Clipper by Creative Grids, a very helpful tool that I just had to purchase after seeing it demonstrated at InterQuilten in Traverse City, Michigan. No more drawing sewing lines on fabric squares when making flying geese blocks or when adding a triangle to a corner? Sign me up. It also eliminates the need to cut off the extra bits after sewing AND gives you two leftover triangles that are more useful as the edges are nice and neat.
Not to waste the perfectly good opportunity that was presented when I trimmed off all those little triangles, I sewed them up as I was sewing the blocks for my project and they’ll be perfect for some other project someday. (See photo below. Aren’t they adorable?)
As I’m still attempting to purge more batting, I found a piece in my scraps that was just the right size for my project. Yea! For quilting, I’m using both white thread and the bright pink I used for the Scrappy Cat table runner. Check back soon to see the finished project!
Lazy Saturday Quilts 