Cat and Candles

[catlinyemaker]

Progress has been made on the bottom set of blocks for the Christmas Village quilt. The center block (three candles in the window) is done but for pressing and trimming. Believe it or not, the greenery around the candle bases is four separate pieces sewn overlapping each other. It turned out great – even I can’t tell where the joins are without looking at it from the side so I can see the fabric edges.

The candles were lined with muslin to keep the white pristine against the dark background, and that let me do some fancy stuff at their tops. The flames are from a wild orange-yellow-white-red piece of fabric that’s been in the stash forever. I don’t even know why I bought it; it’s definitely not my thing. It was perfect for those candle flames, though.

While J was out hiking with friends, I spent Sunday afternoon working on the shading for the cushion in the left-side cat block, and also adding a little shading to the Christmas ornament because it looked too flat at first. The cushion was done with the same oil pastel technique as for the curtains, but I blended colors instead of using one dark shade and used vellum graph paper instead of masking tape. It took a little longer because I had to be careful placing the template and then making sure that it didn’t shift, but after a couple of test runs, that turned out good too.

Once the applique is done in the left-side block, just an inch of red curtain down the left side will finish it off. After that, it’ll be time to decide which kitty gets to claim the right-side cushion.

I’m hoping to finish these last three blocks for the center of this quilt in the coming week. Then comes pulling fabrics and piecing the houses for the border. I’m excited!

Check out Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday to see the exciting projects other quilters are hard at work on.

Comments

Kitty and Ornament

[jean-sophie wood (from livejournal.com)]

I love the idea of a kitty playing with an ornament ... and long as it's not one of my kitties or ornaments ;-)

The candles look great!

Re: Kitty and Ornament

[catlinye-maker.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's pretty true to life for us; since we have Lilibelle we don't really do a Christmas tree, because in her eyes anything that's not nailed down is obviously a cat toy. I put up the tree (small, artificial) the first year she was with us and she chewed the (plastic) bulbs off the lights!! So that was the end of that.

Re: Kitty and Ornament

[jean-sophie wood (from livejournal.com)]

I haven't had a Christmas Tree since the first one when the cats were kittens. It was artificial, but they felt compelled to climb it anyway ... and play with ornaments.

Re: Kitty and Ornament

[catlinye-maker.livejournal.com]

When we had a house we used to get fresh blue spruce Christmas trees at the you-cut-it farms. One, because I love them and think they're by far the prettiest of the trees grown for Christmas, and two, because they're so prickly and nasty sharp (seriously - you need gloves to string the lights) that the cats would try once to climb/attack them and give up ever after.

Worked great. Someone always claimed the undertree spot as a napping zone, but none of the cats messed with the tree itself more than once.