Quilty Pleasures Wednesday: A Cat and a Quilt

What is it about quilts and cats? It seems that no matter where I place a quilt, Miss Bonnie the Cat finds it and plunks herself right down.

Case in point- The Aunt Martha Quilt: My dad's aunt Martha passed away at a ripe old age and her nieces and nephews received inheritance checks, around $140 dollars each. I was one of the beneficiaries and knew instantly how I would use the money: to make a floral quilt since Aunt Martha was a talented painter of flowers. We have some china pieces with the most delicate flowers painted on them and I have always admired her steady hand and artistic vision. A zillion floral fabrics later, the Aunt Martha quilt was almost complete.

As soon as I sat down on the couch to sew on the binding, up hopped The Bon, and she would not budge for anything! Now the quilt is on the bed, and I can reasonably expect to see her sacked out upstairs in her field of flowers at almost any time of the day.

The quilt top was fun to make, using a center strip of yellow, adding random width strips to either side of the center on a square muslin base. I bought up all the florals I could find and went to town. Nothing was planned. I would just reach into the bag to pull out a strip and that's what I would sew. I laid out the blocks and sewed them together. You can click on the photo to get a closer view.

The borders were just as random. I added a yellow border strip to echo the strips on the top, then added a piano key border using leftover strips. From there I decided to add a wider braided border, a punchy green strip and then an all over flower print to finish. Totally random and totally fun!

The quilt's backing was constructed of large pieces of floral prints I had stashed away.  Altogether, I am happy with the Aunt Martha quilt. It's like I'm sleeping under a field of flowers....and a cat.