Two Quilts for the Cat House

Our local animal shelter just put out a request for fabric and/or blankets they could use for cat bedding. I saw the request on Facebook, it was pretty general in nature. Obviously not written by a textile person or a quilt maker. I had to have more details so I called and spoke with one of the few staff members. That was very enlightening. I learned that the bigger dogs they tend to get in our rural shelter usually tear up any stuffed bedding during the nighttime hours. The cats and kittens are another story however. Anyone who has read more than three different quilting blogs knows that cats love quilts. Since about all I've been doing lately has been sewing down binding on human being size quilts I was ready for a change of pace. 

In the end I didn't piece any blocks, just a quilt top and a back. And I started with the back of all things. I had some flannel strips leftover from baby quilts that were nearly the exact length necessary. 

Then I rummaged in the Parts Department and came up with twelve 6" blocks I could sew together just the way they were. Another narrow strip all the way around (I didn't think I had any of that print left!) and the top was the largest size the shelter asked for (20" x 26"). 

It's not this white/bright in person.

I finished it the same way I'd done the doggie bowl placemat: just stacking the three layers, stitching around them, turning and topstitching. I quilted this one myself - which I haven't done in a very long time. Simple stitching in the ditch. I'm hoping the quilt will look better after it's been laundered. It's rather uneven and wavy at the moment. The important thing is it will be soft and cozy for a feline waiting for a new home.

The second quilt for the shelter is one I'd made a while back. I thought at the time it would be a doll's quilt. Regular visitors may recognize it. Turns out it's almost exactly the same size as today's project. 

Again, the picture is whiter/brighter than real life.

Those Broken Dishes blocks are 2.5" each, comprised of the off-cut triangles from making corner triangles out of squares. The piecing is so dense I wasn't sure what to do about quilting. I toyed with the idea of tying it. In the end I left it with James. He was using it as a sewing machine cover for his domestic machine. Then something inspired him to put it on the long-arm today and do large, simple swirls. 😁

It will be interesting to see whether any additional cat quilts come out of the Parts Dept. in the next few days. For the time being though, it's back to the binding...