HeartCat2: a Furstory

It all began with one of my favorite photos of my first most-beloved feline partners. The photo sat in my studio for years while I tried to figure out the best tribute to my boy.

I had run it through my favorite app to have a pattern ready…

…but, I kept procrastinating. How complicated a backing? A real quilt? Should I paint something?

Then this WIP took up residence…intended to be a lap quilt inspired by the “Zipper” pattern in one of Modern Quilt Studio’s fantastic books. It was slow going since a certain black cat was, umm, less than helpful 😂

Then, it occurred to me that the never-to-be quilted top could be the perfect background for my boy…

And I began to sculpt it around him (thank God for MistyFuse). After struggling with the layout, I reverted to a more traditional rectangular shape. But…it occurred to me that, instead of fur, I could stitch in some of the story about how GL came to live with us. Hmm. So, first I quilted him separately, stitching in each word…then placed him onto the backing and quilted his furry edges and some lines of his body. This allowed me to keep him more 3-dimensional. As always, creating the eyes was my favorite part :).

Since he was my quilting buddy, I created some “spools” of Aurifil thread and added them, as well as a loose “thread” of Aurifloss (couched on with monofilament).

Finally finished 🎉 ;)…now to create a Furstory for Loki, the Kitten Who Lived (apologies to JK Rowling)!