Cat Quilt Update

Cat Quilt with applique and border

This project has stagnated because I got it to a point where I was really happy with how it was turning out and was scared to work on the next step incase I did something wrong.

I bit the bullet today and slowly added the next few items. It has been a very hot day so I took a lot of breaks and was able to step back and think a lot about what I was doing.

First I added a 2" border around my centre patchwork. I am aiming to get this to approximately a 50" step. Then when I began procrastinating about adding the next border (incase I make a mistake and ruin my work...) I decided to finally sew my circular centre-piece.

I have also been having a think about how I am going to quilt this monster. I've thought everything from stitch in the ditch to something simple like a square crosshatch, but with the centre circle left unquilted with perhaps just a line 1/4" in from the seam... to even doing some kind of stipple involving cats or paw prints.

I am also thinking about getting this professionally quilted and there was a list of machine quilters in my area on the back of one of the pamphlets I picked up from the Quilters Guilde yesterday. There is one in particular that has a website and did several pieces that I physically saw at the quilt fair, so I am thinking of enquiring into what she would recommend and estimate I would be up around $70-100 for her professional quilting. It would make it a bit more expensive than I would have liked, however it would save me the stress of quilting this before Christmas.

If you are in South Australia, there is a link in the side menu to a map of long arm quilters in our area. Or if you are from other places or know of other quilters I have left it open to collaboration. All you need is a google account and you can add to the map to make it a great reference for everyone. Do you think we should add quilt stores and guilds as well? It can be colour co-ordinated with different labels, so I am thinking it may have potential to be a fantastic reference for stores and services.