String Quilt Cat Mat - Easy Street Parking Lot!

Way back in January, I mentioned that I had plans to do a project with the scraps from my Easy Street Quilt, the online 2012 Mystery Quilt over at Quiltville.  However,  I woke up planning to do a machining project, and instead ended up with ALL my patchwork and quilting fabric out of my cupboard.  I had decided to reorganised my fabric stash. Several months down the line, I have revisited my original plans, and this week have produced a lovely new Cat Mat, which I am calling “The Easy Street - the Parking Lot”. 


String Quilt, Easy Street - The Parking Lot

In Bonnie K Hunter's book 'String Fling', she introduces her scrap user system, and a technique of using pages from an old telephone book as the foundation for stitching small scrap fabrics.  This was the technique I wanted to try out, but as my paper alternative, I had put aside the Christmas edition of the Radio Times, which by removing the centre staples has given me a double width of paper to stitch.  It has also highlighted to me how much of the Christmas period I spent on the Easy Street Quilt – I don’t  think I watched any TV!

2012 Christmas Edition Radio Times - String Foundation Piecing

I did do a rough design in my Electric Quilt software, but I haven’t followed it slavishly, and instead have used my usual technique of muddling through trying to get everything the right size.  My colour scheme for Easy Street Quilt was Purple, Red and Green, with a Tan background, and most of my leftover scraps are pretty small, so my paper strips are only 3” wide. 

Easy Street Quilt Scraps

Sewing the strips was easy on the machine, and I managed to get a production line going. I found it was better to remove the paper before tidying up the edges, as once cut, the stitching seam was not as strong to resist the ripping of the paper. 

String Foundation Piecing

As regular Followers will know, most of my work lately has focussed on hand stitching my Nearly Insane Quilt, so it seems like an age since I sat down at the machine (Note To Self: I really do need to set up a Leaders and Enders project, especially if Bonnie rolls out another Mystery Quilt at the end of the year!)  For the quarter square triangles, I tried to use the clever technique I used on my Broken Dishes Cat Mat, but my scrap pieces were too small and I had to cobble most of them together in a more ‘traditional’ method. 
Eventually, the quilt top came together, and was ready for quilting.  I had some scrap polyester wadding to use, and I still had plenty of the Kansas Troubles 'Bound to the Prairie' fabric which I used for the backing on my Irish Chain Quilt, which I have used for the backing. Up close it is a lovely little print, but from a distance it looks like a murky porridge – however, murky porridge is good for hiding any less refined stitching when machine quilting…

Quilt Sandwich being Machine Quilted

My actual Easy Street Quilt has yet to be quilted, and part of this project was to gain some strength experience of machine quilting to tackle this large project.  I was recently inspired by a little quilting video tutorial on the Green Fairy Quilts blog, by Judi Madsen, which although aimed at long arm quilting, highlighted to me the importance of marking your quilt, and planning the design head.  Also, I decided to abandon the worry of getting the tension right for free machine quilting, and stuck with using my straight stitch with the feed dogs up.   I went for a simple channels of stitching in the squares, rotating it by 90 degrees on each quarter. 

Quilt Detail

I think for this little quilt, the quilting has worked well, and enhances the pattern nicely – just as it should be.   This cat mat is only about 20 inches square, but manoeuvring it on my domestic machine was not as easy as you would want it to be, which makes me think – how realistic is it going to be to get the full size Easy Street Quilt under it?  I think I need to sit down and work out a design, and be realistic about how long it is going to take.  One assumes that using a machine means it will be quick, but I think on this occasion, I need to put that assumption to one side.

To finish it off, I pieced together some binding from the scraps, machine stitching it on the back, and hand sewing it on the front. 

Suzi the Cat on the new Cat Mat

I am really pleased with how it has turned out, but think I have enough projects in this colour combination for now.  It did reduce the scraps, but there are still plenty more.

The good news is, the Quality Control Department has already signed it off.

Featuring Feline Friday and Crazy Mom Quilts!

Broken Dishes Quilt - Cat Mat

Finding useful opportunities for expressing your quilting creativity is sometimes a challenge.  I love making full size quilts, but the backlog of quilt tops that need quilting in my cupboard is a reminder that large projects are not always the most appropriate project to launch into.  A Mug Rug is fun, but to the other extreme, as they can be small and fiddly.  The alternative - the Cat Mat.


Sparky the Cat on Broken Dishes Cat Mat

This is Sparky the cat modelling my most recent Cat Mat using the Broken Dishes quilt block pattern.  I enjoy making this size project as I find that the size of a Cat Mat offers more scope to test out new quilting patterns, and to practice some different machine quilting techniques.  Best of all they actually get used, all day, every day, by the cats, as they are placed in strategic places around the house.  Also, they can be thrown into the washer easily.
This particular project used 5" batik charm squares in a mix of yellow, orange, red, pink and purple. The mat finishes up 18" square, with the finished quarter square triangles being 3.5". To create the contrast that builds up the Broken Dishes pattern, I made up some quarter square triangles, pairing up light and dark squares, front sides together.  I then marked a diagonal cross on the lighter fabric, as a guide for sewing.  The dashed lines on the diagram show where I machine stitched the two squares together with a 1/4 " seam allowance, the solid line shows where I cut them, once stitched on the machine.

Quarter Square Triangle Unit

Once sewn and cut, you have sets of light / dark triangles, which then need to be paired up into the squares, which can be seen on the far right of this picture.


Quarter Square Triangles - half way through!

With the squares complete, plan the layout, making sure the lights and darks are next to each other throughout.  I find that taking a picture on my iPhone or iPad at this stage is a useful reminder of the layout, as once I start lifting up the pieces for sewing on the machine the blocks easily get mixed up!

Broken Dishes Quilt Pattern Layout 

For this mat, I backed it with a red fabric, which I cut larger than the final size, so that the backing fabric could be brought forward onto the front for the binding, which I machined in place, after I had quilted the mat. As I said before, these mats are ideal for improving your free machine quilting techniques, and on this one I filled the darker triangles up with a smooth zig-zag pattern, which followed the graduating shape of the triangle.  


Broken Dishes Quilt - Backing and Binding

I love the Broken Dishes pattern.  I think it is especially great for using up scrap fabrics, the pattern is quite dynamic, and I particularly like quilts which have the same repetitive pattern throughout.  I don't profess to be ther greatest machine quilter, and I have had no complaints about the quilting so far, but then Sparky's eyesight is not too great ...

 

Joining up with Feline Friday at Sarah Did It, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Sew Many Ways today