Silly Cat!

Willow update: She will sit on flannel, but not quilting cotton. Comfort over beauty. A cat after my own heart!

Silly Willow refused, absolutely refused, to sit on her new window seat cover today. Now, it could be because it is wicked cold outside for Tennessee and the air from the window is cold. It could also be that she is just picky. I vote for the latter.

So, I am going to make a her new cover in flannel with wool batting. This is one spoiled cat.

Willow

First, however, Tallulah gets her cat pad with wool batting. She sleeps in the basement because she attacks Jaspyrr, and it is a little chilly down there. No worries though, she has her own little house that is also covered with blankets. The cats have us trained!

Tallulah

Thermal Cat Pads for this Cold, Cold Winter

It is too cold for November in Tennessee. I am freezing; my cats are freezing. So...I decided I could do something for the cats. Thinking about how to make something that would keep them warm and was not electric, I remembered the mylar rescue blankets I had seen used in the Alps while I was living in Switzerland--light weight and heat reflecting. Suddenly a light bulb went off. I have hoarded  collected various quilting supplies as I was figuring out what I wanted to do with quilting. At one point, in a fit of insanity during a Joann's sale about a year ago, I bought way too much Insul-Bright. I thought I was going to make oven mitts. That never happened. Insul-Bright is also heat reflecting and, best of all, quiltable! Yes! 

So today, when I realized that I had to leave the ugly cat window seat as I was rearranging my quilting space from an office with quilting to quilting room with a laptop, I though AH HA - now is the time to test the thermal cat pad.  

Below is the UGLY and DIRTY cat window seat that Willow loves. I swear to you I vacuum it, but the cover, due to installer (me) error, is not removable. 

To make the thermal cover, I pieced together some Christmas charms I won at my quilt guild meeting  yesterday. Added the batting and just quilted the middle part--two rows of charms--(with fabric that is not my favorite as the backing with Insul-Bright as the batting). Found a baby crib tutorial on YouTube, cut 2 1/2 inch corner pieces out of the sides to made it rounded--watch the tutorial--it will make sense then, sewed a channel, added elastic and VOILA!--non-electric thermal cat pad.

I used it to practice free motion quilting. The cats won't care. Here is the back - the Insul-Bright is under the quilted part.

The front before putting over the old dirty cat bed. Yes, I know the dirt is just hidden, but it looks so much nicer.

In the interests of full disclosure, Willow refuses to sit on the thermal cat pad. She just doesn't know how warm it will be. She is upset by the entire furniture-moving-around day, so I will see what tomorrow brings.

Quilted Cat Pads

While I realize it may be a little strange to title a post "quilted cat pads," I have made a cat pad with leftover cutouts from another project. I made the cat pad because one of my cats, Willow, loves to sit with me while I quilt. The problem is that she sits ON whatever it is I am quilting. If you know anything about cats, you will see that Willow is NOT happy about me nudging her off the quilt.

Talk about tiny stitches when you are trying to quilt with an 11-pound cat on your quilt. Because she is normally a very sweet cat, I decided to make her a cat pad. It had to be quilted because she only sits on the quilted parts--a picky cat.

At first, she didn't seem that enthused about her own quilt, but seems to have warmed up to it. I will really see if it is going to work when I quilt another largish quilt on my machine and stretch it out across the table.  Below are two photos, unfortunately on a cloudy day, of the cat pad--based on monochromatic napkins designed by Rachel of Stitched on Color for her color theory class. I learned a lot in that class! I love these colors and have to get back to my LQS to buy some more fabric before it is gone. Once I buy more, I will post the fabric information.

Jaspyrr just totally ignored the quilt, so it is a good thing I didn't make him one! Please ignore the weeds in the photo. I really have to get out there and plant some catnip or something prettier.

Tallulah, on the other hand, wanted to make the quilt her own. I guess she gets the next quilted cat pad.