Rainbow cats finished quilt

I had actually decided what I was going to do for this graduation quilt last year, before I had EQ, but I used EQ8 to help me figure out how many blocks to do and the borders.  I knew I was going to use muli colored cats, but I kept them blue for the ease of design.

 

The beauty of EQ8 is that I used it to tell me how much fabric I needed for the borders (I, of course bought a little extra just to make sure), but it was nice that I didn't have to do the math of figuring out how much I needed.  The program did it for me!

Generally I try use as much stuff at home as I can, but we are in the process of moving, so most of my fabric is packed! So I did have to buy some to finish the borders.  But I am glad I did, because I found some CUTE cat fabric.

Here is the finished top! I don't know if you can tell, but the outside border is rainbow cat prints!

I just did a simple meander in grey.  With a wide flannel grey back (which I did not get a picture of).  Wide back fabrics are definitely favorite for quilt backs, although soon I will have to sew them together to use as a backing for a scrappy quilts!

And here is the finished quilt! I am so happy with how it turned out!  And the recipient liked it too, which is all that matters!

Rainbow cats 6

Here is a little time lapse of me putting together one of the kitties.  You can see I have some help from Minnie :) I love doing time lapses like this.  Makes me feel a lot faster than I am ;)

 The grey kitty was the last one I had to make.  Ideally I would have liked to make 3 more, to make it just a little wider.  BUT I just didn't have the time. I was on a time crunch to get this quilt done for a high school graduation.

But I actually think it works the way it is, because the young man this is for, I made a quilt similarly with HSTs & 2.5" squares for his sister (here), and hers had 12 blocks, 3x4.  So while it's not quite as wide as I would have liked, it kid of keeps a theme for the family of graduation quilts.  I will use borders to help make it a little wider.

I am happy with the colors I picked.  And while I would have rather just had one of each color, I don't know what other colors I would have done if I only had one green!

One of the things I thought about after putting it up on the design wall, was that I should have made some of the kitties face different directions!

Rainbow Cats 5

I ended up making 3 green cats, I am not sure why.  Green isn't even the fabric I have the most color of (blue is!). I decided to make the brown kitty even though I don't have a lot of brown fabrics (you can see the amount of repeats in this), but I thought it looked the most like a real kitty.

These have definitely been a scrap buster, but I still have so many scraps left!

Rainbow Cats 4

 I was trying to decide which other colors to use.  While I don't have a lot of yellow, I thought it would look nice.  And even though this quilt is for a young man, I didn't think a pink kitty would be too out of place.

The pink one is definitely one where cutting down fabric can change its look.  If you look at the top left ear, it almost looks blue, because the pink fabric had blue flowers on it.  so when that one was cut and sewn back together it definitely changed the look!  It adds some character!

Rainbow Cats 3

I mentioned that orange was tough because I didn't have a lot of orange.  But I have plenty of purple! I love the purple kitties.  A kitty in a kitty.  The red one was fun to do.  I included dark and light things.

Making the kitties has helped me cut up a lot of my scraps.  I am using my accuquilt to help.  Things that are too small to be put on boards I cut up into scraps with my accuquilt.  

 

Rainbow cats 2

Here are two more kitties finished.  The orange was probably the most difficult for me.  I just don't have a lot of orange fabric.  Nothing against it.  I just don't have a lot.

I love using my accuquilt for the HSTs they go together SO quickly, and I have a large pile of them, some with black and colors and others that are neutral and colors, and even lights and darks.  I have so many ideas of quilts to make with them!

One quilt at a time though.  I need to finish the kitties.  I haven't decided how many there will be.