I have a cat’s tale to share with you today, a DrEAMi project that was a fun diversion for a day. Of course, you can see by the above photo that I had help. More on that in a bit.
If you’re not familiar with DrEAMi, it’s a fun acronym and linky party created by Sandra of MMMQuilts. DrEAMi stands for Drop Everything and Make It. You know those projects that come along, when you just have to push everything else aside and work on that one? That’s a DrEAMi project, also known as a “squirrel”. Sandra hosts a linky party at the end of each month – you can read more about that here. Feel free to join in the fun – we love to see what the squirrels are up to in your quilt room!
This little DrEAMi project happened because I decided to drive over to a local quilt shop this week. It is the season of the Minnesota Shop Hop, a statewide annual shop hop with several quilts shops participating across the state. I was in the mood to go for a drive, and the shop hop seemed like a good excuse, so off I went. While at one of the shops, I came across a book in their clearance section that had several fall/Halloween designs. I’m not much into Halloween decor, but there was this cute cat table runner. I bought the book, came home, and got to work.
The first step, after gathering the fabric, was tracing the appliqué onto fusible. I soon had more help than I needed . . .
You can imagine that all that crackly paper was far too tempting to leave alone. While I was cutting out one piece, Wilbs was playing with the others. He had to look under, then crunch it a bit. Finally he thought he’d just sit on it and keep it in place for me.
So much help! I suppose he had every right to be excited about the project, since it involved cats.
This cute little runner, measuring 11.5″ x 40″ was designed by Disa Designs. I cannot find a website for the company any longer, but it appears that some of her patterns are still available through a few stores online.
While this runner was easy to make, there were so many errors in the instructions. The cutting instructions for the background fabric was off by an inch in the width. Thankfully I had enough of the fabric to cut a second, and I still had enough for the backing and binding. Phew. The rest of the errors were minor, but would be confusing to a beginner quilter.
All that being said, I still enjoyed making this runner. Once I had the appliqué fused, I stitched around them with a zig-zag stitch, nothing fancy. I cheated and marked in the teeth with a Pigma marking pen (I didn’t feel like hand stitching the teeth.) For the quilting, I just did a random angled meander with my walking foot. The thread I used matched so well I had trouble seeing where I had sewn and where I hadn’t! Here’s a closer photo:
I was attempting to make it look like cat scratches. While I’m not sure I accomplished that, since I’m keeping this, it works for me. Here’s a close up of the cat.
That’s my cat’s tale of how I enjoyed a DrEAMi project and have one more quilt ready for fall!
I’m linking up today with:
- TGIFF
- MMMQuilts (at end of the month)
- Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
- Sherry at Powered by Quilting
- Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty
- Off the Wall Friday at Creations – Quilts, Art, Whatever
- Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More
Thanks for stopping by!
Wendy
Cute runner! And your FMQ looks great. It definitely gives a cat scratch vibe. Wilbur is such a good helper – ha!
A great runner for halloween! The quilting is perfect for this runner. What a wonderful helper you have.
I love the look of those cats! Especially the grin – lol! Your angled meander quilting looks great. I suppose Wilbs will enjoy it as a bed when you put it on a table?
I just Googled the designer and found a post about her on Fat Quarter Shop blog back in 2012. Apparently she is from Iceland. My favorite part of your post of course is Wilbs’ presence. 😀
Super cute, Wendy!!
So cute! What character that runner has!
ahh what a cute cat!
It’s perfect for Halloween. And perfect for your house, give Wilbs some competition, LOL. I love the background quilting, it’s just right for this runner.
Well, that is just downright adorable. No wonder Wilbur wanted to help.
That’s so fun, Wendy! The perfect DrEAMi for you! I really like your quilting – trying to look at it up close to see if I could pull that off. Wilbur is probably wondering who these two interlopers are that are invading his space!
I love it when walking foot quilting is involved…your ‘random angled meander’ is an idea I’m adding to my toolbox for sure. It came out great!
Fun project and a great table topper for Halloween! I love the way that you quilted it…fits the character well! 🙂
Excellent cat’s tale! I love the quilting … you did a fabulous job. Also, the cat’s teeth was handled perfectly….I might even go over that with a fancy triple stitch on my machine, but why bother when it looks so perfect.
What a great helper Wilbs is! I like the big cat smiles and the quilting is wonderful. Did you find any fabric at the LQS?
What cat could resist those crinkling noises, especially when the pieces are being used to make cats! 🙂 And oh wow, what a big cutting error in the instructions. I’m glad you had enough fabric to make it right.
Very cute Cheshire cat! Sadly, I’ve found that a lot of patterns are poorly written. Good thing you were able to save the project! And of he loved the crinkly paper. It makes such great noises!
Sew cute!! Hugs,
Oh my gosh I love this piece and I love all the help that Wilbs gave (laughed so much at the photo of him under the paper)!!! I do think the quilting looks like scratch marks!!! Well done you!!!
So impressed you were able to capture a photo of Wilbs’s tail. Perfect intro photo for your Halloween table runner. What would we do without studio cats to keep our projects secure?
The cats remind me of Cheshire Cats. I like the idea of DrEAMi projects but l never find time to finish them. Sometimes I get misguided instructions too. I always enjoy your posts and helpful info.
What fun! And having a kitty helper makes it even better.
That cat runner is so darn cute, and I really enjoyed the pics of Wilbs helping with this project. He’s quite the character!
Oh this is so cute! Both the runner and Wilbs being all involved… Cats just love the quilt process from start to finish don’t they? What is not cute is finding errors, both grave and small, so I am glad you were able to cut a second background and get past the other mistakes to end up with a sweet addition to the fall décor!
That’s a very cute DrEAMI! Nice that Wilbs helped you – it’s very fitting! 🙂
This is just such a good DrEAMi, as everyone agrees, Wendy!!! Fun to hear about your shop hopping!
Oh that is adorable!! and your helper… quite the helper haha – glad he didnt take off with any of your pieces 😉
A delightfully fun runner, and nice to have a one-day DrEAMi! Great idea with the quilting – I think the cat scratches work well!