Christmas in August with Benartex

Just to let you know: I am NOT a cat person, but this collection called Cat-i-tude is so gorgeous, I just may have to make an exception. What do you think of the main panel? As you can see, each of the six frisky cats is a good size to become the center of an awesome block. And, from what I know about cats, they ALWAYS like to be center stage, right?

Main Cat-i-tude panel

Now let's look at the fabrics, blocks and final project!

Cat-i-tude Fabrics (minus the panel)

And a small piece of a border print:

Catitude fabrics with border print

I was very drawn to the 6 panels of those frisky cats. I cut them out (they will finish pretty close to 10" square. My plan was to use an ATTIC WINDOW treatment using my Magical Mitering technique.

I pulled two fat quarters for each of the six panels that I thought would work best.

Blue kitty lighting up his life!

 Frisky green kitty batting at an ornament.

Another frisky kitty wanting to taste those ribbons. Yum, yum!

 Purple kitty thinks this package has her name on it.

Another blue kitty who looks bored with the entire frisky business!

Oh. I'm SO bored.

 And one last kitty who is tangled up in those red beads.

Oooooh. Beads!

I cut 3" x 15-1/2" strips from the sets of coordinating fat quarters. Two of one print, two of its companion. I am going to stitch them on in an unorthodox manner and miter the four corners of each panel without using a y-seam from the wrong side. Stay with me here.

I stitched a strip to the top and bottom of each panel, centering them. There will be 3+ inches extending beyond each panel edge.

Notice the pins in the center of the strip and panel

Sew strip as shown, ALL THE WAY TO THE EDGE OF PANEL. Go another 1/2" or so in order to see your stitching. Press seam TOWARD the panel.

Top strip sewn and pressed

Next strips (the black) are sewn BEGINNING AND ENDING where the first strips cross. Notice the + sign on the pic. That is the intersection.

Begin and end stitching of side strips at the 1/4" mark.

Press these side strips OUTWARD. Fold the side strips under as shown in each corner, creating the miter. Pin in place.

Now I'm ready to top stitch with monofilament thread. I put black thread in the bobbin in case any color "beads up" to the top. Here's one other panel with the top stitching. I know it's hard to see; that's the point!

What's that look like on the back? I'm glad you asked. You can see that I used a simple, small, short zigzag stitch. You can see the fabrics folded.

Then I trimmed away the excess. This is done for all four corners of each panel.

Now let's see them all together. I'm not sure about a border. I may just squeeze some 4" x 15" strips out of all the fat quarters used to make it pieced. But for now, here she is.

Go check out the Cat-i-tude fabrics and get ready to be inspired. Oh, and by the way. This is the ONLY time I will allow cats in my back yard. I'm a dog person. But these kitties will certainly make some child smile, won't they?