Teddie - a cat in fabric

I have read a lot of articles and web sites about pictorial quilts - particularly making an image of your pet in fabric.  I wanted to do it!  Had no idea where to start.  Sadly, I was not born with the "art gene" - I got the "music gene" but that's a story for another day.  So I read and read and read advice from those folks who do have artistic talent.  These articles gave me courage, directing me to take a photo of my cat, use the main design lines in the photo, and start cutting up fabric!

You'll see below that I did it!  I have lots of fun photos of my cats - this one is Tedrika (she goes by "Teddie"), my tortie with attitude.  The photo was from a day right after I moved into my house in Vancouver, WA (in 1997) and everything was pretty much in disarray.  She had made herself a perch on my vintage piano desk and was waiting to see if I could squeeze everything into that little house.  As long as the food dish is full, she's happy wherever we are.

Teddie is now 16.5 years old and she looks the same but is older and crabbier.  As am I. 

First, find a photo:

Then, photocopy the picture on paper and use a marking pen to find the major design lines.

I looked and looked for a fabric that I thought would represent tortie coloring - a black undercoat with brown/orange/tan touches.  I found the PERFECT batik at Shibori Dragon Fabrics.  Then I had no excuse to put off the first cut!  I traced sections from the photo on fusible webbing, fused my fabrics, and started arranging them.

The best advice I think I got from the articles I read was to limit yourself to 5-6-7 fabrics.  Don't think you have to shade everything on your first attempt.  That was the advice that gave me the most courage.  I think I used six total fabrics in the cat on this piece.

The eyes are set behind the face (holes cut in the face).  The pupils were stitched.  I made the splash on her head all white (artistic license) because I thought adding the tan on top just looked like a blob.  Then, I mustered up courage to fuse!

I raw-appliqued the tortie parts of the cat with black 100-weight silk.  The white parts I raw-edge appliqued with white Invisafil.  Both of these are go-to threads for me.  Black silk is really black-black and delicious to sew with.  Invisafil is not "invisible" but is 100-weight poly and so fine that it blends amazingly in every application.   Yep, all done by machine. 

I did some experimenting to get the pieces in place.  Some were re-cut.  Some were covered so much (like under her right front paw) that they barely show. 

Her haunch and other quilting in the cat body I also quilted with black silk. 

Here's what the back (of the top) looked like.  I think I put a little more stitching in it after I took this photo.  I also put some medium-weight stabilizer behind the piece before sewing and I tore most of it out.  This is a little art piece and won't be washed and handled like a big quilt.

You can't see the white Invisafil but it's there!

Here is the finished piece; I quilted the green background with white Invisafil and added a touch of Wonderfil Hologram thread as the buckle on her collar.  Metallic threads are so much fun to have around and sometimes you just need a touch of sparkle to make the quilt!  I added the whiskers with a very fine white cotton thread. 

So Miss Teddie has been immortalized in fabric.  She is a Southern cat - a former client of the Durham County Animal Shelter in Durham, NC.  So she likes to be addressed as "Miss Teddie" as is the Southern custom.  She is a great little kitty friend, and deserves to be admired in person as well as in fabric!

  **All text and images are copyrighted to me.  You know the drill.