Wool Appliqued Kitties

Well, I'm really loving this wool applique! The sewing's like 'butter' and it's really, really fast! I blanket stitched around all these cute kitties in a couple of hours. Nothing to turn under, no basting, just trace the pattern pieces on fusible, iron them on the wool, cut them out and fuse them on the main piece. A couple hours later, you're done! I'm still sewing on the eyes, noses and whiskers and there are a few more cute little details to do--mice, a yarn ball. . .

I changed the colors from the pattern on four of these kitties to represent our own: The gray and black is Bobo, the black and white is Tippy both cuddly little guys who adopted us a few years apart. They sleep with us, bring us 'presents' all the time and bring joy to our lives. The calico is Little Bit who passed away 5 years ago and the all gray is Boogie who passed away 2 years ago, also kitties who adopted us many years ago. We miss them so much. Perhaps some day, we'll have an orange kitty and a white one with gray patches. I hope so.

This started as a "Bareroots" candle mat pattern but I wanted to enlarge it for the center of my new dining room table. What you see here measures 19" across. When all the hand sewing is done, I'll be fusing this whole thing on a wool piece that's about 1 3/4" larger (a lovely green) making a pretty ring around it. Then I'll blanket stitch around that. I'll show it to you all when it's finished.

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! Especially you Judy! Thanks for the Design Wall!