Cat block quilt

Who could resist Corinne Bradd’s cuddly quilt with several cat faces peeping out? The Memory Lane collection from Tilda, featuring ditsy floral prints in pretty colours, gives this design a lovely vintage feel that is enhanced by the crochet lace border. This would look lovely draped over the sofa and hanging on the wall for all to see, or would make a thoughtful baby gift for a new arrival!

Essentials

Tilda Memory Lane assorted floral fabrics, fat quarters
Cotton fabric, pink, green, navy,blue spotted, fat quarters
Quilt wadding, 4oz, 1m
White cotton, 1m
Black felt
Crochet lace, 3.5cm wide, 8m

Dimensions List

Cat block:19cm square
Quilt: 83cm square

Sew a quilt block

1 Decide on four different fabrics for the background, main face, left side and right cheek. Cut the following pieces: Background: 8cm x 21cm, 8cm square, two 3.5cm x 26cm pieces, main face: 7cm x 21cm, 7cm x 13cm, 4.5cm square, left side: 8cm x 13cm, 8.5cm square, right cheek: 8cm x 13cm.

2 Cut the square pieces in half diagonally to make half square triangles (HSTs). Sew the 8.5cm HSTs of left side fabric to each end of the wide background rectangle. Fold out and press. Sew the 8cm HSTs of background fabric to the long main face rectangle in the same way. These pieces form the ears and chin of the cat face.

3 Take the left and right cheek rectangles and sew the 4.5cm HSTs of main face fabric to the bottom inner corners. Sew the smaller main face rectangle between the two cheeks. This will form the centre of the face. Sew the ears and chin sections to the centre panel. Add the thin strips of background fabric to either side of the face to make a 26cm square block.

4 Cut 3.5cm wide strips of spotted fabric and stitch to the edges in an overlapped border to bring the block up to a 31cm square. Cut two 2cm squares and one 3cm HST from black felt. Oversew in place to make the eyes and nose.

Stitch a quilt

1 Make four cat face blocks as described above. Join into a square with 3.5cm wide sashing cut from pink cotton, to add an overlapped border of pink around the square.

2 Cut 2cm wide strips of navy cotton and 5.5cm wide strips of green cotton. Use these to add borders around the quilt top as before. Press the quilt top and pin lace to the green border so it lines up with the navy seam line. Mitre fold the lace at the corners and topstitch to the fabric.

3 Pin the quilt top onto quilt wadding, which needs to be trimmed to 1cm larger than the fabric. Lay onto white cotton backing fabric trimmed to 2cm larger than the wadding. Topstitch the layers together around the cat faces and inside the navy border. 4 Turn under 5mm of the green border. Fold the white backing fabric over the wadding and tuck under the green hem. Sandwich 5mm of the straight edge of the lace between the two layers and pin, mitring the corners. Topstitch the layers together 2mm in from the green folded edge.