Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Louis Wain Cats

Over in Instagram I am part of a vintage lovers swap.  One of the great things about an IG swap is the mosaics you put together to get an idea of what your partner likes.  My partner is an artist and likes Peter Pan, Louis Wain cats, and Elvis among other things.  The picture she posted of the cats was very fun - cats with umbrellas- but I didn't think I could do anything with it unless I embroidered and that's not gonna happen :)  I thought about Peter Pan and looked up the book she mentioned (it's a very rare one, found it for about $1200.00!)  and thought maybe I'd do one of the illustrations-way too detailed - amazing pictures but nope. I used up all my Elvis fabric on Helen's purse so that wouldn't work.   I kept coming back to Louis' cats and found a couple that I thought I could do.  It took me 3 days to decide. Look up his paintings, there are some *wild* cats, most of them would make for a very bold quilt! Finally I settled on this one.  It makes me smile! 
I started with a rough sketch to make sure I could do it free hand since I wasn't going to be near a printer.  Not too difficult.  Then I went thru my scraps to find the right fabrics.  I found marbly (that's a word, right?) squares in my Stonehenge charm pack that worked perfect.  Then I cut all those petals (10 for each eye)  while sitting in the sunshine. 
I really like my phone for this kind of project because I can see where changes need to be made better in a picture. And with my photo app can actually put them side by side.   I hope to get the cat finished today and  possibly make him into something useful! 
Have a crafty sort of day

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