The first to be completed was a three dimensional needle felted kitten. She made the form for the body out of foam and needle felted natural white and gray wool roving to it. She used beads for eyes and even gave it whiskers! I have been saving cat whiskers that I find laying around the house for years and we finally put some of them to use — dipping the ends in white craft glue Tessa inserted them into her kitten’s face and they seem quite permanent. An uplifted front paw gives it a playful look, as though it is batting a ball or a butterfly. Tessa’s barn cat just lost two kittens so we decided that the kitten she created embodies the spirits of the cats we have loved.
Her main project was creating a new duvet cover. Her old one was in blues and greens and she wanted something a little cheerier. She selected three Alexander Henry prints with a vintage look — a floral, a stripe and a stylized dot. She used the stripe for borders on the front and back, matching the stripes where her vertical and horizontal bands meet. She says she has a whole new respect for quilters, even the mass-producing ones!
Taking a “break” on Thursday evening Tessa re-styled a t-shirt, getting inspiration from Megan Nicolay’s book, Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform T-shirts. She thinks the projects would be great fun for a party and I sent a copy of the book home with her so she and her friend Melissa can do some more experimenting. She is just itching to cut up one of her Creative Genius tees so her re-styled shirt will have a cool logo on it.
My project turned out to be a fish cat bed, Simplicity pattern #9004. Tessa laid out the pattern and cut the fabric and foam (the fabric pieces are backed with half-inch foam). Her attempts to sew the fish on a home sewing machine were futile so I took over and assembled it using my industrial machines. I ended up serging the foam to the fabric prior to sewing the seams and that really helped to flatten out the edges and make sewing bearable. As hateful as the fish was to sew it really turned out cute. Tessa opted to glue two purchased google eyes onto the fish rather than use ping-pong balls on felt circles as the pattern suggested. Friday night we enlisted my cat Shady to try it out and he gave it his paw of approval, curling up inside for a cat nap. On Saturday we had to throw cat crunchies into the fish to convince Shady to go inside so Tessa could snap a picture of him emerging from the mouth. T reports that both of her cats love the fish so we may be sewing another. We wonder if using ¼” foam would be more manageable.
