candy cats quilt along - baby quilt

this quilt had a whole lot of different ideas before it became a reality.
i knew i wanted to use these bolder, primary colors but just couldn't decide on which animal to turn it in to.  why animals?  well, the momma of this fresh little one is quite an animal lover, so it only felt right.  i thought about foxes and i thought about bears, but neither one felt right.  then i saw a quilt along pop up on instagram and new it was perfect.  schnitzel and boo put together a quilt along using unicorn hart's candy cat pattern and that's when it hit me.  i had made her daughter a kitty quilt back in 2015 (daffodils & kitty cats), and so it was only fitting that baby brother had a cat quilt to call his own.
the candy cats block was just perfect, these wide eyed kitties and i had the perfect fabric already for it.  using a variety of reds, yellows, greens & oranges really popped out against the blue fabric.  i mixed the colors with one another creating a variety of kittens.
i used some pieces of red to pop against the blue when binding the quilt just to shake things up a little bit.  i did an all over free motion motif of a looser square (much like i did on my patchwork pumpkins quilt) which helped keep the kittens the main focus.  it was tricky this time, since the top thread blended so well in to the background.  i had to rely quite a bit on feeling, simply to find where my last stitch row was in order to not quilt too loosely or tightly to keep it as consistent as possible.
my mom was actually the one to suggest using the pete the cat fabric for the back of the quilt, and once the idea was in my head, i couldn't let it go.  pete is one of favorite stories to have in my preschool classroom, and whenever i have the chance i share this groovy kitty with my friends and their little ones.
it was nice to brush off my paper piecing skills for a bit, and what better way to do it than with cats?
once i got in the rhythm of it again, these cats came together quickly and oh so cutely.
as soon as it arrived to it's new home, i got to see some sweet photos of baby brother on his kitty quilt and big sister wrapped up like a burrito in hers.
i'd say that is a photo that can make any quilter happy as ever.
total quilts number: 108