Friday Finish: Catvent Wall Hanging!

The cats are done!  I absolutely loved making this wall hanging.  And it's actually the first official wall hanging in the house.  (I may have taken down a photo of how the mister proposed, but this was the right wall.  I'll find a spot for the photo later.  Priorities!)

It's from Elizabeth Hartman's Catvent Quilt-a-long that she started in December.  One cat a day until Christmas.  I loved making one little cat as the start of my day.  It was like a little finish that I could get done first, then feel accomplished the rest of the day.

I used two Kona charm packs for the solids, Sunrise and Sunset, a couple scrap charm packs bought off Instagram, and a bunch of scraps from a guildmate.  It was really fun digging through scraps that were all new fabrics to me and pairing them with the solids.

 I was on schedule until the last week then all the other handmade gifts took over and the cats got pushed to the side.  Then I ran out of Kona Medium Gray, went on vacation, had some surgery, basically life took over.  But I finally got it finished!

I decided to quilt it just like the original.  It looked so good, why try to top it.  I just used some painter's tape to mark out the lines, re-positioning it as I went.  The lines are a little bit more than an inch apart, because I didn't want to stitch too close to the tape and maybe sew the tape to the quilt.

There's just one bad line where I changed directions and the stitching pulled the fabric in the opposite direction.  I might rip it out and sew it again, but I'm living with it right now.

And I finally got the sewn binding right.  I've been trying to make it happen for a while using different techniques, but this one actually worked!  I cut my binding a 1/4" wider than normal, sewed it to the front, pinned it down along the back (so wish I'd had those Clover clips), and stitched in the ditch on the front.  I only missed catching the back binding in two little spots, so I just repinned and stitched those spots again.

The back isn't perfect, but it's all sewn, so that's a win in my book.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday!