It's time for QuiltFest of Jacksonville again, and this year's theme was "Bobbin' on the Beach." Of course, I had to feature my boy, Bobbin, sitting on a beach. My way.
My inspiration for the beach came from the double whammy of returning from my vacation to New Hampshire for the Machine Quilters Expo (MQX), where I spent way too much money, and then doing my taxes. I pretty much figured my next vacation would have to be on the cheap. How would a cat take a cheap vacation? In the sandbox, of course.
One of the biggest challenges was trying to incorporate the box of kitty litter and give it a nautical theme. The shell print fabric was one of the three challenge fabrics we had to incorporate, so I came up with Ocean Breeze. Hindsight being what it is, I wish I'd called it Tidal Cat instead.
I used Apliquick to turn all of my applique and handstitched it. Then came the really fun part, the quilting.
I added some simple textures to give my applique more dimension, with a few bonuses, like etching Vacation State of Mind into the sand, and a little peek-a-boo mouse.
Being me, I ran out of time before I added some of the elements I wanted, but I can always add more later before I send it off to other shows.