You are looking at a photograph of a raw edge applique quilt made from the pattern available for purchase below. This quilt measures 37" x 32". Your quilt could be a different shape depending on how you sew your blocks together.

If you haven't done any raw edge applique before, you are in for a treat. The instructions give you all the details you need to learn how to draw with your sewing machine stitches and to make crazy quilt patches as well. The cats are drawings that you use to cut out of fabric with fusible on the wrong side. They are fused with Steam-A-Seam Lite to the background. The drawing is done with a darning foot and straight stitching. The eyes are reverse applique, but sometimes I satin stitched them over the reverse applique.

Crazy quilting isn't as hard as it looks either. For each background, oddly shaped cotton prints are sewn to a foundation piece (muslin or tear-away stabilizer). You can embellish these with machine or hand embroidery stitches after the cats are appliqued if you like. The instructions for crazy quilt blocks are included with this pattern.

We have made several quilts with this pattern and they all come out with different measurements because the arrangement of the blocks has been different. Should you leave out a block the whole configuration changes. If you make one block twice (reversing the design and using in a different fabric) the whole configuration changes. Also, if you used all the designs in this pattern twice, the quilt could be really big. Combining this pattern with other Critter Pattern Works patterns will vary the size of the finished quilt even more.

How do we combine blocks of different sizes? If you have a long block and a shorter one and you want them to go together, add a strip of fabric in a different value (darker or lighter than the ones around it) to the shorter one. Sew those two fabrics to the longer applique block and square them up on the outside edges. This is now a unit. Make more units. If the units don't fit exactly together, add more strips to make them work together. When all your units sewn together and are big enough to make it the quilt size you desire, add a border and quilt it.

There are lots of color closeup photos in the PDF pattern. The cover is the same for the printed pattern and the PDF pattern: they are printed on 8 1/2" x 11" paper so the quilt photo is large, and there are also two closeup photos on the reverse of the cover of two of the cats I thought you might like to see in detail. This would be a separate page for the PDF pattern. When you order a PDF pattern, the download location will be sent within 24 hours of placing your order.

Sorry, PDF file patterns are not available to wholesalers. They need to purchase printed patterns instead.

We have How to Applique videos if you learn visually. Watch our designer, Debora Konchinsky take you through all the steps to make a Critter Pattern Works quilt.

This is Max, the Birman Cat. He is owned by a critter newsletter list member in NJ. The eyes and nose are satin stitching. Start at one corner of the eye and increase from zero to about 3 mm then decrease to get to the other corner following the curve of the eye. The nose is created by stitching first across the top of the nose at 0 then 2.5 mm then 0, then stitch 2.5 mm down for the rest of the nose. The stitching forms a "T" shape.	This is Pollyester. She lives with us at Critter Pattern Works. She thinks she is a princess. The nose and eye are created by cutting holes in the cat fabric and inserting the appropriate colored fabric behind it and fusing the whole cat to the background. The straight stitching which holds the scraps in place is on the cat applique. This technique is called reverse applique.	This is Miz Kitty (from Gunsmoke fame), owned by another list member.
Just another fluffy cat. ;-) with satin stitched eyes and reverse applique nose.	This is a bullseye cat that you can really use to show off some freehand embroidery on his fur.	This cat has satin stitched eyes and a reverse applique nose. The choice is up to you whether you satin stitch or use reverse applique for either or both the noses and the eyes.