Cats, Cats, Cats

I am stuck on cats at the moment.  I love working with felt and doing hand embroidery once in a while so I took the online class (Phat Cat) by the master, Cristen Brown.  I could not make just one of these little pillows (about 8" across) so I have made many!

Since this is Canada Day, they insisted on having their photo taken with the flag.  Meet Buttercup:

 Here is the cuddly "Princess":

Meet Scrappy, the calico cat and scruffy.  Scrappy has her back turned, silly thing:

Then there is the shy "Bluebell":

We cannot forget Missy, the Siamese cross or she will be annoyed!

Finally, here are the three amigos (Buttercup, Bluebell and Scruffy), together in their basket.

These wee kitties were fun to do and I got to use a few of my many buttons!

Cats

Believe it or not, I have not always been in love with cats!  We had no pets growing up and I was especially afraid of cats as they would tend to come to me and stare at me!  Little did I know that these feline creatures knew that I was a cat lover waiting to emerge.

In the late 1980's I went to see Andrew Lloyd Webber's show about feline follies in Toronto's beautiful, restored Elgin theatre.  I was hooked.  The production was magnificent and from that point forward I have been fascinated by the cat.  I was the proud owner of four cats at one time, sadly, only two are with me now.

I am sharing my recent fabric cats based on the musical and T.S. Eliot's poetry on cats.  I used Julie McCullough's Cat Dancer pattern and adjusted the head to make it my own using a technique I learned from the wonderful late doll artist Akira Blount.  The cats are made with multiple strips of co-ordinated fabrics.  The heads are hand sculpted with thread, covered with a "fabric skin" and then painted.

The first cat is a Jellicle cat named Lisbeth:

 Jellicle cats are black and white.  They sleep all day and move at night.

Her face is hand painted including her eyes.  She is 18" tall.

The next cat is named Mr Mistoffelees.  He is quiet and small and mostly black. He can creep through the tiniest crack and walk on thee narrowest rail.  "He can pick any card from a pack and is equally cunning with dice."

Now let us move on to Rum Tum Tugger, the Curious Cat.  He is male and rather fine but if you offer him pheasant he would rather have grouse.  If you put him in a house he would much prefer a flat.  If you set him on a mouse, then he only wants a rat!  Rum Tum Tugger is such a curious cat!

Rum Tum Tugger is 20" tall and full of personality.

Now comes the lovely Victoria, the all white kitten who loves to dance.  She swoons over Rum Tum Tugger but she is shy and very quiet.

Victoria's beautiful face and glass blue eyes.

Now this next cat I named Theo.  He is not in the musical but I love him.  He is quite old,  very serious and proud for he is Siamese.

Theo with his kitten buddy "Siam"

Finally, no production of cats would be the same without the old, sad and beautiful "Grizabella".  She sings the unforgettable song, "Memory":

"All alone in the moonlight, I can smile at the old days.  I was beautiful then.  I remember the time I knew what happiness was, let the memory live again"

Grizabella yearns to be accepted and she stretches out her hand which is taken by Victoria, the shy white kitten!

I hope you have enjoyed my cats.  There will be more in the future so stay tuned.

Alley Cats are Born

I was cruising Pinterest and came across some very haunting cats made by Veronika Lozovaya.  I checked out her web site (Dark Alley) and decided I had to make some cats of my own!  I am unveiling my three amigos, Scraggly, Black-Eyed Suzy, and Serious Sam.  They are alley cats with big personalities.  They are not as haunting as Veronika's cats, but oh so loveable!  Enjoy.

Scraggly loves all things Halloween.

Black-Eyed Suzy loves to terrorize little dogs in the alley.

Serious Sam is the resident poet of the alley, so melancholy!

Meow-Meow Neko

I love Leslie Molen's dolls.  They are so sweet and innocent and remind me of happy childhood days.  I also love cats and had four of them for a while to grace my life.  My Mimi cat passed away when she was 17 followed by her brother Rudolfo at 19 years old.  I am now left with Moretto (age 17) and Riley (age 14).  

So when I saw Leslie Molen's pattern for Meow-Meow Neko I knew I had to make her.  Luckily I found a lovely piece of Japanese cloth for the dress and I used white velour for the body.  Without further ado, here she is with her dolly, of course!

Her wee companion dolly.

Bye for now