Finished Catvent Quilt

I am pleased to share my completed Catvent quilt!

This is from a quilt-along at Oh Fransson! Go check it out.

The quilt was made completely from my stash, with the exception of the binding. All I had was plain black and I think the white is so much more fun. It might not come through in the pictures, but it's white with silver glitter. :) The batting, backing, sashing, and all other fabrics were already on hand.

I really enjoyed making this. Color is one of my favorite things, and even though I still have a ton to learn about color theory, this was great practice. The trick with this quilt was to travel around the color wheel without varying the value (darkness/lightness/brightness) of the colors. So technically, I should have travelled around the wheel below only on a single rung, without varying into any others.

Did I succeed? Well, sort of. I was limited by the fabrics I had available, and in some spots the colors didn't work out quite right. I note that in the yellow region there's a gap between the darker yellow and pale yellow. There should be some bright sunny perfectly yellow fabrics in between those two, but I don't have any.

Similarly, the green/teal area wasn't perfect. I ended up going into a darker value of green, then into a bright teal, then into a darker teal.

Here is an interesting way to look at the values: a B&W version of the quilt.  See the outliers?

By comparison, here is a B&W photo of Elizabeth's original quilt from Oh Fransson.  See how much more consistent the colors are?

And here is the back. This is the first time I have tried to go for a "modern" back.  I think the idea was there, but the execution, not quite. Oh well. You won't get better if you don't try! (P.S. those are reject cat heads that found a home in the back).

I also wanted to mention that this quilt was my test run for my new Quiltak system. And it worked AWESOMELY! When I got the gun, I was excited but a little confused as to how it worked. Sitting down and using it on a real quilt was the solution. It went super fast and was super easy.

If you've never heard of this system (I hadn't), it basically shoots those little plastic tag holders that you find on clothing at the store into your quilt. You just poke the needle straight down, pull the trigger, and a little plastic tak is there holding the layers together for you. Faster and easier than safety pinning, and more stable than spray basting.

Plus, not having to unpin safety pins as I quilted was a big benefit.  The only annoying thing was that the little plastic "taks" are so small that they were a little tough to snip off without snipping the quilt. I can't wait to use this system on a queen or king quilt and see how quickly it goes! (Plus using the little tak gun is pretty entertaining!)

This quilt will be part of the silent auction at Tenth Life's Sips and Sweets fundraiser next week. I'll let you know how it goes...if the price stays too low I will probably buy it back myself! ;)