Stacks and cats. Lots of cats...

As I mentioned the other day, an astute quilting friend had pointed out that using colorful prints on black backgrounds was a great solution to the no-indigo-so-gotta-go-with-black-for-August RSC dilemma.
And then she sent me some to make sure I had enough.
Sally T is one of my favorite people - I always scramble when I see she's made a new post.  Her rainbow critters make me smile.

And because of my expressed devotion to the pukeko, she also sent that lovely print in the foreground.
I can't thank you enough!  The chicken fabric alone made my day, then the pukekos (pukekoes?  pukekossi?) made my year. 

And then?  And then my sister-in-law and I set out for a quilt shop that she'd been telling me about.  A land of riches, full of fun and fabric.  (And right next door to an ice cream place.  How perfect is that?)
She brought her daughter and I brought my granddaughter and great shopping was done.
This was my birthday treat to myself - and they even tied it up with a bow...

There are some brights on black down toward the bottom of the stack, and I continued on my quest for neutrals.  And I had monkeys in mind with several of my choices.

So, with all that loot, did I immediately stitch up Ohio stars for the RSC?  Did I make a bunch of monkeys?  Did I even make more mystery sawtooth stars?

Nope.

I made cats.

Of course I did.

I had a pattern that made 12" blocks with quite a lot of empty space above the cats, and I wanted to make a smaller, more centered version.  So I farted around with my rulers and, starting with the nose, worked my way out to the edges of the block, empirically.  Because that's what I do.

I think I had cats on my mind, because Sally's present also included this:

Kitties and pukekos?  How perfect does life get?

I've been wanting to make one of her critters for next year's RSC, but hadn't been able to make up my mind which one.  Bunnies?  Kitties?  Fish?  This might be the decider...

And the leader/enders piled right up as I stitched up my cats.

Nothing like a little I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing to keep that fire stoked...



Linking to Oh Scrap at Quilting is More Fun than Housework, because I'm currently up to my collarbones in scraps...