The Old Rocking Chair - for the Family bloghop by Quilt Block Mania
Welcome to the October bloghop from Quilt Block Mania!. The theme for October is ‘Family’ which is such a beautiful theme and I think it’s what quilters are all about. We make quilts for children, parents, spouses, in-laws, grand children, marriages, babies. We celebrate relationships and life events, and we do it with the warmth and comfort of a quilt.
My mother’s rocking chair
I wanted to make a block that really evoked that warm feeling of family, whatever type of family you have. There are always those lovely moments of belonging, where you can just be, and not worry about doing.
Way back when I was a teenager, I used to rush in after school, make a drink and sit down on the rocking chair for a few minutes to pet the cat. It was a lovely moment of being out of time, and we all need those moments. Then I had to do an hour and a half of piano practice and my homework, but it was always so nice to just have those minutes of relaxing before the next thing.
The rocking chair we had is an old English chair, and it’s so well made, that after a lifetime of use it’s just as sturdy as ever it was. The back is shaped so it fits just perfectly into the small of your back and the high back is perfect to rest your head. This really is a chair that speaks of peace and comfort.
Here is the chair being built up on the fusamat, you can see I still have to add the top of the back rocker and I’m leaving off the front arm til I’ve added the cat.
I’ve designed my block using fusible applique because the pieces get quite small. If you haven’t done fusible or raw edge applique before, it is really a nice technique. Sometimes people worry the raw edges will fray, but batiks are a good choice because they have a high thread count and don’t fray easily.
I’ve built the cat up from back to front overlapping the edges by 1/8”. You can see the pattern placement lines under the fusamat
After tracing the template pieces onto fusible webbing, I think about the order I will lay them down, working from back to front. I iron the fusible webbing onto the wrong side of the fabric and then cut the pieces out. I try to leave about 1/8 “ on the pieces that overlap. The piece at the back needs the overlap allowance. The piece at the front gets cut along the line.
Note that I have to add the cat before adding the arm of the chair so it looks like the cat sits on the chair
Then I put down the full size placement diagram, and place my fusamat applique sheet on top. Fusamat lets you build up an applique motif and press the pieces together so you have one unit that you can then place on the background. You can remove the paper from the fusible web and place the pieces in the correct spots, then you can press on the fusamat, and then peel the motif off the fusamat as one object. It’s a great piece of equipment.
Arm of chair added, creating the illusion that the cat is on the chair.
Once I’ve built up the applique motif, I peel it off the fusamat and place it on the background fabric. Then it’s a quick job to buttonhole stitch around the raw edges. If I need to backtrack, I just change to straight stitch and then stitch along the edge of the fabric. This gives extra definition to the edge of the fabric. I like to use fine machine embroidery threads for the buttonhole stitch in a toning colour.
blanket stitched onto background
I had a bit of fun with the cat I made a ginger cat and added a bit of machine embroidery to make stripes. the cat is a bit of a blob - but sleeping cats really are blobby, so that’s ok.
I hope you enjoy making up the old rocking chair. Feel free to personalise it - not everyone is a cat person, and it wold look really cute with a dog on a rag rug, or a budgie perched on the headboard, or a pile of books and a cup of coffee. Have you got any other good ideas? I’d love to hear them. Drop me a comment and I might get inspired to add a bit more!
closeup of cat - threads still need trimming.
Here’s a real close closeup of the cat and stitching. you can see the brown batik doesn’t fray, but I have a few whiskers to trim on the cushion.
Here are the links for all the blogs. Each blog has a new free pattern!
