Just for Fun: A Quilted Self-Portrait

Today I decided to show you something funny. Well, I think it's funny. How about a "portrait" of me. For one of my guild's quilting retreats a challenge was given to make a self-portrait quilt. There were only six or eight of them presented. I don't know, maybe people are just self-conscious making a quilt featuring themselves. Me...well, I look how I look and I have a sense of humor, so it wasn't traumatic for me. Hysterical, yes.

I decided that I would make a portrait quilt which would include my friend, Ethel. He is my son's cat, but he's always lived with us. Yes, he. One summer day, when my husband and I returned from a trip to Texas, my son, who was living with us at the time, "adopted" two tiny kittens. He was at a friend's house. The neighbor had a litter of eight kittens that he was going "to dispose" of and when Scott heard that he immediately took charge of two of them. He loves animals. He didn't tell us the kittens were in the house, but when we heard them..well...he had to tell us the story of why they were there. We lived on the farm at the time, so we kept them. No one could think of a name for them...and we THOUGHT one was male and the other female. Hard to tell on kittens that tiny.

The guys couldn't come up with any names, so I was given the task of naming them. Fred and Ethel, as we loved I Love Lucy! Time went by and Ethel just got used to his name, so we didn't try to change it...even after we found that he was a male cat. He's funny. And, old now. His brother, Fred, died several years ago.

Anyway, when I decided to put Ethel on the quilt, I named it "Friends and Flowers." He posed for my drawing!

As you can see, Ethel and I are appliqued and embellished. It was fun to make. I particularly like the little embroidered flowers and the buttons I used to embellish this wallhanging. The wallhanging is 18 inches wide and 19 1/2 inches tall. Notice the hand and flower button. Yes, the right hand is a china button which I bought at Quilt Festival in Houston one year. It sat around here for a long time before I knew what to do with it. (Doesn't everything?) I don't think you can tell, but right before I sewed this button on...I dropped it and it broke clear across the fingers. I glued it back together because as much as that button cost, I wasn't going to "waste" it.

And, Ethel....he's a nice cat. He runs to hide every time someone comes in the house as he's basically anti-social. And he absolutely refuses to enter the Nest! We've no clue why. Here's a photo of him, although not a good one. He hates having his photo taken so you have to sneak up on him...hard to do with a cat!!

So, there you are...something funny...hope you are as amused as I am with this little piece of work! take care, pat