So I ran across this quilt block that just meowed to be done into something special for someone special: Peeping Cats The block is super easy and the instructions are great even for first time quilters/piecers.

My coworker has 2 cats and she’s have a special birthday this year in December. So this just screamed “Make Me” when I saw it.

I haven’t done much crafting the past 4 or so months, so I sort of have to make up for that now, I guess.

So I set out to see what I have and what I need to do what was in my head.

I was seriously lacking in Christmas red – so I had to buy a yard of that, but I am sure I will use it somewhere else.

The other colors I need could be scraps since I was making 2 smallish cats. Just to make this a little more sweet, I did find out what her cats looked like. 

I got a pattern for a Christmas stocking from the web, actually I think I downloaded 5 or 6 – because I wasn’t sure what would work out the best. Then I started sewing, and ripping and sewing and ripping and sewing.

With no pattern to go by and just an idea in my head, this was going to be a process. I like having a plan, well I didn’t even have plan, I had a thought in my grey haired covered head. 

I made the Peeping Cats block – then took it apart to make it thinner to fit the stocking a bit better.  At first I was just going to make a flat – non-opened stocking, just to hang on her door. But I just really didn’t like that very much. So I disassembled that and put together the plaid lining which was in the original idea. I watched about a dozen different youTube instructionals about making stockings and combined them all to make what I did. It actually is so so cute, I almost want to just keep it, but I can’t.

Last year I had made some of the girls in the office simple table runners and I had some small pieces of fabric left over, that is where the cuff for this stocking came from – it actually matches her runner (I think 😀 ). The rest of the pieces that I used for the Peeping Cats blocks I pulled out of the scrap bins. 

It was a struggle, and frustrating at times, but I can honestly say it is one of the cutest things I have made in a long time.  As frustrating as it was at times it was also very satisfying when it was completed.

I believe the presentation is very important, here is how her gift will be wrapped and you can see that when you open the box it just looks like a read stocking with the cat fabric for the cuff. However, when she pulls it out and unrolls it she will the have a second surprise.

I do need to say that this is not “quilted” it is pieced however.   I was going to do some FMQ on it, but I got in such a groove when I was putting it together I whizzed right by that part. Probably because I was so distracted by the assembly of this stocking.  They eyes are some scrapbooking embellishments that I have had for years and year – nice to use something in my stash! The whiskers is cross-stitch thread.

And for a side note, not that it was planned this way, at all, it is actually the exact size that a bottle of wine would fit perfectly in it.

Merry Christmas everyone, may your holiday season be purrfect.