Cat Face Potholders, Making It Look Easy

I look at it now and I don’t think it shows.  That’s what I want, like a good dancer, I want my art to look like it comes easy.

But when you’re close to the stage you can see the sweat flying, and hear the trumps maybe even the breathing of the dancers.

The good ones make it look easy.

When I finished making the last Cat Face Pillow, I cut up what was left of the fabric and came up with seven whole cat faces.

Yesterday the cat face above was surrounded in the same browns and grays of the cat itself.   But even as I sewed it together I knew it wasn’t what I was looking for.

Today I found the fabric that set these Potholders in motion.

Jon bought me the yard of fabric when we still lived in Old Bedlam Farm.  He got it at a farm stand and by the looks of it I’d say it was from the 1960s.   I loved it’s vintage feel, but was never able to figure out how to use it.  So about a year ago, I cut it into strips and tried once again.

Nothing came of it, but I rolled the strips up and put them in a box with other rolled strips of fabric.

In these Potholders what I wanted to bring out was the feel of the cat faces.  Not the emotion, but that soft watery charcoal look combined with hard edged dots and lines.

I found that look in the vintage fabric Jon bought me so long ago.  And when I cut up the strips just right, I discovered the right colors, abstract designs and subject in the flowers.

The bright graphic colors and drawn lines were just what I had imagined.

I made seven Cat Face Potholders today.  I’ll finish them up next week and put them up for sale in my Etsy Shop when I do.