The Cat Mat... quilting practice part 1

 This fabric was in the house when I moved in.  I thought maybe the previous owner was a quilter.  They were not, these were small curtain ruffles, sewn in the smallest stitch available on the machine, it was difficult to unpick the deep hem.  I need a 42" width, and that meant unpicking.  Kitty needs a mat, because I'm making him a much larger gift.  This will be 2020 first UFO completed!!

Last year, I had purchased some quilting templates at the AQS show.  These are by Cynthia Needham, I had such visions of masterpiece quilts.  Here it is 2020, and they need to be used, even if it is only a cat mat.  We all need to start somewhere.

Here we see the sandwich being made.  Then marked with the triangles & diamonds template.  Now I know, I should probably use the walking foot instead of the quilting foot, but, I want a challenge.  This will not be seen by anyone, and I need the practice.

The design is marked with the Frixion "heat sensitive" pen, and that will be another experiment.  How well will this pen hold up, and can we get it out of the cotton later. The batting is a doubled up thin polyester batting, from the remnant pile. I'm hoping to do a continuous line of quilting and want to limit the number of times the needle needs to be re positioned.

From a distance it doesn't look bad, but the stitches are not uniform, and that will improve with practice.  One thing for certain, I will need to lower the machine, or get a small Aarow rolling table to make the machine even with the table top.  One more mat to go.....