Here kitty, kitty

Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet has issued several companion blocks to go with her Farm Girl Vintage designs, and I've been unable to resist most of them.  I've downloaded the pig, the birthday cake, the bumble bee, and now the cat. The face still needs to be embroidered onto this one, but otherwise the kitty block is done. And I still have a couple of additional downloaded blocks to make. 

I wanted my kitty to be grey and I just didn't find a grey 30s print. I even looked online.  And the only grey fabric of any kind in my stash was either too dark or too modern. So I went shopping-  and ended up with this medium grey. It kind of looks like knitting when you look closely.  

I've had a personal goal of improving my piecing accuracy and making small blocks has been a great tool for working towards that goal. There are 40 pieces in this block, and when you look at the 6" version that means some of them START at 3/4" square. That is kind of crazy! But I have to say the mini blocks have become my favorite of the two.

Lori Holt has great instructions, both for cutting and for piecing.  She uses clear drawings of each step. And I've found a process that really seems to be working for me now.  I lay all of the pieces out as I cut them onto a flat design board with a flannel type surface to hold them. I make sure to lay them out in the general location where they will go as I sew. That helps me when hunting for the right pieces, especially when the dimensions are often similar. And I've been sewing the same step on both sizes at the same time. That has also helped a lot plus both blocks are done at the same time.