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I’m so happy to have this quilt finished! I’ve been cracking up every time I work on it, but since the top was done, I’ve been itching to give it to the intended recipient. One of my thesis advisors (and the professor who convinced me to go to grad school to begin with) loves nyan cat, and would send me links to everything nyan cat for a while. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to have the time to make this quilt for him!
So first of all, here is the video link to nyan cat if you haven’t seen it before. Yes, that’s all it does.
The real impetus to start this quilt was running across Elizabeth Hartman’s postage stamp tutorial. Using fusible interfacing to keep all those squares lined up was genius! I tend to not be the most precise quilter (read: I am impatient and like to cut corners, sometimes literally), so this was a fantastic way to do this project. Next, I used this cross-stitch pattern by mogget as the starting point for my quilting pattern. I added a few more stars and cropped it a bit, but the rest of it is from there.
For the back, I went to my LQS and found the brightest rainbow fabric I could find. In the end, I think I would have liked using a solid a bit better to show the quilting lines, but seriously, those rainbow umbrellas are so fun and just a little crazy, kinda like the rest of the quilt.
For quilting, I ended up doing echo quilting and wavy lines in the background. I originally had a much more complex idea for the blue areas, but I ended up scrapping it partially for expedience and partially because I cropped so much blue out of it, there wasn’t a lot of room left to play.
The binding is done with kona black, and then I continued the pixel blocks through the binding for the rainbow, so it looks like it’s going off the edge. It’s a bit subtle, but I love the effect! I’m so happy with how it came out!
My cat loved everything about this project. I spent so much time shooing her off this particular quilt. I’m not sure if she is a fan of nyan cat, or if because of all the interfacing and seams, it made the quilt thicker. Whatever the reason, I used almost an entire lint roller throughout the making of this project!
I will definitely revisit this pixel quilt method, but the next one is for me! Now to decide…Zelda or Secret of Monkey Island?
Some quick stats:
Size: 4′ x 3′
Pixel size: 1.5″ unfinished (1″ finished)
Number of pixels: 1728
Colors used: (All Konas)Rainbow: Lipstick, Kumquat, Canary, Clover, Turquoise, Bright Periwinkle. Pop-Tart: Pomegranate, Medium Pink, Cream. Nyan Cat: Melon, Medium Grey, Black, White. Background: Nightfall.
-Anne
22 thoughts on “Finish: Nyan Cat Quilt”
ohhhh, it’s FANTASTIC!!!!! I really love it!
Thank you!! Other than burying all those threads from the quilting, it was fun[ny] to work on from start to finish! 😀
Things that make me happy: puppy! Nyan cat! rainbows! rainbow binding! magic rainbow umbrellas! PUPPY!
All those things make ME happy too!!! Especially the puppy! She turns 9 next month, but has no clue she’s not a puppy, but I’m not about to tell her. 😉
HOW FUN!!!! Nyan, nyan, nyan!!! 🙂
Thank you!!! I have watched that video so many times while working on this quilt. lol I should embed a music player with a motion detector so every time someone walks by, it starts playing the song… Hahahah
It looks amazing!
And if I may vote, I say Zelda next. 🙂
Thank you!! And thank you so much for the use of your awesome cross stitch pattern. 😀
Votes are definitely welcome! I think anything zelda would be more recognizable for sure!
Awesomeness 🙂 I love how you put the rainbow colors into the binding. Very nice effect.
Thank you! It’s my first time trying anything fancy with the binding, and it was surprisingly more simple than I expected!
AAANNNNNEEEEE! So incredible. Love how you did the quilting and the binding in the rainbow that the cat is farting out. Way to git ‘r dunn.
Thank youuuuu!! Also I bust up laughing out loud over “the rainbow the cat is farting out”.
Yeah Anne! It is amazing! It is so well done. I showed a picture to my bf (who is a Nyan Cat fan) and he started squealing.
Hahaha that’s awesome! My prof loved it, too! He’s going to hang it up in his office. lol
Congratulations on the great finish. I’ve loved watching your progress on this quilt. And your dog’s expression is hilarious! Lovely quilt!
Thank you!! This one felt really good to get done! And of course, now I’m already considering another pixel quilt. They’re just so fun to put together. 😀 My dog cracks me up, and her face was just perfect for this shot!
This is awesome! I would like to have one. Could I share it at Nyan Cat fans’ site: nyan-cat.com? I’m sure there are hundreds of fans will love this.
Sorry! Your message got buried in our spam filter. 🙁 Of course I’d be honored to have it appear on nyan-cat.com! 😀 Thanks so much!
Holy great minds, Batman!!!! My friend Rachael from Imagine Gnats told me about the quilt and I got so damn giddy I didn’t know what to do with myself!!! It’s AMAZING!!!!!!! And I just posted about my nyan cat and tac nayn dresses on my blog two days ago!!! I love the idea of letting your geek flag wave!!!! I totally look forward to seeing more awesome quilts! ZELDA!!!!
Hugs & Stitches,
Kat
Sewchibi.com
Rachael sent me the link to your nyan cat and tac nayn dresses and they are AMAZING. Holy crap! I can’t believe how much detail you put into them!! From the hand-created fabric to the moving cats, they are truly masterpieces!!!
I have plans for more of these types of quilts, but I have a few other things I need to get finished first. 😀
You have to smile when you look at this quilt! So fun and happy!
Ack, I’m so sorry, I lost this comment in my mail. My apologies for not responding sooner.
I think the nyan cat quilt might be my favorite quilt! I would literally giggle as each block came together and formed another section of the cat. 🙂 I really want to make more pixel quilts!