I feel a major tutorial coming on...

The inspiration for this bag was a round robin piece I did years and years ago... This is my contribution on Janet's block I believe and I always wanted to do something with this idea for myself.  The spider buckle and bag are my opportunity and I decided to do it as a tutorial in the process... and it may extend over several days.. I need to make the decision about cat and buckle placement before I go any further with the flowers.

The first step in adding an animal to your piece (besides what animal you want) is to decide what part of that animal you want.... I wanted just a head of a cat because I wanted it to be more in scale with the flowers... 

But I could have easily chosen just tails or ears.  I always thought a fabric book of just animals tails, (or ears) peeking out of foliage would be a really fun project for a children's book...   I want this cat to be focused on  a spider.  The first thing I always do when starting this kind of project  is gather lots of pictures from the internet and print them in different sizes.  I cut them out like paper dolls and "audition" them around the piece.

 

I was wavering as to how many cats I wanted but have decided on one on the front of the bag.  It will be large and focused on the spider buckle which will hold the bag closed.










But on the back   I want more of the CQ to be the focal point and will have a smaller cat....maybe two or three...all black..

I intend to work these cats "off block" on either black felt or black fabric. 
 A perfect  opportunity to revisit how to do a cut-out transfer on the back of the fabric, how to have a black cat show up on black fabric, and a little refresher lesson on embroidering fur.

I have fussed moving the cat up and down, right and left, plus shifting the position of the buckle.  Once I have made this decision and go ahead with flowers and more webs, it would be hard to make a major move later.  Going through all these steps saves me from later wishing I had done it differently and I also have a record of how it looked best to me when I go to apply the cat later.  And I have to admit (once again) how much I love this buckle and how happy that I'm actually doing something special with it....