My first quilt - made from old kitchen curtain

I didn't want to risk spoiling my new fabric that I'd bought on eBay, so instead I cut up some old kitchen curtains that I also got on eBay (for £2.99). They were a bit thicker than usual quilting cotton fabric and seemed to have a surface protectant but after a wash and tumble dry they softened up quite a bit. The slight stiffness was OK anyway as they were going to be a floor mat for my cats. I just followed the square print arrangement on the fabric and ended up with over 50 usable 5-inch squares. I arranged them on the floor until there was a balance of different colours and designs and got a 6 x 9 grid. I just sewed them up in to six rows of nine patches, and then sewed the rows together. I safety pinned on a thin batting, made a quick border out of pieced rectangles and added a back fabric. The machine quilting was by my first try at "stitching in the ditch" but without a walking foot - so it is quite rough and ready and it was good I had extra large batting and backing fabric as the patchwork "travelled" a bit.

More on that border - I made the length of it by just chain piecing any pieces I could find that were 2.5 inches wide. I found the act of chain piecing in this way quite therapetic, so maybe I will explore more "freestyle" quilting methods in upcoming projects. Here is the yellow cat rug, with its new owner.