Cats and Suitcases

One of these things is different...

One of these things just doesn't belong...

Meet Ducky--short for Jemima Puddleduck.

Like her namesake, she's the sweetest cat in the world, but not necessarily the brightest. Whereas Cricket sits on the table to be naughty, Ducky sits on the table because she has no idea where she is. We relate a lot, Duck and I.

Anyway, in the midst of Spring Cleaning, I decided to re-purpose one of my suitcases as a cat bed (credit for idea: mom--who credits someone else)

I put the suitcase down in the hallway to try to tempt the cats inside, since they always hop into our traveling bags before vacation. But, as cats are wont to do, they completely ignored just the thing I wanted them to pay attention to.
But not to be discouraged, I began making a lining for the suitcase. I figured if I made it as attractive as, say, those super classy cardboard boxes they like to sit in, they might be tempted inside.

Cricket trying to help me with my sewing.

I have dozens upon dozens of scraps I used for the lining--some from quilting, some from altering clothes. I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to sewing, so projects take me way longer than they need to (especially when I'm in a hurry and don't take the time to pre-measure anything). So my personal goal for this project was just to slap it together all willy nilly and not go back and fix anything.
It is, after all, just a cat bed.

Since I don't have a cutter-bobber to cut things on (like, say, a board), the bottom of the suitcase served as my table so cut on. I then sewed the pieces together in quilt-like fashion and hot glued the sucker to the inside of the lid.
I also had an extra pillow case from when I made my matching duvet cover, so I passed that on to the little wretches.
The end result:
Da-dun!

I've yet to lure the cats inside (with this brief exception, blurrily caught on film).

Cricket loves my mom's perfume and even my spritzing that inside doesn't help.
Darn you, cats!
I, therefore, left a very stern note, letting Cricket know that she is not allowed inside the suitcase under any circumstances!

We'll see if that works.