Edith's Cat Baskets
Hand-Quilted in Putney, Vermont
Edith Pelletier, 72. Her grandmother came down from Trois-Rivières in 1923 and taught her courtepointe — the Quebec way of quilting — on a back porch in the summer of 1961. Sixty-five years later she is still at the same machine. This is her final collection of cat baskets. The bank next door bought her building, and the shop comes down in October.
“A woman at the Windham County fair asked whether I’d ever made anything for a laundry room. She told me her hamper was the single ugliest object in her house. I sewed her one that week, and when she came to collect it she said she wasn’t sure she wanted to put laundry in it — too pretty to shove in a corner. That was the first basket. I never sold one. I gave them to people I liked. These are the last.”
— Edith Pelletier, Putney, Vermont
What You Receive
Everything That Ships With Your Basket
Your Handmade Basket
100% handmade. Three layers, quilted right around the outside. Self-standing, empty or full. Your chosen design, ready to use.
Seven Designs Available
Black Cats, Cat Crowd, Bright Cats, Cats and Leaves, Cozy Cat, Reading Cat and Sleeping Cat. Every cat cut and stitched on by hand.
Edith’s Card
A short note from Edith, written by hand, folded into every order. A small piece of sixty-five years.
Why This Basket
Six Things You Won’t Find on a Printed Basket
Every detail below comes out of sixty-five years of making the same thing well and refusing to cut corners on any of it.
Three Layers, Quilted All the Way Round
A heavy cotton-poly face, a firm batted core, and dense all-over quilting that locks the three layers together — right around the outside, not just across the panel you happen to be looking at. That is where the weight comes from. You notice it the second you pick one up.
Appliquéd, Not Printed
Every ear, tail, eye and whisker is a piece of cloth cut, layered and stitched onto the panel by hand. The shapes stand slightly proud of the ground behind them. Drag a thumb across one and you feel where each cat begins and ends. A print is a picture of a cat. This is a cat made of cloth.
Stands Up Straight, Empty or Full
No wire ring, no plastic frame. The batted quilted walls hold the shape by themselves, so it sits up straight in the corner whether it is stuffed with laundry or completely empty. It will not slump, fold inward, or cave at the bottom.
Bartacked at Every Stress Point
Doubled canvas handles, bartacked exactly where handles usually fail. Carry a full load of laundry from room to room without a seam pulling loose. Edith has bartacked them the same way since the seventies.
Roomy — 16″ × 20″
Deep enough for a full load of laundry, a pile of blankets, a basket of yarn, a heap of toys — or anything else that deserves a better home than a plastic tub. It holds its shape instead of caving in, and it is machine washable — gentle cold, lay flat to dry.
Built to Last for Years
A friend of Edith’s two streets over has had one in the same corner for eight years. It started out holding laundry and now holds her knitting and her good quilts. That is not a throwaway. It is part of a house. Yours is made the same way.
Craft Note
“The difference between a genuinely quilted basket and a printed one is obvious the moment you pick it up. A true quilted piece has loft — you can feel the batting under the surface, and the stitching lifts the pattern into a raised relief that gives the fabric real body and weight. What Edith makes is the real thing: a three-layer quilted construction with hand-placed appliqué, the same approach quilters have used for generations. A piece built this way holds its shape and lasts for decades.”
Ruth Ann Copley — Master Quiltmaker · 30 years · Past President, Green Mountain Quilters Guild
Where It Goes
Made For These Corners of the Home
Quality Promise
Five Things You Get With Every Basket
A Note From the Workshop
Edith finishes every basket by hand and looks each one over before it ships. Small differences in the quilting pattern and in where the cats sit are part of handmade work. No two baskets are exactly alike, and that is the point. The appliqué is placed by hand. The quilting is guided by hand. The bartacking is done one handle at a time. These are not faults — they are the maker’s hand, sixty-five years of it. Junebug, her calico, has spent this summer sleeping in a different one every week, so the odd cat hair is also possible.
The Details
Product Specifications
| Material | Heavy cotton-poly face, full batted interior, wipe-clean lining |
| Construction | Three-layer quilted build, dense all-over free-motion quilting, hand-placed appliquéd cats, self-standing walls, bartacked handles |
| Available Designs | Black Cats · Cat Crowd · Bright Cats · Cats and Leaves · Cozy Cat · Reading Cat · Sleeping Cat |
| Structure | Self-standing empty or full — no wire ring, no plastic frame |
| Handles | Doubled canvas, bartacked at every stress point |
| Interior | Lined, wipe-clean interior — roomy enough for laundry, blankets, yarn or toys. Whole basket machine washable on a cool gentle cycle |
| Approximate Size | 16″ W × 20″ H (40.5 × 51 cm) |
| Care | Machine washable — gentle cold, lay flat to dry. Do not tumble dry. The stitching holds because it is sewn through three layers, not glued or printed. |
| Use | Laundry · Bedroom storage · Nursery · Blankets & yarn · Gifting |
| Maker | Edith Pelletier — quilting since 1961, Putney, Vermont |
| Final Collection | 412 baskets remain — no reorders; the shop comes down in October |