Went to the quilt show at Malvern last week and, as well as some more fabric, I bought a pattern. It's an applique cat called Stalker (see the pattern at http://www.storyquilts.com/html/cats.html).
I'm not very confident of my machine applique skills so thought I'd better practice before committing to the real thing. Got a double thickness of calico and had a go at machining around the lines. Although not perfect it's never good to throw something away or put it in the bottom of a drawer of unfinished projects so I trapuntoed it and appliqued it onto a quilted sandwich to make a bag. I'm very pleased with the result.