Chicken I Spy

I wasn't sure what I was going to post this week.  I've shown you some quilts from other bloggers so it was time for one of my own quilts.  I went for a search in my picture folders and came across this one labeled Chicken I Spy.  The date on the photo is 2007, and I'm afraid I have to say that I don't know where this quilt ended up.

From memory the pieces are 6.5 by 3.5 inches.  Rectangles are nice to use - not as many matching corners as squares, and a simple pattern looks good. 

It's quite nice looking at these prints from five years ago, and remember where they came from and what other projects they ended up in.  I wonder what I can find for next week?

Funky Ant Farm

How cool is this kid's quilt! The sashing for the blocks is white fabric crawling with litttle ants.  (I have some of this fabric in my stash.)  The occasional random ants in the rectangular blocks make the quilt top look like an ant farm.  Read about this work in progress at The Q and the U, there are still a few more borders to go.

P.S. All the borders are on now - finished top is here.

I Spy a Charming Quilt

Some of the nicest I Spy quilts are the simple ones.  A charm square quilt is made from many, many squares and no two squares are the same.  Collecting the charms takes time and swapping with other quilters can speed the collection process.

http://obsessivelystitching.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-spy-quilt-for-jellybean.html

One of the blogs I follow is Obsessively Stitching.  I enjoy the quilts and other projects pictured, many of which are Quite Small.  Her latest quilt shown above is a great I Spy.  No sashing, no filler fabrics, just dozens and dozens of bright I Spy squares.   This blogger runs charm square swaps for I Spy fabrics too, very handy if you want to increase your collection for your charm square quilt.

More QAYG Hexagons

Last week I shared Jack's hexagon quilt with you.  This week I'll show you Emma's quilt.

Same templates, same pattern, different grandchild!  It was great making each of these quilts, especially chosing pictures that I thought each child (and their parents) would enjoy.  There are 61 hexagons in all and the finished quilt is about one metre/ one yard in width.

I like the back of this one better, with the big hexagon made of little hexagons. P.S. I'm going to run out of quilts to show you soon, does anyone have an I Spy quilt to share?

QAYG Hexagons

This is Jack's quilt made in 2008.  It was designed to be used as a play rug on the floor.  Each hexagon has been cut from a 6.5 inch square using nesting hexagon templates from Kiwi Quilts.  It's a Quilt As You Go (QAYG) quilt.  Each hexagon has a same size batting hexagon and a larger backing fabric hexagon.  The backing fabric is folded over the front, then a wide decorative machine stitch in a contrasting colour thread sews the folded backing edge onto the front with batting.  The hexagons are joined with a ladder stitch also by machine.  Here's the other side with it's rainbow colour scheme:

Jack got heaps of use from this quilt; and then his sister Amelia used it as well. It reminds me of the poem "For Baby" by Nancy Riddell.

It's OK if you sit on your quilt.

It's OK if your bottle gets spilt.

If you swallow some air

And you burp, don't despair,

It's OK if you spit on your quilt.

There are scraps old and new on your quilt.

Put together for you on your quilt.

If your gums feel numb

'Cause your teeth haven't come,

It's OK if you chew on your quilt.

We expect you to lie on your quilt.

If you hurt, you may cry on your quilt.

On a cold rainy night,

Don't you fret; you're all right,

You'll be snug, warm and dry on your quilt.

I Spy Evening Stars

Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville site is one of my favourite places to browse.  I like Bonnie's chatty style and her great patchwork ideas - she never seems to stop!

Recently in her blog Bonnie shares the progress of a new quilt for a baby boy.

The quilt starts with some novelty print 4.5 inch squares which become the centre of Evening Star blocks.

The blocks increase in number using 2.5 inch strips to make the flying geese and corner squares.

Now, if I was working with these nice bright blocks I would probably sash them with some nice neutral fabric to draw them altogether - but Bonnie is never neutral.

How's that!  I certainly wouldn't have thought of black and white checkerboard strips, but doesn't it look great!  I like the way the black and white extends into the multicolored border.

You can read all the details of this starry I Spy here, and here, and here.  Well done Bonnie - you've inspired us once again!

A UFO Bites the Dust

This is one of the first quilts I started when I began selling I Spy charms on eBay, so it must have begun about 2005. I started with 6.5 inch squares and arranged them in six groups of four.  I added a 2.5 inch pink block to one corner of each big square to make a snowball type corner.  The four blocks were sewn together, then a pink sashing added.

Next I sorted through my I Spy stash and found pieces that were at least 3.5 inches wide.  I sewed these pieces into strips and stashed the big blocks.
Then the mostly finished top went into a cupboard and sat for six years.  It was retrieved, I'm glad to say, when the new sewing machine arrived and I could quilt big quilts once more (the Singer Featherweight did have its limitations).

I still had the bright pink fabric stored with the top so that was fine.  I chose a light coloured print from the stash and sewed a corner square on each corner, then round the whole top with a 2.5 inch strip.  I added a pink corner and again went around the whole top.  The back was a bright print of waterfalls and flamingos, also from the stash, and there was enough pink to do the binding.
Yesterday I took the completed quilt to one of our local social care agencies to add to their stash of Christmas presents.  It took a while but the quilt will finally have a proper home.