iheartispy

This I spy quilt style is very good if you have large prints and small prints because the blocks combine a large square with smaller squares. I also like the light-to-dark arrangement, and the internal frame adds structure. Too many times, I spy blocks look kind of “muddy” if they are scattered haphazardly, due to the multicolored-ness of the novelty fabrics. I saw this I spy quilt style in some photo on the Internet, but I think it’s really a pattern that was published in an Australian patchwork magazine. I have never seen the actual magazine with the pattern. But it’s really neat, so thank you to the person who came up with it! The quilt measures about 50x71 inches. The interior blocks are one 7.5x7.5” square sewn with five 4x4” squares. These blocks are rotated, so the large block is either in the top or bottom corner. The yellow frame strip is 1” wide finished. The outer ring of 4” squares has short ones added in to make it all fit right. Whatever it takes! LOL! 

This quilt has been being made for 2+ years, and I am so glad to have it done! I cut out the fabrics about two years ago, and made the blocks. Making the blocks was so traumatic that I put them aside and forgot about them. I was going to do quilt-as-you-go, but that ended up very ugly. So then I made them without a foundation, and that worked better. And then I didn’t know how to quilt the top, so I put it aside again. And then I figured, what the heck, I will just quilt in the ditch. So that took forever. And then I couldn’t decide on a binding. And then we were under COVID-19  lockdown. And then I ordered some candy cane stripe fabric for the binding. It looked good online. And then when it came, the stripes were too tiny. So then I had to order some other candy cane stripe. And it was fine. But by then I was working on something else. And so the binding had to wait. But then it finally got sewn on, and I threw the quilt in the washer and dried it and folded it up and put it away...

During the COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year, I acquired two tiny 2” teddy bears and passed some of the time making them small items to ease their existence, including a little quilt. And then I made a few more, just for fun. I did not measure anything, just used scissors to snip up some scraps and then sew them together the best way the pieces fit. So the little quilts (about 8x8”) ended up nice and wonky.  They are tied with pink embroidery thread. This is what the backing looks like. 

The Tokyo Cat Maze Quilt was started when I lived in Tokyo. It has fabrics in it that I bought there and tiny pieces, which seemed like a good idea because I lived in a shoebox at the time. It’s called the Cat Maze because there is a cat in the center trying to get to a cat friend in the lower right hand corner. The maze “rules” are that the cat can go along the white paths or through a square with a white background that has a clear path through it. It’s not a difficult maze; there are lots of different ways to navigate it, though the middle kitty might be tired by the time it’s done! The finished size of the squares is 1”x1”. The quilt itself is about 96”x96”.  The cat friend in the corner: Another cute Tokyo cat:

  I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I won a package of wonderful scrap fabrics in a giveaway my favorite blogger was doing! They arrived a couple of days before my birthday, so that was like a nice early present and exactly what I wanted! There are so many neat prints that I have never seen. I especially love the purple cat fabric (which I think is by Kari Pearson, who had thrillingly bright fabric collections that I remember coveting & buying as much as I could afford with my chickenfeed freelance money in the early 2000s from the LQS). And there are other gorgeous little surprises like tiny helicopters & giraffes and little pink poodles! Love love love these!!! Thank you, Sally, at the blog Objects of Design!!!  https://theobjectsofdesign.blogspot.com  Sally manages to make amazingly cool quilts with fun animal motifs and little tiny pieces, even though she works overtime as staff to Molly and Buddy, who can be exacting as art critics! I love this funny blog!...

This one is only slightly different, with skiers and hikers, because this family likes to do those things!

 Love these ones with dark backgrounds. These are a mixed bag. Some I had to fussy cut. Took forever! I got the rabbits on purple in Japan. Good fabric memories! These are the stacks in a shoebox. I meant to participate in a swap with these but then I let the deadline pass without signing up. Oh well! Sometimes you don’t get very good stuff in a swap. So maybe it’s just as well.

  I was in a hurry so I did easy, minimal quilting. I love pink binding. I am collecting pinks to do an all pink pepto b quilt. 🤪

More 2x2s! I love going through these fabrics. I had to fussy cut a few of these, like the hummingbirds. Because I really try not to have little headless creatures in my I spy quilts. 😀

I’ve been working on 2 baby quilts, and I love the simplicity of 6x6 low-volume squares. Arranged 6 across and 8 down, the quilt has a nice size of about 34x45. The backgrounds for these prints are mostly white, but also cream, and the one with skiers is an ecru color that in reality would be snow so dirty I don’t think I would want to ski on it, if I skied! 🤣  Yesterday I got them layered and safety pinned and ready to quilt. 

I got sidetracked but cut a few more tiny prints. Baby Yoda might be my favorite so far. 😊

Squee! So far I have 110 mini prints cut in 2x2 squares, but another stack to go. I haven’t sewn anything yet; I am not sure how I want to arrange these. So many possibilities! 

This is an I spy quilt I made when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It started when I bought a package of I spy charm squares from a fabric catalog! I probably mailed in an order form with a check! Lol. Anyway, when I went to make the quilt, I cut more squares of I spy fabric to make a bigger quilt, but somehow  some squares got cut the wrong size. So I improvised and cut little strips of striped fabric, and some of the I spy fabrics got frames. So it looked like a design decision! Nowadays I am a little horrified at some of the chopped heads in the squares I bought. I must not have noticed at the time. And I just went ahead and sewed them like nothing was wrong! 

I am busy cutting 2x2” novelty print squares. I went through my stash find little tiny prints that I wouldn’t have to fussy cut. But it still seems to take forever! Probably because I am too fussy in general with the cutting!

I love to look at quilts online so I thought I would share some of my own! Most of them I make because I have an idea and I would like to see what it would look like in reality. I make all kinds, but my favorite ones are usually I spy quilts. Some of the quilts I make I really like. Some turn out so ugly I hide them in a box in the closet or bury them in the backyard. Some I make for other people, and I try to think what they would like, and then I end up making something crazy, and then I wonder if the recipients actually do like them or if their cats/dogs just got a new colorful bed. Well, nothing wrong with cats and dogs having nice beds! So that’s my introduction, and my goal is to start adding quilts to this blog in my free time, when I am not actively earning money to buy more fabric, er, I mean pay my bills and save for retirement. 🙂 Thank you for reading!