Squirts and an eye spy

Dear Readers,

I made a quilt this summer that I have not written about yet.  I was on my fabulous road trip with Celeste when I asked Sue what fabrics Steve and Sally, her son and daughter in law, were using in their nursery.  I had the thought of making an eye spy quilt for their nursery.  So I wanted to find things that were in her theme for the eye spy blocks.  She had chosen some soft grey fabrics and one print with elephants on it.  Well on our trip, Celeste and I ran across a shop hop in the Salt Lake City.  So on the shop hop we saw a quilt made up called Elephant Abstractions by Violet Craft.  Click here to visit her website. On a whim, I sent a photo to Sue, and Celeste and I bought the pattern.

I had been collecting grey fabrics to make a mountain quilt for Celeste over the last few months and I had already cut out the blocks for that quilt.  So when I got home, I put out the fabrics and found some to use for the elephant.  There were some that I wanted to use, that I didn't have enough fabric.  The pattern showed a yellow background, but Sue did not think that would work with their color scheme.  So I layed out various options I had in my stash and we picked the bright blue.

 When I got home, before I could start the elephant I needed to finish the eye spy for my co-workers first grand baby.  Once I finished that I started piecing the elephant.  There are 97 paper pieced sections int the elephant.  And it is built in 6 sections.  So I started with section one and tried to get a section done in 1 or two days.

 The trunk was section one...

Section two was an ear

Section three was the bottom of the left

Then the top right.

Then the bottom right

Lastly the feet had to be done.

Violet Craft did not have a border on her quilt, but I decided with all those bias edges, to put a 2 inch border made of the background fabric on the quilt.  I did not want it to get wavy, and it was laying pretty flat upon completion.

My original plan was to make a two sided quilt, eye spy on one side and the elephant on the other...but as I pieced it I decided I really would want to custom quilt that elephant.  So I texted Sue and suggested we do it as two quilts...So when we were on our crafting week at her sisters, I quilted this elephant and made the eye spy quilt.   I used the quilting in the quilt I saw in Utah for inspiration.  It did seem to get a little wavy with the quilting.  I quilted it on my Bernina 350.  If we had had more time, I would have blocked it.  We named the elephant quilt "Squirts"  I hope they love it, I had a great time making it, and it was a big stretch to do those large paper piecing and some of the quilting patterns were things I hadn't done before.  My only regret was we didn't have time to block it.  

 So this is what the eye spy quilt made with Come Quilt With Me templates came out looking like....
Click here if you want one.

I quilted this by stitching in the ditch and putting a meandering stars in the border.  I also wrote his name in the quilting...I really do like to write with the free motion quilting.  It is like leaving a hidden message.

Enjoy Vance Harmon!!

Terry

An I Spy Quilt

Dear Readers,

Despite all the projects I wrote about last post, I took time out to do a special I spy quilt.  There is a little boy in our community and a member of my church that has Mitochondrial disease.  His name is Judson and his story has touched my heart so I made him a quilt.

Several years ago I bought some of Pat Yamin's Come Quilt With Me templates for eye spy quilts.   I purchased the 5 in diameter hex that comes with the hexagon template and the setting triangle.  I also purchased the smaller size, but I used the 5 inch size for this quilt.

I have a large collection of novelty prints and some were already cut into hexies.   I had also picked up a number of other prints this summer when I was out in Colorado.  So I spent a night or two cutting them into hexies.  I talked to Judson's pre school teacher to find out what his favorite color was and what he liked.  She told me super heroes and black!  I was so surprised about the black.  I had thought I would use a red for the star points, but I decided to change them to black.   I machine quilted the quilt on my Juki.  Just stitching in the ditch on all the seams.  The back was spiderman fabric with red on either side.  I did not write down the finished measurements but I think it is about 55 by 77.

I got the sweetest note from Judson's mom, Raven, and she sent me these photos of Judson with his quilt.  I am so happy he likes it.  

 I have also recently taken a trip to Colorado...I will write about that another day, but it was a fabulous visit.

I am behind in grading...ugh.  I will be working on that till I am caught back up, then on to the other projects on the table.

Sew on.

Terry