Friday, September 14, 2018

I spy four four patch I spies


Today I have four little quilt finishes to share. I made them all at the same time as a single big project, starting with Val's I-spy square swap. 400 bright, happy novelty squares arrived in the mail, wowee! To tame that madness, I first sorted the squares into color families. I sewed four patches of two dark and two light values within a single color. Black, white and gray were lumped together. Then I bordered half of the four patch blocks with a light sashing in the same color family, and half with dark. So the final blocks each clearly "read" as a single color.

I ended up with more blue blocks than any other color, but the mix of subjects in any color wasn't particularly "boyish" or "girlish." That pleased me, since I wanted each quilt to end up with a nice mix of everything from dump trucks to butterflies, and they did.


These two quilts will be donated to Wrap A Smile. One is all the yellow, pink, and orange blocks. The second is some of the blue blocks, and most of the green and aqua blocks.  And that's a bit of downtown Boston in the background, looking mostly gray. It was a gloomy day, but the rain had washed all the salt (and seagull poop) off this slanted gunwale so it was clean enough for photos. Plus, the wind was minimal!


The back of the pink/yellow/orange quilt is a single piece of this fun hot pink animal fabric, and the binding is a pink stripe. Wrap A Smile's label is stitched right on top in one corner, before quilting.


The blue/aqua/green one has this super fun, large scale dinosaur print on the back that matches the front colors perfectly. The geometric binding looks like it's cut on the bias, but it isn't.  I need to have a much better idea of who will be impressed before I do bias binding. 

All four pieces were quilted with a big, loose stipple in a variety of kinda-sorta matching threads. That quilting motif is super fast for me and each quilt took about 40 minutes.


The other two quilts will be donated to Quilts Beyond Borders. This one uses all the purple blocks (there were only four,) plus red and blue. I left the cleat in the lower right corner of the photo for that jaunty nautical look. One of my online guild members, quipped, "I'm gonna have to get me a boat to use as a backdrop for my quilt photos!" All you really need is a cleat, Kathleen.


For the back, I went with red fabrics. Isn't that Siamese kitty fabric darling? I love that they are all napping on various red and orange quilts. The binding on this quilt is a red stripe, and I used another piece of that same fabric to join together the larger pieces on the back. This allowed me to easily piece in the QBB-required label, and it ties the back nicely to the front.


The final quilt is the last one I put together, with the remaining blocks. This is all the black/white/gray ones, plus a smattering of blue, green, aqua and red. Not quite as coherent as the other three, but still fun.


For the back, I used this fun dog print that Rose sent me. I just hated to cut it up, so I used the whole yard here to make a child smile! The chunk of gray matches many of the sashings on the front, and the strip of black matches the black polka dot binding. Easy peasy.

The one thing that I didn't do with these four quilts is name them. I know that's a bit odd for me. I just thought of them as "The Four I-Spies" and identified each one by color. I did hum the James Bond theme a lot while sewing, so perhaps they are agents 001 through 004.

27 comments:

  1. They are all so cute! They will surely entertain and bring happiness to the recipients. Well done.

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  2. Wow, you’ve been busy, girlfriend! And they all turned out so cute!! Aren’t baby/kid-sized quilts refreshingly quick?

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  3. So gorgeous. Squares and frames, a great combination with lovely colours. Some lovely gifts that are sure to be appreciated.

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  4. I always enjoy seeing what you are creating and giving to bring comfort to so many! I had to giggle when I read "cleat" though -- I was looking for a shoe, like a baseball cleat in your quilt! hahahaha

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  5. 4 wonderful finishes. Love the fun backing that you came up with for each quilt. These quilts will make someone very happy and provide them with some warmth and lots of I-spy entertainment, I love it!

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  6. LOL....love the I spies and the idea of calling them double O's. Way to cute. You did a super creative assortment in all the color ways. I really like the last one with the extra red. It's a zinger.

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  7. Louise, love these quilts! I am testing to see if I can post! Well, I think I finally figured out my problem! Doing a happy dance! Back to the quilts. Simple 4-patches make the best quilts. My favorite is the black and grey with flashes of color.

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  8. Here you go with your cute creativeness again! They are all just fabulous but the blue/green is my personal favorite.

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  9. Oh, man, these are just the best kid's quilts ever! I enjoyed reading your narration on how you grouped them and how you backed them and how you sort of named them!

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  10. Wonderful quilts for terrific organizations. Great work.

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  11. Those look great and I love how you color sorted them.

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  12. Another batch of great charity quilts by you. Your idea to group by colors and frame them as sets was perfect. Also the color grouping for each quilt makes them each unique and very cohesive. Well done. Stay dry out there on the east coast.

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  13. Is there a prolific award for the most quilts per fortnight completed in the world wide trawler fleet? Your consistent followers could become an association with a formal charter from some auspicious group like the Friends of Star Trek. I thought about the Friends of Italian Opera but their reputation was sullied by Valentines day in the movie Some Like It Hot.

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  14. All these squares have kep you plenty busy at your sewing machine, and the results are amazing!

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  15. Those are cute as can be, Louise, and will be so loved! I really like the way you organized the color combinations. Fun!

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  16. Very productive! I really like how you split up the colors and decided which ones to group together in each quilt. Some kids will surely love these, and spy plenty of interesting motifs in them. Congratulations on the finishes.
    PS - I hope you're in a safe harbor while the remnants of Florence make their way up east.

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  17. I think it’s genius, Louise, how you took all those random squares from Val’s bountiful collection, and made them into cohesive groupings. You really have a gift for making beauty out of fabric that was “chosen” for you. Four kiddies are going to have great time poring over these quilts to spy every bit of goodness.

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  18. I totally agree with Diann, that the way you organized the 4-patches is so pleasing, and then with the fun backs, and 40-minutes per quilt stipple, just a whole 'nother level of wow. Amazing my friend, and such generosity and good causes for them all.

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  19. What darling quilts! Looks like you had fun making them, and definitely used up some stash. Way to go.

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  20. 4 yesses for 4 fun quilts. I thought about 4 patches with my I-spy blocks from Val. Now I can see what it would look like! Perfection. And using up scraps and stash. Beyond perfect. Thank you for the inspiration and generosity.

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  21. Congratulations on your finishes. The quilts are so colourful the kids will love them!

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  22. What a great way to use all those novelty prints. Congrats on your four fun finishes.

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  23. Still as busy ever and I love your I-Spy quilts, you'll be making four children very happy.

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  24. I like Agents 001-004, but they are too much to pretty to slip under the tradar as a secret agent should :) Sorting your squares by color families was a great way to get started. Deciding what to do with 400 squares could be a little paralyzing, I think!

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  25. These are just wonderful! I love the idea, and maybe I'll have to make my own from the novelties I've used for hexagons. Thanks for a great idea. I always love to see your quilt draped boat, but it makes me homesick for the years we were full-timing in our fifth wheel. =)

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  26. Less than an hour to quilt a quilt ? I must be doing it wrong ! These are beautiful little quilts , there will be 5 very happy children somewhere

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