After I made the small quilt for my granddaughter, I knew I
had to take the leap and make a bed size quilt.
I had seen pictures of “I Spy” quilts for children and they looked like
fun quilts to make. These quilts contain
a collection of colorful pictures of items that children might like. Also, you could play a variety of “I Spy”
games with these quilts. I made two of
these quilts, one for Gavin, my grandson and one for Annika, my granddaughter. On each quilt I put two of each picture in
random places so they could play match games in addition to the “I Spy”
games. While these were much larger
quilts they were not quite as large as one made for an adult would be. I was able to learn, when making these, that
I could handle a larger quilt on my sewing machine!
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| Annika's I Spy Quilt |
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| Gavin's I Spy Quilt |
One of the next quilts I made was for my brother, Jerry. He had been diagnosed with Mantle Cell
Lymphoma (a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma).
He had been going through many different types of chemo and even a stem
cell transplant. It was important to me
to make him a quilt. He was able to use
and enjoy his quilt for three years before he died. I have always hoped he felt the love that I
put into it.
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| Charlie's Quilt |
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| Jerry's Quilt |
I also made a quilt for my other brother, Charlie. He has retired in Costa Rica now but luckily, I
was able to take it to him while he still lived in Nashville.
The next quilts I made were for my son, Sean and for my
other son and his wife, Chris and Kristi.
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| Chris and Kristi's Quilt |
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| Sean's Quilt |
Most recently I decided to make more grown up quilts for my
grandchildren Annika and Gavin. (they are now 23 and 17)
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| Gavin's Quilt |
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| Annika's Quilt |
In between all of these I made a few wall hangings, runners
and a variety of other items.
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| Chris and Kristi's Home Wall Hanging |
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| Sean's Guitar Wall Hanging |
With the exception of a couple of small cat quilts (yes, made for my cats!) all the
quilts I’ve made have been for loved ones. After all, that was always my original goal. I have not yet made one for my husband and
myself. Hopefully that will change this
year as I hope to make one for us.
If you have stayed with me through both of these quilt posts - thank you! I do realize not everyone is interested in things like this but it is part of who I am and I wanted to share that with my friends in blog land because you are all important to me!
Oh, I also wanted to show you that I always have special helpers when I sew!
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| Echo, a special cat helper |
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| Willow, another special cat helper |
You have sure made some pretty quilts...I enjoyed seeing them here where I could click and expand the view! My Bubbie cat is always willing to help. I always say my quilts are KTCA....Kitty Tested, Cat Approved.
ReplyDeleteI love that - KTCA! I will have to remember that one. It is amazing how much cats love to be at the sewing machine and all around when you are sewing. I love having my cats with me when I am sewing.
DeleteSuch beautiful quilts! I can't imagine making all these, and they look complicated. You are so kind and generous to make so many for others. I've made a quilt or two in my life but I am just not a quilt maker. What is it about cats and the sewing room. Dumperoo stays tangled up in whatever I'm sewing, or trying to pull my ironing off the ironing board.
ReplyDeleteThank you Henny! I've seen some quilts on your blog that are just beautiful. You are one of the best seamstresses I know, why you make so many beautiful aprons, bonnets and other things! Yes, cats do love to help out sewing!
DeleteI am so impressed that you handled the quilting on your home sewing machine. And even more impressed that your doubled up on the I Spy quilts to make them Matching. That never would have occurred to me. Quite a quilter, you!
ReplyDeleteThank you Joanne! You are such an accomplished weaver and artist and I appreciate your kind comments. Once I got the hang of it I could do the quilting on my machine but it is all really basic quilting. I would not be able to quilt a King size quilt but I have done a double. I love the I Spy quilts - they are just plain fun!
DeleteWow! How did you do the guitars?
ReplyDeleteI had a pattern and used iron on fusible web and then stitched over it to hold it in place and add decorative touches like the guitar strings. The strings were sewn with metallic thread. I think it is the particular fabric I found that makes it work. The fabric just said "guitar" to me. My son is a music major and plays guitar so it made a perfect wall hanging for him. Thank you for visiting!
DeleteOh my goodness, these are beautiful, Bonnie! You have been very productive over the years. I love the idea of an "I Spy" quilt and am filing that away in my brain in case I actually get around to making quilts for my little grandsons before they grow up to be big grandsons.
ReplyDeleteI always say I would sew more if my cats weren't around demanding attention and getting into things. After seeing your helpers, I have to re-think that excuse :)
The I Spy quilts were so much fun to make! It did take me a little time to collect a lot of small amounts of different fabric suitable for cutting out the individual pictures. If you look them up online you will find many different suggestions for making them.
DeleteI actually love sewing with my cats. Of course there are certain things that would be unsafe for them so I watch for that but otherwise they like to be right in the middle of it all. You would think they would be scared of the noise a sewing machine makes (like most cats are scared of vacuums) but every cat I have had has loved it and would lay down right next to it while I worked.
Everything you have shown us here is very beautiful, and looks so well made! (Probably because you had such special helpers!)
ReplyDeleteThe children's ones are great fun, but my favourite of them all is your granddaugher's grown up quilt, because it is yellow. Also, I really love the "home" wall hanging.
Thank you so much. I like my granddaughter's quilt too. She had wanted one that was yellow and grey which worked out better than I had anticipated. It is hard to see it well in this picture but it came out looking very feminine I think.
DeleteYour quilts are absolutely beautiful. I love the I spy childrens ones - so colourful. I'm in awe of people who make lovely things as I'm hopeless at most crafting.
ReplyDeleteMantle Cell NHL was what my husband had before he died in 2018, it is certainly one of the nastiest types of all cancers
Thank you Sue. You are such a talented person, I think you could do anything you put your head to. You are right about Mantle Cell NHL, it is indeed one of the worst cancers I have seen. I felt much of your pain as Col went through it after I had gone through it with my brother. We want to do so much more than we can.
DeleteThe people close to you are very lucky, you make wonderful things for them.
ReplyDeleteThat is sweet of you to say Yael. I feel I am lucky to have them. I hope you are well and maybe the new cat is still coming around.
DeleteI've never heard of an I Spy quilt, but what a clever idea. These are all beautiful and filled with love. I'm sure your brother, Jerry, appreciated his quilt so much.
ReplyDeleteThis is a part of who you are. We love to know more about you. Don't ever apologize to us readers and followers for sharing something that means so much to you. ;)
Love and hugs from Fargo
PS Cat quilts--that's awesome!
Thank you Rita. I am so new at blogging and I don't want to bore followers with things they might not be interested in. I am still learning to look for things to blog about!
DeleteYes - cats do love quilts!
I liked being introduced to all your family through the quilts Bonnie. Thank you so much for that. The quilts are lovely and the wall hanging guitars is superb. Glad to also see your helpers there too. X
ReplyDeleteThank you Rachel. I guess I don't talk about my family too much but the members I have mentioned here are the ones closest to me. My helpers in those pictures are two sweet cats I had over five years ago. They are gone now but as I'm sure you know they stay with us in our hearts.X
DeleteLovely quilts, Connie! Your family must be delighted and the guitar quilt is really special!!
ReplyDeleteI made two small quilts for our two cats (both now sadly gone) and neither would have a thing to do with the quilts I made for them. It's still a mystery.
Thank you! The cat quilts I made are now on their second set of cats. The two cats I made them for would sleep on them a lot. I saved them after those cats passed and brought them out for the two we have now and they love them even more. In fact one of them crawls under one of the quilts to sleep. But if you know and love cats like I do, then you know there is no explaining what they will or won't do!
DeleteThank you, Barbara Anne for visiting my blog - it's good to see you here!
You are a prolific quilt maker Bonnie! A lovely selection of varied designs. Please do share the one you make for you and your husband.
ReplyDeleteThank you Simone. These were made over a period of years but I achieved my goal. I will share the one I make for us whenever that may be.
DeleteI'm definitely impressed. I'm also impressed by your cat helpers.
ReplyDeleteCats and quilts seem to go together!
DeleteBeautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you R!
DeleteSuch beautiful quilts! I enjoyed seeing them!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Delete