I Spy a Great Grandmother, a Grandmother and a Mom

I Spy with Inklingo from Bert in Michigan

Bert in Michigan sent me six wonderful photos this week.

This is a story that warms my heart. I think it will give you a good feeling too.

 

I Spy with Inklingo from Bert in Michigan

“My plan was to quilt these before sharing; however, I thought now might be an appropriate time to share if you would like. 

Without Inklingo, we would never have gotten as far.”

 

I Spy with Inklingo from Bert in Michigan

“They will be for three granddaughters and from great grandmother, grandmother, and Mom who all helped to work on them.”

 

I Spy with Inklingo from Bert in Michigan

“My Mom (great grandmother) being an excellent seamstress, had never quilted before.  However, when she had her hip replaced (91 yrs. old ), and I visited her several times to help out, we would watch her favorite TV programs and hand piece hexagons.  She quickly became very good at it and enjoyed doing them even more once she understood how the star was formed.”

 

I Spy with Inklingo from Bert in Michigan

“My daughter-in-law (Mom) enjoys and appreciates quilts but has not gotten the bug yet.  She wanted to be a part of this venture and did her share of hexagons also.  She is looking forward to having more time to devote to personal hobbies when time permits with her work schedule and home duties.”

 

I Spy with Inklingo from Bert in Michigan

“I (grandmother) became familiar with Linda’s work when her Quilted Diamonds books came out and have followed and grown with her ever since. 

I do love the Inklingo technique.  Seems as if there is never enough time!  I often think I need to live to be 100 yrs. old to finish all of my unfinished projects at home and in my mind.”

 

Inklingo Fussy Cutting with freezer paper templates

FUSSY CUTTING WITH TEMPLATES

You can combine the Quilted Diamonds method with the Inklingo method for I SPY quilts for someone you love too.

Inklingo shape collections include shapes to print on fabric AND shapes without seam allowances to print on freezer paper, so you can use the same method I taught in my  Quilted Diamonds books before I invented Inklingo.

 

Inklingo Fussy Cutting with freezer paper templates

  • Print the shape without seam allowances on freezer paper and rotary cut to make the template.
  • Iron the template on the WRONG side of the fabric (hot, dry iron) in position to fussy cut a princess, a tree and a strawberry.
  • Rotary cut around every hexagon, adding 0.25 inch seam allowance.
  • Use a ruler and a mechanical pencil to draw the stitching lines and matching marks manually (above).

I used the 60° Hexagon 3 inch.

 

Print triangles on fabric with Inklingo

For the triangles, iron freezer paper to the RIGHT side of the fabric and print!

This color will be the stars. Bert used yellow, red, and blue.

Rotary cut several layers at a time.  (The triangle is half of a 60° Diamond, included in the 60° Diamond 3 inch shape collection.)

 

Fussy Cut Cat

4 BONUS TIPS

1. The only confusing thing about this I Spy method is that sometimes we iron the freezer paper to the right side of the fabric (so we can print on the wrong side) and sometimes we iron the freezer paper to the wrong side of the fabric (so we can draw the stitching lines manually). In the early days, I had to pay Monkey a nickel every time I did it wrong.

2. This template method is different from Inklingo No Waste Fussy Cutting, where we print identical sheets of fabric to get identical shapes. Individual freezer paper templates are great for I SPY, but No Waste Fussy Cutting is for kaleidoscope effects like One Block Wonder, Stack n Whack™ and others. (Article on QuiltingHub)

3. Did you know you can combine shapes you print with Inklingo with unprinted shapes? In some cases, you don’t even have to draw the lines on the unprinted shapes. (We’ll show you that another time.)

4. You can make Bert’s I SPY design in several sizes listed on the Main 60° Shape Page. The sizes are easy. Just make sure the hexagons will be the same size as the triangles (half diamonds). If you are using 3 inch hexagons, you also need 3 inch triangles, etc.

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE. . .

. . . a happy family

. . . evidence of an amazing stash

. . . a thoughtful friend.

What do you spy?

 

Inklingo Fussy Cutting with freezer paper templates

Bert’s granddaughters’ quilts are the cat’s meow, don’t you think?

When you look at Bert’s I SPY quilts, does it make you want to dive into your stash and start cutting? Got Elvis? Got monkeys?

What lucky little girls! They were born into a wonderful family and are surrounded by love. There is more happiness in store for them. The quilts are just the icing on the cake.

(Note to self. Find cake fabric. Fussy cut it.)

Thank you, Bert, for allowing me to feature your beautiful family on the blog. I hope we meet in person some day.

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Linda & Monkey

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6 thoughts on “I Spy a Great Grandmother, a Grandmother and a Mom”

  1. I too saw some fabric that I have had in my stash! I love picking out my stash fabrics in others quilts.

    An easy way to make a window template is with a Fiskars hexagon punch that comes in three different sizes. While I think they were meant for some other task, when has that ever stopped a quilter. I was using them before running into the Inklingo system. If you double up the freezer paper it punches the hexie templates out better. Not taking away from the Inklingo system which I haven’t tried yet since discovering it as my health hasn’t been the best and I’ve done NO sewing for a couple of months. But those punches do come in handy when you need one window template or one I spy hexie cut out and you don’t want to boot up the computer and printer for one hexie.

    Such a charming idea this is.. Not only a special gift, but a great learning tool

    Reply
  2. Great tips! I forgot you can fussy-cut without the no-waste method, exactly for a project like this.

    To get exactly the area you want, it’s also nice to print 2 pages of the central shape, one on freezer paper and one on regular paper. Cut out the center of the regular paper shape and use it as a ‘window’ to preview your shape. Then cut out the shape itself on the freezer paper one, place it in the center of your window when it’s on the fabric frame you want, then iron it in place and rotary cut. If you cut it out on the right side, peel off the paper and iron it on the flip side to do the markings.

    I love the Quilted Diamonds method–it’s great to handle the mechanical pencil, rulers and scissors–especially for a project like this. But if I had to do all those triangles like this too, it would drive me crazy! Good thing you can use Inklingo too, eh?

    Reply

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