I Spy Quilt; Quilt #3

A friend of mine was pregnant at just about the right time: I was looking for another quilt idea to try out. Beth had told me about something called an I Spy Quilt: It's a baby quilt, and the idea is that you cut out various novelty fabrics that would be something you could ask the spawn to find, like the car game you probably played when you were a kid: "I Spy with my little eye...a lamb!" and then the wee one searches for the square containing the lamb. This particular quilt does have a lamb, but it also has a Dobro as I come from a musical family and couldn't help myself.

I've since seen many variations on I Spy Quilts, and many of them don't seem to use the window-pane style that I used...in other words, they didn't use borders between the squares. I don't like that as much as it seems like too much color and loudness. Like this one for an example:

 

 

 

 

It's not that this isn't a nice quilt, I just personally feel like it would stress me out if I were a kid that had to sleep with all that chaos. The separations I used in this quilt helped with my weird need for organization, and I feel it helps all of the different colors work better together. You do want to avoid putting all of the dark squares on one side though...mix them  throughout the quilt or you'll get an unbalanced look.

The fun parts about making an I Spy Baby Quilt:

• Finding all of the different fabrics. You generally want to stay away from anything too complicated, considering these are made for tiny humans.
• The small size. I honestly finished this one Sat night. I stayed up too late to finish it, but still.
• Because of the small size of the quilt, I was able to avoid binding the quilt and was able to just do the whole "inside-out" thingy.  Note: You'll notice on this blog that I often forget or don't use the technical terms. I have no idea who my audience for this blog may be (if anyone) so if I write about something that needs clarification (like the "inside-out thingy"), just ask in the comments and I'll try to be a little less nutty in my descriptions.
• You can almost guarantee that this quilt will be used if it is given as a gift (even if they hate it). Parents of babies and small children almost always find themselves needing extra blankets. So if you're of a practical mind...there you go. Problem of baby showers solved.
• Cheap to make! Especially after you buy the fabric to make one...save the left overs. These were only 4" squares and years later I still have more than enough to make more baby quilts. Unfortunately, most of my friends have stopped breeding. Oh well. Eventually I'll have a grand kid. ;)