I Spy Quilt

Grandma quilts have love in every stitch. Author Unknown

Just before his third birthday, Robert became enamored of the I Spy books he checked out of the library. With this in mind, I decided an I Spy quilt would be a great gift for his birthday.

Robert spies his quilt.

Robert was so pleased with his I Spy quilt. After he opened the package, the other children were quite intrigued and began examining the items in each square. Feeling a little overwhelmed by the festivities and his guests’ enthusiastic manhandling of his special quilt, Robert announced that he was going to take a rest. And please would Nana come with him.

With one hand he grabbed a corner of the quilt and with the other he took my hand. We went to his room and snuggled a little while before he was ready to face the bedlam that attends 3 year-old birthday parties. Ahhh…Nana heaven!

The borders are 4½” wide and cut from yellow gingham. I had planned to make them 5″ but then realized that my backing would not be wide enough for the finished top. I had to piece the long border sides and put black rick rack over the join.

In the center of each long side I put the magnifying glass with I SPY text on either side. On the short sides, I centered the I Spy text and put the magnifying glass on each side. Knowing that my border would have a ½” seam allowance and the quilt top had just ¼ , I scooted the embroidery closer to the edge that would be joined to the quilt top, rather than centering it in the 4½” width.

quilt back

The I SPY text is black ultrasuede appliqued in place with the open letter alphabet from Brother’s PE-Design software. I simply embroidered the text over the ultrasuede and then trimmed close to the straight stitch. I hated having to buy the magnifying glass design but after spending way too much time looking for a free one, I got it at embroidery.com for $6.95.

After doing the embroidery, a few more short sections of rick rack were added just for interest. I had rick rack in  both jumbo and medium sizes, but not enough of either to do the entire quilt. So I mixed and used them indiscriminately. I like a scrappy look so it suited me.

Four 4 ½” blocks were cut for the corners and joined to the borders. Finally, the borders were joined to the quilt top.

For backing I used a cute piece of Michael Miller fabric that was just exactly wide enough at 45″.

This fun project was easier because I was able to buy a package of 200 I Spy charm squares, rotary cut to size. Several more were added to my stash, as some of the purchased squares were just too feminine for my grandson.

I really did enjoy making this. The smile on Robert’s sweet face was all the reward I needed.