Getting My Eyes Examined

This morning I had my eyes examined. Thoroughly. 

The doctor sent me home with some new products to help me see better...

But, when you get a load of the borders on this quilt I'm making,

 you might all shout,

"You need your eyes examined!"

It will be too late though, 'cuz I'm getting ready to quilt the cutie.

Stay tuned...it won't be boring!

These Hot Days of Summer

When the weather outside is this hot

 and even the usually perky daisies are feeling pretty wilty

I'm definitely not in the mood for gardening 

or a trip to the zoo with the grandkids.

 Taking in a baseball game

or getting out the mixer

to cook up some favorite sweets doesn't sound fun either.

If I owned a swimming pool, I know just where I'd be hanging out,

wearing my shades

and having a cool treat!

But, since I don't.....I'll just have to stay inside waiting for a change in the weather

 as I cut and sew 

till the sun goes down and I can venture out again!

I love these hot days of summer......I get so much done!

How are you surviving these extra warm days?

Lula's I Spy Block Tutorial

Here's the tutorial, as promised, for Lula's I Spy Quilt. My directions are for a quilt 45"X45" before borders. You can add those, or not, as desired. I am using 4 inch charms to create 9 inch (finished) blocks. (Note that you will need to trim your standard 5 inch charms to make this version.) This picture is of the quilt in progress......

Let's begin with the fabric requirements and cutting. 

FABRIC:

100 - I Spy charms

1.25 yards solid for sashing

********

CUTTING:

Cut sashing into 1.5 inch width of fabric (WOF) strips. 

You will need a total of 23 strips.

Subcut 10 strips into 4 inch pieces. You will need 100 rectangles.

Subcut 13 strips into 5 inch pieces. You will need 100 rectangles. 

Trim charms to 4 inches square.

The drawing below is my doodle for planning Lula's quilt and the placement of the sashing strips. As I was sewing the blocks, I found it helpful to keep the drawing beside my machine to refer to as I constructed each block.  I highly recommend that you make a sketch also, unless you enjoy frog sewing..rippit, rippit! This block can get mixed up easily!

Working with 4 charms at a time,

 lay them out in a pleasing pattern. With 1/4" seams, sew  a four inch strip to the TOP of each of the two squares on the left.

Sew a four inch strip to the BOTTOM of each of the two squares on the right.

I pressed my seams open.

Again, lay out the four charms with the short strips attached.  Using the five inch strips, lay one on the LEFT side of each of the two top charms. Lay one on the RIGHT side of each of the two bottom charms as shown below. Stitch.

After pressing, again lay out the squares.

 Check your diagram to make sure it's correct! Trust me.

Sew together the top two squares and the bottom two, as shown.

After pressing, complete the block by sewing the two sections together 

to make a 9 inch (finished) block.

Repeat to make 25 blocks. Arrange the finished blocks 5 across and 5 down.

Sew the blocks into rows and then join the rows.

Add borders (or not) as desired. Quilt and bind.

Now, go find a young'in  and have fun playing "I Spy with my Little Eye!"

As another option, if you would like to use 5 inch squares to make the quilt, you will need a total of 64 charms to make a quilt top 44" X 44". 

Using 1 yard of sashing fabric, cut 18 strips 1.5 in. wide. Sub cut into 64 five inch strips and 64 six inch strips. Assemble as above to make 16 blocks.

Arrange the blocks four across and four down.
#If you hurry, you can still join in the I Spy charm swap here.

I Spy Collection

Over the last few years I have made several I Spy themed quilts (here, here and here, and here)...all of them for my grand children and in different patterns. I've found that three years old is the perfect age to begin playing this game with kids. Younger children can certainly enjoy looking at all the hidden pictures in an I Spy but at three they finally have the attention span to really get involved. 


Because Lula is turning three in July, it's time to get busy on her fun quilt. Jane will enjoy it too, I'm sure!

Yesterday, I was pumped to get started....here's what I have so far..... If you are unfamiliar with an I Spy quilt, just imagine looking at all the pictures on the quilt with a toddler and taking turns saying "I spy with my little eye....." and then giving a hint, like an orange owl, or a pink bird, etc. Sometimes we use a little car or trinket to put on the picture when it is found.

 I'm really liking the pattern I'm using this time, even though it takes some thinking to keep it straight. My seam ripper came out at least once last evening!

I'm going to need 100 different squares for this quilt. Would anyone want to do a swap if I organized it? We would need at least 20 participants to make it work, I think. Let me know if you would be interested. I'm planning to do a tutorial on the pattern also. Meanwhile, I'll keep searching my collection for more possibilities!