I Spy Quilt

I Spy quilts make wonderful handmade gifts, and they can be put together quickly if you stick with a small one!

Click to read also: Handmade Gifts for Children

I won the squares for this I Spy quilt from Melissa way back in May, and I’m embarrassed it took this long to make! I hadn’t ever sewn quilt squares together like this, and it is so different from making clothing (which I find quite intuitive) that it took me a ridiculously long time to figure out how to sew the squares together! Once I did it it was super straightforward, so I’m not sure what I found so scary about it, especially since this is such a basic quilt! Check out some of the gorgeous quilt patterns Melissa has in her etsy shop!

I did get this made just in time to hide it away as a Christmas present for my kids! I think they’ll enjoy playing with it together! Please ignore the wrinkles; photographing something I’m trying to keep a secret from my kids in daylight was challenge enough without trying to iron it first!

You should also probably not look at the binding closely at all! This was my first quilt (thank you, Melissa, for giving me the head start I needed!), and after waiting for months to have that elusive child-free time when I didn’t have more urgent tasks I decided my kids would rather have a quickly-and-oh-so-imperfectly-bound quilt while they are small than a perfect one when they are All Grown Up! I considered stitching the letters of the alphabet on the squares, or tying it, or stitching the outlines of the pictures on the back – and then got realistic (especially once I realized we’d be traveling in December) and decided instead to just leave it plain. It’s such a small quilt that it should be fine as is – I hope!

The fabric on the back was also a giveaway win, from rose read. My kids are just getting into dragons, castles, and fantasy in general, so I was thrilled to have this fabric to back the quilt with. I used a worn-out mattress pad for batting, so this was a very frugal quilt!

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MaryAnne Kochenderfer

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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.