I don't have an unobstructed view of the finished product yet, but here's at least a peek at the I Spy Mom and I made for our friend and her new daughter:
Mispickel and the look of death. Alas, I am not a metalhead or I'd submit us to Metalheads Who Love Cats on Facebook, because she could definitely hold her own with a bunch of guys in tattoos, corpse paint, and gory T-shirts.
the deal with I Spy quilts is that they're meant to be learning aids. All the block are cut from fabric printed with pictures, which you use to teach the kid words. Mom had had these blocks up on the felt wall forever. When Sherry finally goaded her about them on the day we were working on the Star of Bethlehem quilts, Mom admitted that she hadn't finished them because she had way too many blocks and couldn't decide which ones to cull.
"Well, that's easy," said Sherry, "Make it double-sided."
Doh! Problem solved in three seconds.
We had to scrounge a few more blocks to fill it out but after that it went together really quickly. We usually use flannel or some other woven thing in quilts for kids because it will stand up to washing better than non-woven batting; this has a piece of 1980-something lilac polyester velour inside. The craptastic kind that curls along the edges and is only fuzzy on one side. It also had a big dye flaw right in the middle. Clearly it was meant to be put to a use in which it would not be seen ever again.
We debated all sorts of quilting methods but then gave up and went back to tying it, since matching up the blocks to actually quilt it would have been a disaster. I tied it by hanging it on the clothesline and matching up block corners one by one (it's tied every other block corner), which worked pretty well. The bottom was a bit tricky because the line sagged just enough that it didn't quite hang straight, but the end result was fine.
I am an unreasonable person so I was up until almost 1:00 finishing the binding. My quilt bindings need work--the start/finish point was pretty rough, although actually applying the binding went just fine. The fingertips on my right hand are thoroughly bruised; for some dumb reason, I never think to use any of the zillion thimbles I have rolling around.
"Well, that's easy," said Sherry, "Make it double-sided."
Doh! Problem solved in three seconds.
We had to scrounge a few more blocks to fill it out but after that it went together really quickly. We usually use flannel or some other woven thing in quilts for kids because it will stand up to washing better than non-woven batting; this has a piece of 1980-something lilac polyester velour inside. The craptastic kind that curls along the edges and is only fuzzy on one side. It also had a big dye flaw right in the middle. Clearly it was meant to be put to a use in which it would not be seen ever again.
We debated all sorts of quilting methods but then gave up and went back to tying it, since matching up the blocks to actually quilt it would have been a disaster. I tied it by hanging it on the clothesline and matching up block corners one by one (it's tied every other block corner), which worked pretty well. The bottom was a bit tricky because the line sagged just enough that it didn't quite hang straight, but the end result was fine.
I am an unreasonable person so I was up until almost 1:00 finishing the binding. My quilt bindings need work--the start/finish point was pretty rough, although actually applying the binding went just fine. The fingertips on my right hand are thoroughly bruised; for some dumb reason, I never think to use any of the zillion thimbles I have rolling around.
Things didn't go as far as locking her in the bathroom this time. She gave up relatively quickly and fell asleep in an awkward position in the corner:
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