{Post #993} I Spy Winners and Losers

The last little bit of sewing I've done has been on several different I Spy quilts...some new designs.  A doozy loser, a so so, and one I think might turn out nicely.


I tried a Twister quilt square with only a few blocks to see if my already-cut-out 4-1/2" I Spy squares could work.  I ended up having to cut them down to 3" squares instead of the 3-1/2" squares the Little Twister ruler would have made.  But that is OK...I just drew lines on my 6-1/2" ruler and flipped it around after cutting 2 sides.  A tiny bit more time consuming, but not a hardship.  


Here is the Twister one first.  The finished sewn piece with a 4 x 4 block setting ended up being 13" square.  I could see making 8 more of these and setting it 3 x 3 blocks for a 39" square quilt.  The small overall prints look much better than the large not-very-much repeat prints.  I don't know if I have enough to make 8 more blocks, but I can certainly look.


Getting started on the cutting:

Cutting complete:

Close-up of border print, ants, and apples:

All sewn up.  Thirteen inches square:

Now for the others, in no particular order.  

This first one is an actual pattern up to the black border.  I thought it was too long and skinny, so I added the extra rows of 4-1/2" squares on each side.  I plan to put a black with something bright on it to border each side.  I like the variety of square sizes...finish at 2", 3", and 4"...no repeats.  I might make another one of these but 50% wider and not use the 2" finished squares (because I sent all I had to Natasha).  

This next one is soooo busy that it hurts my brain to look at it.  You might want to take a second to prepare yourself.  Natasha and I had a fabric trade.  She sent me two pounds of I Spy prints, and I sent her 2 pounds of Thimbleberries back.  I hope we are both happy.  I have not heard from her about her package yet.  In her package to me were these 6-1/2" square pieces.  I had a (what I thought at the time) brilliant idea of using them as alternate squares with 4 patches of 3-1/2" squares of mine.  Should have just cut them down to 4-1/2" squares and used them in 11 different quilts!

Ready, set...confusion!!

After I sewed the alternate blocks and my 4-patches together, I added an entire row of 4-1/2" square to the top and bottom to make it nearly square.  I hate like the dickens to WASTE all those I Spy prints, but what's a girl to do?  I am thinking about putting on a thin solid black then a something with a bright green wider border on it, but honestly, I don't think I could do this to a kid!

~Joan