I Spy quilts

Part of me has always wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, and this quilt seems to satisfy my desire to cut up lots and lots of cute kiddy fabrics. And when I say "lots and lots" I mean a bazillion! The plan is to make one for each of my nieces' and nephew's families, plus for my own kids when they start having children. That's potentially 8 I Spy quilts, with 147 hexagons each. You do the math -- bazillion is a close enough answer for me!

What is an I Spy quilt you ask? It has hexagons of many different fabrics -- in fact, there should not be a repeat in the quilt. (Sometimes one fabric has many designs that can each be used, however.) Like this:



The idea is to be able to play the game "I Spy" with the quilts. "I Spy with my little eye ..." an umbrella, a horse, a lemon, a duck playing a clarinet, etc. I'm trying to have something for each letter of the alphabet, and with lots of colors. (I spy something blue.) They are also great for stories. Pick a hexagon and tell a story about it. Or move from hexagon to hexagon and incorporate each new item into the story. Lots of fun! One very kindly member of the guild, Sue K., has made 6 I Spy quilts and she let me cut up her leftover stash, plus I added my own collection. I'm so grateful to her, as it takes a loooong time to get so many fabrics!


Once the hexagons are cut, you need to sew triangles of the background fabric onto two opposite sides of each hexagon, as in this photo. I'm trying to make mine directional, rather than some facing each way, so I have to pay attention. But thank goodness for chain piecing!

Here the pieces are laid together. You first join them in rows, then stitch the rows, but I only have a few pieces with the triangles on so I haven't joined the rows. They are just laid out here so you can see that ultimately you get a 6-pointed star. Really fun!