I was given a single strip of the animal print a few years ago, and knew I wanted to make a baby strip quilt from it. After finding out my next baby will be a girl, I was inspired. It was very simple to put together, which was perfect for my very first quilt. I learned quickly that I needed a walking foot, and only had to visit three different stores to find someone that could help me (since my machine is rather old, but simple). I used basting spray for the sandwich - a bit expensive but a huge time saver (and I don't have basting pins), and I had enough left for my second quilt (possibly a third if it is small). It isn't perfect, but I learned a lot, and look forward to doing more complicated projects in the future.
I had been planning on this I-Spy quilt for almost a year - it can take a long time to gather so many different fabrics!! The first squares were purchased back in February (a charm pack of 40 5-inch squares) but I was given so many more from generous quilting friends. I still have a small stash left, including a stack of white squares for a future baby version.
The assembly was pretty straight forward - sew the squares into rows and then sew the rows together. Big lesson learned: I should have taken more time to work on the placement - there are a few square that irk me, but there's nothing I can do about it now! I used a grey sheet for the backing (grey is one of Cupcake's favorite colors because of her Grey Sheepy and it was a good neutral color), and kept it easy on myself and folded it over for the binding as well - machine stitching the binding was so much faster than hand stitching!
I'm pretty happy with my first two quilts! The first was an oversized baby quilt, and the second was a bit undersized for a traditional twin - and still hard to heft on the sewing machine, so I doubt I'll make anything bigger than a twin size for a long while. There is lots to learn and many different techniques that I want to try - here's to more quilting fun in the future!
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