The past few weeks I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to make a quilt for a very special little man. Remington was born to my cousin’s daughter Kate and her husband Ryan. You may remember a quilt I made for their first child, Jenny. I pieced it with Minky and did a post about it back in May of 2018. Click here to read that post.
I decided to make an I Spy quilt for Remington, using a pattern I’ve made quite a few times. The first quilt I made using this pattern was not an I Spy. It was back in 2010 when I used it to make a patriotic quilt. While searching my blog for this photo, I found it was part of a post I did on how to photograph quilts. I still use the same technique. If you’re interested in it click here.
So, on to the story of Remington’s quilt. I dug through my stash of conversation prints and picked out some fun ones.
I then chose an aqua fabric to use as border/sashing squares. Squares of each fabric were cut for the sashing and alternated between the blocks, along with the aqua fabric, to create the interlocking puzzle effect.
The sashing piecing takes a bit of concentration, but I think it’s worth it.
I quilted 1/4″ inside the outer edge of each puzzle piece, along with a simple rectangle at the center of each block.
The border is quilted with the words “Remington’s I Spy Quilt”, and “Made With Love by Aunt Chris”; filled in between with words for the items to look for in the quilt.
It’s all done in cursive (because that’s easier to quilt – and I think kids should learn it 🙂).
I backed it all with Minky (ultra plush fleece), which has been folded to the front to create the binding. The Minky I chose has a star design in it, and this is the quilting of the puzzle blocks from the back:
I wasn’t able to deliver it in person because of the pandemic, so I mailed it off to him and got a wonderful thank-you call from Kate a few days later. I hope to visit Remington and his family sometime soon.
What a joy to be able to make something special for someone special!
Nancy prderson says
I made a puzzle quilt for my youngest great grand daughter when she was born back in 2012+.
Jackie Iannarelli says
How do you keep the minky from stretching as you sew. People have said that they even “pillow case” with minky. I’ve tried that but the minky kept stretching so I had minky left over as I came to the bottom.
clkquilt says
I must admit – I don’t love stitching with Minky, and I’d never attempt to turn a quilt with it on the back. It’s just too stretchy.
When I back a quilt with it: I’m careful not to stretch it when I layer the quilt, I pin well, then I quilt from the top so the feed dogs move the Minky more easily underneath. I actually prefer to free motion quilt these quilts because there is no drag from the feed dogs. I’ve found turning the Minky to the top and machine stitching it as a binding works quite well.