Saturday, February 16, 2013

Playing With I-Spy 16 Patch Color Blocks

So the I-Spy Swap that I hosted is complete!  All the return packages got mailed off a couple days ago, and we've had a long weekend off of school.  Since that means Eric has been home more, I used some of the extra time to play with my new I-Spy squares!

I hope you'll indulge me in a reading through a bit of a show off post.  (I've still got a couple sets of squares to work through, but if anyone is interested in participating in an I-Spy Swap, go ahead and send me your email (or leave a comment with your email address) and I'll keep a list to let you know when/if we do one again.  I'm hoping to do another one this summer.)

This time, I decided to do some color groupings of 16 squares each.  I feel like it brings some order to the chaos of I-Spy Quilts.


The squares sew up so fast, that I like to just sew them together without the sashing.

I'm in love.

It's been so fun to try putting them into different color combinations.  I was surprised there were so many brown fabrics to choose from.

I've tried to keep a single color theme while making sure there are a few light or white squares (like the penquins and girls in the picture below) and a few dark or black squares (like the corn and guitars) in each one.  I've also tried to include a couple squares with some contrasting colors (like the flowers and thread) too, but not so much that it overpowers the main color.

I think it's been going pretty well.

I'm not sure if this is true of every I-Spy Swap, but there are definitely a lot more green and blue fabrics in this mix.  A middle number of red, yellow, and brown.  And not as many pink, purple, and orange.  Purple was by far the hardest to find enough squares for.  Not a good or bad thing...just an observation.

I've also put together some black and white blocks.  For those I decided to put in 5 or 6 squares that had a lot of black or white plus a mixture of bright colors that didn't work in the single color blocks.  This first one as more girly fabrics
And this one has more boy fabrics
 And even after I'd made one block of each color using what I thought were my favorites in that color, I kept finding new favorites...
Or finding blocks I hadn't seen before that I loved even more than the ones in the first block.

Most of these fabrics came from the swap, although there are a few that were extras I had on hand from the last swap or fabrics I'd cut up from scraps that just gave me a few squares...not enough to include in the swap.

Some of these are going to go into quilts to donate to the children's hospital and some of them might find their way into a quilt for a new niece or nephew.  I've got a few other I-Spy projects in the works that I'm hoping to work on soon too.

I haven't decided whether to make a 9-patch quilts with these or 6-patch quilts.  A 9-patch would look something like this.

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11 comments:

  1. Polly, these are great! I really enjoyed scrolling down through all the different combinations. I'll bet Becca is in heaven. (Hint hint - speaking of nieces and nephews...there just may be a new little niece that arrived in Wisconsin a little before midnight!)

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  2. Oh, you're certainly whetting my appetite with all these. Looking forward to receiving my package. Thanks again!

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  3. Love how you put them all together! Mine came Friday and I couldn't wait to dig through them. Thanks for hosting! Please keep me n the list if you do another one. Thanks!

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  4. Looking good, Polly! I haven't decided what to do yet! Can't wait to see everyone's!!! Thanks for hosting the exchange!

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  5. These blocks are such fun! I like the way you've colour themed them :)

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  6. Thanks so much for hosting the swap! That must have been a lot of work to sort all those squares. I'm excited to do something with mine, but haven't decided what yet. :) I really like how you sorted them by color...

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  7. I love the color-arranging! I think I like the idea of quilting more than the actual process; watching your blog is just about right for me! Great work!

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  8. I love these! What a great idea.
    http://georgiamacdonald.blogspot.com/

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  9. I had an I-Spy quilt on my to-do list forever ago and forgot about it. Seeing all your blocks gives me inspiration to make one for my son, especially with all the scraps of random fabrics I have. I love the color grouping too.
    Lisa @ lisasalwayshomemade.blogspot.com

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  10. Polly, Loved that you did by color. That's how mine are grouped just now. Started out by theme, but wanting to make into a book of sorts switched to color. Wonder if we'll get any blocks that end up with the same squares in them?

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  11. That was fun to look through! I saw a couple of mine first thing! I would love to join another one!

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