Wahoo! I’ve been very slow in celebrating this finish but I’m pleased with this quilt and think it deserves a blog post of it’s own! The quilt measures 36″ wide by 41½” long. It is a straightforward Disappearing Nine-patch design. I used nine 4½” squares in each block: a novelty fabric in each corner; a multi-coloured kaleidoscope fabric for the centre square; the remaining four squares were cut from a 0.25m strip of a blue ombre extra wide fabric.
My main reason for making the quilt was to try out fleece as a backing material. I bought a beautiful, but very slippery, child-size fleece blanket from my local supermarket. I washed the fleece before using it as it was full of static – I guess that was from being stored on the metal shop shelving? Anyhow! Washing did the trick – no more static electricity. To combat the slippery nature of the fleece I decided to use a layer of cotton/polyester wadding that has a slightly rough texture in the hope it would act as a grippy layer between the fleece and patchwork. I pin basted the quilt sandwich more densely than usual – pins about 3″ apart rather than four.
The layers stayed in place! I am so happy the experiment worked. The quilted swirl creates such a delightful textured pattern on the back of this little quilt 🙂
I used a navy/white stripe fabric to make the binding.
I’ve written a pattern if you’d like to make your own version of this disappearing nine-patch I-Spy quilt. I’ve included instructions for three sizes: Play Mat – 30″ x 30″ (requires 16 novelty fabric squares); Baby Quilt – 30″ x 36.5″ (requires 20 novelty fabric squares); and Toddler Blanket – 36.5″ x 43″ (requires 32 novelty fabric squares). The pattern uses 5″ squares and is ready to purchase and download – link at the end of this post. I have also curated and rotary cut packs of novelty fabrics which are available for customers in the UK – link at the end of this post.
I’ll definitely be using fleece to back quilts in the future. Do you have any tips to make using fleece a workable option?
Linking with Alycia for Finished or Not Friday and Michelle for the Beauties Pageant. Alycia has finished a blue and white quilt which does, as she says, create a lovely ‘crisp’ look. Michelle has discovered EPP can actually be an enjoyable form of patchwork!
Allison
Link to the I-Spy Disappearing Nine-patch pattern.
Link to Novelty Fabric Squares Packs.
That is such a delightful little quilt! Fun to see how it makes an I Spy quilt with an interesting design. I love the look of the ombre blue that becomes the sashing, too!
Thank you Diann. I enjoyed making the quilt.
What a pretty quilt. The spiral quilting and striped binding really accentuate it.
Thank you!
Very fun!!
That quilt is beautiful Allison.
Thank you!