Twin I-Spy Quilt

Every so often, there is an I-spy square swap on MLL, but I've heard from quite a few ladies that they have no idea what to make with the squares, or how to make the most of them.  Here's my favorite basic use for them: a twin I-spy quilt.

This quilt will finish at 66"x82", which is a great twin size.

Materials Needed:
80 I-spy squares, each cut to 6.5"x6.5"
2 1/4 yards solid fabric for sashing
twin cotton batting (or 72x90 if buying off the roll)
4yd backing fabric

DO NOT PREWASH ANYTHING.

Keep your solid fabric folded as it was on the bolt. Press. Cut strips of your solid fabric for sashing.  You will need 32 strips, selvage to selvage each 2.5" wide.


Next, choose your 80 favorite charm squares.

Sew sashing onto one side of each charm square using a 1/4" seam allowance.  I find this easiest to do in strips, and I cut them afterwards.

Iron the seam allowance toward your I-spy squares.

Now that you have strips of squares, cut them apart in straight lines.

Next, sew pairs of 2 squares together.  You will sew the sashing from one onto the charm square from the other.

(this is a photo of sets of 4.  I forgot to photograph the pairs)

Then, sew them together into strips of 4, and then into strips of 8.  While doing this, make sure that you don't have too many similar colors of themed squares together.  The idea of sewing a charm quilt is to make it look random, but

Now, you should have 10 strips, each with 8 squares.  Iron each strip with the seam toward the charm square.

When you reach this point, sew sashing onto the left edge of each strip, so there is sashing on both outside edges of your strips.

Now it's time to sew the remaining sashing strips together.  This will be what you sew onto each of your strips of 8 squares.  Once you sew all the sashing strips together, iron them.

Sew sashing onto the bottom of each set of 8 squares.  They will look like this:

Iron them.

Now, lay the strips out on the floor.  This is the time to figure out what looks good together.  I had lots of blues, so I tried to avoid too many blues in any one spot.

Now, sew the strips together to finish your quilt top.  Also, sew a sashing strip onto the top of the quilt, (the top of the top strip).