I spy lots of help from the quilting community

This I Spy quilt for a  young friend is made with the help of several of you out there in blogland as well as local friends who have been passing me bits of fabric over the last year. I've cut fabrics in 3.5 inch squares, 3.5 by 6.5 inch bricks or 6.5 inch blocks, and there's even a few 4.5 inch ones set in a 9 patch as well as one 12.5 inch block. Right now its laid out as 8 by 11 which will measure 48 by 66. My friend Cheryl is going to strip piece the rows onto a fleece backing, so we want to keep it narrower than a width of fleece. I've sewed together the 3.5 inch squares into four patches, and laid out the whole thing on the fuzzy side of a picnic tablecloth I bought at a yard sale for $1.

My inspiration was this Becky Goldsmith quilt on the Sept. page of my quilt calendar. She's got more darks in hers than I do, but I'm going for a similar colourwash effect.

Here are the squares I have left over. I cut another set of squares for another quilt, and I kept the off-cuts and strings for use in another scrap quilt. I tried not to duplicate the fabrics, or at least the images in the fabrics. I did use some of the same heavy equipment fabric twice, showing different vehicles and two different butterflies in the same yardage.

Here's a close up of the centre with light backgrounds. This has been fun so far, and I was spared the effort of collecting fabrics over the years. Thanks to Sharon and Laura and blogless Terry and my mother for their contributions.  I still could be missing someone. Be assured this quilt is going to a good home, to a child who could really use the comfort of a cuddly blankee.