I-Spy Ticker Tape

First, I want to thank you all for your kind words yesterday about the book! Truly it is probably the most exciting thing to happen to me since I started quilting and blogging.

Now onto my next project! Has it already been a year and a half since Amanda Jean wowed the world with her ticker tape quilt? If you go to Flickr and search "ticker tape quilt" you will see 14 pages of results. How is that for inspiration! I am one of the many that just couldn't get the quilt out of my mind and this week I decided to make an I-Spy Ticker Tape for my son.

Seeing that I just sold all my scraps (opps!) I made some new scraps from my fabric stash. I wanted to make sure I included bits from The Very Hungry Caterpillar series - one of his favorite books. I added in other fun prints with objects he would recognize (bikes, cars, ducks, birds) and then some other colorful filler prints.

The blanket measures 24" x 36". I just cut it the size of my cutting mat. It probably would look better proportioned if it was shorter or wider, but luckily the recipient isn't picky.

I first cut the front, middle and back fabric. I used flannel for the batting layer and the backing. I assembled those layers with 505 spray baste. Then, since I am more of a planner than this quilt really requires, I cut all my "scraps" and laid out the entire quilt. Then I went, one by one, and spray basted each scrap down so they would not fall off while I sewed around each one. Using my free motion foot, I free motioned a circle around each piece twice.

The binding is a Michael Miller black and white number print. The back is a flannel from "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" Another favorite around here. It took about 7-8 hours to make from start to finish. I can't decide if that is making good time or ridiculously long. :)

Clearly he likes it...but sadly I don't think it will replace his raggedy Target thermal blanket that has been patched together all over. He does like trying to find different items on it, and it's proving great for learning colors, shapes and matching.