I Spy

Despite all the hype, there were only enough square inches to produce one child-sized top, and it came together over a weekend.

My first thought was to digitalize everything and arrange/rearrange the blocks on my computer. All it took was a blank virtual design wall to show me the error of my thinking--I couldn't seem to get started! So I went analog:

putting up four of the largest blocks and building them out with combinations of smaller blocks. The sticky-notes helped 'keep score' so I could see at a glance which numbers worked. (This pad of sticky-notes is practically useless for anything more than a word or a couple of characters--too much advertising, not enough useful writing space.)

With all the number juggling, the most helpful note was the one reminding me of the finished size I was working toward!

As I built the quadrants, I had to decide how best the numbers were going to fall out. The first one built out to 20" wide by 33" high. It wasn't hard to build the second quadrant to 25"x33", for a total potential width of 45".

Although I was aiming for a 45"x60" top, the blocks themselves finally dictated 45"x58". There always seemed to be an awkward one- or two-inch gap when I tried to force a quadrant into 27" high (33+27=60). With that decided, it ended up that only 6 additional blocks were needed to finish up the 4th quadrant.


Despite everything, there was still a 1" gap, and it took a few minutes of pondering before I figured out how to fill it. I kept thinking I didn't want anyone to notice, and wondered what innocuous fabric I could use there. When thoughts turned to black fabric, the penny finally dropped: why not celebrate the gap and insert the quilt's name?

Embroider machine to the rescue! I had, that weekend in fact, finally realized one of the threads sitting unused in my quilting thread drawer was actually a cone of embroidery thread (which explains why it sat unused in that drawer--it wasn't until I owned an embroidery machine that I could finally recognize it for what it was). I popped that cone on the machine and quickly whipped up the final 1"x10" strip needed to finish this top.

The owner of this is yet unknown. When it's finished, I'm offering it to the chorus for fundraising, perhaps as an "opportunity" quilt.