I SPY a Swap!

My sister-in-law and I are co-hosting a swap called....

{drum roll}

I-SPY a swap!

The details:

• The first 18 people are in. Go to Wendy's blog to sign up...


• Each person will send (20) 4" squares from each of 10 novelty fabrics (a total of 200 squares) to me by August 1st.
  
• You will receive (200) 4" novelty squares (enough for 2 small I-SPY quilts or 1 large one). We’re hoping to send packages out by August 15th, but that depends on how long it takes everything to come to us.
  
• Live outside the U.S.? No problem! Just try to get your fabrics to us a little earlier.


• We'll post a list of participants' blogs on each of our blogs, so hopefully you'll go visit everyone's sites and leave some bloggy love, make some friends, and generally fill the world with peace and happiness.


• Just because we like you, we’ll even draw up and post some patterns you could use for arranging the squares in order to get a certain sized quilt.

A few thoughts & guidelines on the fabrics…

• Most fabric stores have a dedicated novelty fabric section. Generally these are fabrics with objects…animals, food, people, etc. It may help to think in terms of things you could use for the I-spy game. (I spy the letter G, I spy a sushi roll, I spy a monkey eating a banana, etc.)


• In order to avoid duplicate patterns, go on a mission for some really obscure, hard-to-find prints that aren’t available at the chain retailers.


• No team prints or licensed characters (SpongeBob, Dora, etc.) So, for example, a print with basketballs would be great, but a Dallas Mavericks print is not. Or a print with ducks wearing hats is great, but Donald Duck is not.


• The object in the fabric should be distinguishable in a 3.5x3.5 square (which will be its finished size). Keep this in mind when choosing fabrics. Either go with small prints or be ready to fussy-cut.


• You can get (20) 4" squares out of a 1/4 yard cut of fabric or out of a fat quarter. So you'll need to purchase at least 2-1/2 yards of fabric.

What is an I-Spy quilt? It's a quilt made with novelty fabrics. And it's a wonderful toy to play I-spy with. Great for traveling with kids or rest time or when you need something to occupy little ones. How to play? Take turns spotting something in the quilt, maybe "I spy, with my little eye, a frog in a tutu!" And then the first person to point out the tutu frog on the quilt goes next. And so on. Hours and hours of fun!