I made an I-spy quilt and matching pillowcase for my nephew! He recently turned 13, so to make it more challenging for him, I came up with clues that he would have to solve in order to figure out what to find.
This was a really fun project, though the coming up with clues part of it took over my brain for a while. Once I was engaged, it was hard stop thinking of potential clue rhymes. My brain was like, oh, you’re sleeping? I don’t care! Wake up and dwell upon this potential riddle! I was very glad once I had all the clues written down 
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I worked on the middle of the quilt top while camping with my mom and son. It was really nice and kind of like my own personal quilt retreat!
I used my embroidery machine to do a meandering quilt stitch on the borders and did a straight line stitch around the squares. I bought the ‘I-Spy’ magnifying glass embroidery file online and used the embroidery machine to create the label.
I completed the gift with an old fashioned looking magnifying glass because, let’s face it, if you’re going to be a Sherlock, then you want to Sherlock in style (yes, I used ‘Sherlock’ as both a noun and a verb).
I plan on making more of these for my son and other nephews and niece. So, 1 down, 4 to go!
Closeups of the front:
Closeups of the back:
My quilting helper finding the gnome riding the bumblebee (clue #9):
Rolled up and ready for gifting:
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), but it’s definitely one of the more fun parts too! I plan on making 4 more quilts. I just discovered that spoonflower has a ‘fill a yard’ option that allows you to fill a yard with 42 images from various fabrics. I created this panel of quilting cotton during a half off sale. The squares are 6” each, but easy enough to cut down.