Make meal time more fun with your toddler with an I Spy placemat! They are easy to make, and a great way to use up bits and pieces in your stash. Have fun incorporating special fabrics for the toddler in your life. They are also referred to as Eye Spy placemats.
What’s great about these placemats is that they are easy to fold up and put in your bag when you go out to eat, or visit Grandma — and they are machine washable! Make special holiday placemats to add festivity to the table!
An I Spy placement is similar to an I Spy quilt, but much smaller. Quicker to make and fun at mealtime! Pick fabrics with small images that can be identifiable. This is a perfect time to pull out those scraps or fat quarters of novelty fabrics that you just had to buy or save! Fussy cut around the designs to get just the pictures you’d like to be able to play I Spy. Don’t know how to play I Spy? See below for more information.
Here is how to make an I Spy placement:
How to Make an I Spy Placemat
I Spy placemats are easy and fun to make. Use up scraps from your stash, or buy small pieces of special print fabrics for the little ones in your life.
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Have fun with dinner - finding hidden letters and objects. Can you find the bunny? The butterfly? An I-Spy placement provides entertainment at meal time. Pick different fabrics that interest the little one in your life, make a different one for each child! Fussy-cut the designs to have more fun.
Materials
- 24 - 3-1/2" squares of fabric
- 20 x 14" rectangle of cotton batting
- 20 x 14" rectangle of backing fabric
- 70" x 2-1/4" strip of fabric for binding
- Coordinating thread
Tools
- Rotary cutter
- Quilters rulers
- Cutting mat
- Sewing machine
- Iron
- Pressing surface
Instructions
- Go through your stash and scraps and cut 24 - 3-1/2" squares. Have fun 'fussy cutting' different patterns and objects for the I Spy game. NOTE: Fussy cutting is when you specifically cut a design out of fabric.
Take the pieces of fabric to your design wall, or lay them out on a table and move them around until you have a pleasing layout.
Sew the squares together into 4 rows of 6 squares each using a 1/4" seam allowance with the wrong sides together. Press the seams open.
Sew the rows together to form the placemat top. Press the seams open.
Layer the backing fabric, the batting and the placemat top, with the backing fabric with the wrong side up, batting and then the pieced placemat with the right side up. There will be excess of the backing and batting. This is important because sometimes when you are quilting, things shift a little bit. This will make sure that the backing and batting cover the entire placemat. - I like to 'stitch in the ditch' to secure the layers together. Stitching in the ditch is using your presser foot that has a guide down the middle. Line up the guide in your pressed seam, and just sew! This makes the stitching fairly invisible.
Another options for securing the layers of the placemat would be to sew diagonally through each of the squares with a straight line.
- Fold the strip of fabric for the binding in half and press.
Match the raw edge of the pressed binding along the edge of the placemat and stitch 1/4" around the edge. Start with folding it towards the inside a little bit so that there are no raw edges when it is finished. When you get to the corners, miter them. I like to press and then hand stitch on the back.
Press the placemat and start some meal time games!
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How to play I Spy with My Little Eye with an I Spy Placemat
Have fun at meal time playing I Spy with My Little Eye!
I spy a cat, do you? Can you find the apples? The owls? A butterfly? Take turns with each player picking something that everyone see. Whoever finds it first gets to pick the next object.
As a child gets older, you and up the I Spy game by changing up the ‘I Spy’ to be something like “I Spy something that starts with a B” and see what the players come up with. You can play with letters, numbers and colors! Mk
Tips and Ideas for making I Spy quilts:
- Choose a simple quilt block that has a focal patch for the novelty fabric. You can use just small squares, like I did for the placement, to keep it easy. A popular block to use is the snowball quilt block. The center of the snowball units can highlight a print.
- Buy (or use) charm packs with a variety of prints. Sew them together to make a lap or baby quilt.
- Have fun at your local quilt shop shopping for novelty prints! A fun way to make a baby quilt is to select prints and designs that mean something to the family having the baby! Pick a quilt pattern and make memorable baby gifts. Browse through our easy quilt patterns for ideas.
Browse through more sewing projects on Create Whimsy.
