The first time I saw Amanda Jean’s ticker tape quilt at Crazy Mom Quilts, I knew I wanted to make one. It appealed to my contemporary quilt loving side while recalling memories of the older quilts I grew up with. The idea stayed on my to-do list until I saw her tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! It was then I realized just how fantastic this quilt is. Not only do you get to use up some of those little scraps laying around, but you are actually quilting as you sew them on. How brilliant! I had to make one.
Again, I didn’t want to go buy any supplies, so I took stock of what I had. I had one piece of scrap batting left; it dictated the size of this quilt. Finding scraps wasn’t hard, but finding a solid piece of white fabric proved to be more challenging. I came up with a piece of bottom weight fabric. Like many bottom weight fabrics (fabrics you would use to make pants or something that takes a thicker fabric), it had a texture to it. Turning it over, I decided that I actually wanted to use the wrong side of the fabric for the main body of the quilt. That left the backing. Since we don’t use top sheets (my husband and children are not top sheet friendly), I salvaged one that was taking up space on the linen shelf of my laundry room.
Then I set to work. My children loved helping set out the scraps and saftey pins as I put this together. I will recommend not doing this on a day that your 2 1/2 year old is extremely exhausted, unless you enjoy the challenge of working through your frustration. Once pinned, the sewing went very quickly. I had originally planned to make the binding out of black fabric in order to frame it, but upon cutting off the selvage, I just couldn’t bring myself to toss it away and I didn’t want to save it. I cut strips from it and used it with the right side out in order to give it some textural contrast.
I think this is going to hang in our hallway. My children seem to think this is a great I Spy quilt. They keep pointing out various fabrics and reminiscing about what I have made out of them.
living peacefully with children 
That is beautiful! Would you say that is a possibility for a first time quilt? (Well, other than rag quilts)
This is such an easy quilt to make. You could definitely do it. I love the fact that you are quilting as you sew the scrap pieces on, so it actually takes less time than I anticipated. You could do this very quickly.