Finished Polaroid Quilt Top

My Polaroid top is done!!  This one has been in the works a long time, and worth every minute!

I started seeing some Polaroid swaps happening on the blogs a couple of years ago and was instantly smitten.  Many of my childhood photos are Polaroids, so I thought this would be a great way to make an adorable I-spy quilt and be nostalgic at the same time.  I immediately started to collect and put aside some little bits of novelty fabric and tiny white scraps to make the borders.

Every once in a while I would take some time to trim the white scraps and sew them on the pieces I'd collected.  Here is what I had when I took it out last month:

I had just over 100 little pieces cut out.  It sounds like a lot, but then I started to draw out a plan...

I decided to make them into blocks of 9 patches with a layout of 5x5 blocks.  That would be about 225 little pictures!! But, it was time for this backburner project to come to fruition.

I picked this amazing blue peppered cotton as my background.  I wish you could feel it, it is so soft and gorgeous.

I went through my ENTIRE stash and cut and cut and cut.  Around the same time, there was this fantastic movement on Instagram called #getyourquiltywishesgranted, where you could send out a wish/request for something you were searching for.  I put out my wish for 3 inch novelty prints for my quilt and received about 8 envelopes from some amazingly generous quilters!!

Once I got a rhythm going, these blocks went together very quickly.  Outline in white, outline in blue, trim wonky, build 9-patch, repeat.

As I was making my blocks, I kept thinking of a paper-pieced Polaroid camera I had seen on craftsy.  It was amazing.  I really wanted to incorporate it somehow, but wasn't sure if I had the skills or patience for it.  There are many tiny pieces.  I finally decided that I could not stop thinking about it, so I HAD to make it.

Look at those tiny pieces.

I survived.  And it wasn't really that intimidating after all.  Paper-piecing produces such amazing results!!

Here is the camera. I LOVE it!

And here it is incorporated into the last block.

I am so glad I decided to make the plunge.  This quilt just wouldn't be the same without it!

If you'd like to make one, you can find the pattern here on Craftsy.

And here is the final result.

So much fun to look at!

The top finished up at about 90x90.  Now I just have to figure out how in the world to quilt it!  Any ideas?

If you are interested in making similar blocks, here are the measurements that I used:

For each "photo"
1. Cut a 3inch square novelty print.
2. From white fabric cut (2) 1x3 inch pieces , (1) 1x4 inch and (1) 1.5x4 inch.
3. Sew the (2) 1x3 inch pieces to either side of your novelty print. Sew the 1x4 inch on the TOP of your picture and the 1.5x4 inch piece on the BOTTOM of your picture.
4. From your background fabric (Mine is the blue.), cut (2) 2x4 and (2) 2x7
5.  Sew the shorter pieces to the sides and the the longer pieces to the top and bottom.
6. Trim your block to 6 1/2 inches using a square ruler.  Place your ruler on the block tilting to one side so that your blocks seem to be scattered all over the quilt.  **Note:  I wanted a few of my pictures to be really wonky so occasionally I cut some background pieces 2.5x4 and 2.5x8 to give me more room for tilting my ruler.
7. Arrange 9 blocks into a 9 patch design and sew together.  One block down!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracy