Need design help
 

I'm a newbie. This is my second quilt. The first one is what I meant to make (first photo).

However, I missed the yellow dot in the corner squares. (My corner square is only dark blue has light blue dots.) So, the yellow stripe I bought for the binding doesn't work. I tried red for the binding and it doesn't work, I tried a lighter blue (that matches the lighter dot in the corner square), and it looks OK, but not great. (Also, the only fabric that I found that matched the light blue was really cheap and thin.) Actually, the corner square fabric looks best as a binding of all that I tried.

(The third photo is fairly true to color. The second shows the overall look)

Originally, I bought enough of the corner square fabric to do the backing. But that much of the same fabric looks kind of blah and dark, especially for an I spy quilt. The recipient is only 2, so he probably wouldn't care. (Upside is that it would not show dirt.)

Any ideas on a better binder and backing?

bkay

Cute quilt! I think I would go with a lime green fabric (like the light lime green pigs or the handles on some of the tea pots).
Yellow could also work, but with the slightly darker shades in your 2nd quilt, I'd probably pick more of a gold (like the butterfly fabric) rather than the brighter, purer hue of yellow you used to bind the original quilt. I personally like to back my children's quilts with novelty prints -- aliens, fire engines ... something that is a busy print that would connect nicely with my binding & thread color and that incorporates at least some of the colors from the front of my quilt. And, depending on the child, sometimes I'll pick out a handful of fabrics from which to choose in the store & let the recipient pick the backing fabric. My niece gets so excited every time she sees her quilt with the backing that she picked out herself (it's pink flowers -- go figure). She proudly tells everyone that it's the fabric that she "choose-d". She was 3 at the time; she's 4 now.

That's a very nice quilt! If the corner squares fabric looks best to you as a binding, I'd go with that. That would have been my choice. And I think the same fabric would do fine as a backing. I think having a back that doesn't show dirt is a high priority in this case, and it would tie in nicely with the front.

I like the idea of using your corner square fabric for the binding, but if that is the one that you feel is lesser quality and thin, I probably would not use it because the binding wears out the fastest, especially on a child's quilt. I think a dark yellow or gold binding would look great. (Also I think I would like red, but you seemed not to like red as the binding.)

How about going with the dark backing and dark binding... but... add another strip of fabric to "frame" the quilt?

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On this one, the dark brown strip you see is extra wide bias tape that's been folded in half and just inserted in the seam.

[QUOTE=HillCountryGal;7675100]How about going with the dark backing and dark binding... but... add another strip of fabric to "frame" the quilt?

Would you go with the white or would you use a multi-color? A multi color stripe might work, maybe on the bias? Maybe not, given I'm not very experienced at this yet. Maybe a multi-color dot? I can get more of some of the fabrics and use one as a border, but not all, as some came in a swap.

I find myself just going around and around with ideas and then discarding them. It needs something to give it "pop", but there are so many prints and colors, it's hard to get something that looks like it belongs there.

bkay

I like the yellow binding

Same here...great I spy quilts.

I just finished a quilt with that same pattern: an I Spy for my Great-granddaughter. But I put mine on point. I've made two like that now and love that layout.