Tori's Car Playmat Quilt

I am chugging along with Tori's Car Playmat Quilt. I work on it in spurts. I have been busy doing correction all weekend so I needed a moment last night, just me and my machine and this was the project I picked to work on.

I had originally picked out a backing and I started to stipple it and then I changed my mind. So I unpicked all the stippling and bought some red pure wool merino blanket for the backing at the Stitches and Craft Show. I think this will make it more snuggly.

I found some material at GJ's in East Brunswick which was essentially a whole stack of road work signs. So I cut them up, interfaced them and appliquéd them onto the quilt using straight stitch and then zig zag. I backed them in some batting to give them a raised look. The round one was a bitch to do.

I staggered the signs all over the quilt giving it a bit more of story. The test play with Tori this morning has certainly proved that the applique has been worthwhile.

I think that it gives it a nicer feel and Tori certainly got a thrill when she came across the railway crossing sign!

I am hand quilting it rather than machine stitching it. Not sure why, just want to. Simple black running stitch up each side of the roads.

I have some gorgeous multi coloured stripes from GJs for the binding. Won't be finished this weekend, but hopefully it can be done by the time Tori goes to Germany in October so that she can have a blanket for the plane.

A larger car play mat quilt

Getting close now ... I think that I like the size that it is. I will put a 2-3 inch sash around the outside to bring it all together.

Am I happy with it? Mostly, I am not happy with the way the checks sit in the shunting yard, all a bit wonky. But I am not going to un-stitch .. I have un-stitched enough!

I love the red section to the left of the quilt.

And I am rather happy with my corners, even if they are not 100%

Nearly there!

Car Playmat Revised

We took the play mat for a spin and found that it really needed to be a bit bigger.

If it is bigger than we can use it in the car as a blanket as well ... so I have played around with what it will look like with some more blocks added to it. I think that the additional colours will work better than the dull green overtone it has at the moment.

AND! I get a chance to do another corner (can you just feel my excitement?)

Testing the Play Mat

Like any good IT person, I like to test things .. why should a patchwork quilt be any different?

Once I sewed the four larger blocks together Tori and I walked the half done quilt through to the back room singing "build a city and a country".

It passes the "building" test. But I feel that it is still a bit small to meet her needs. Contemplating making it a bit bigger ... I'll have a think about that ...

The roads are big enough for her cars ... but she still wants traffic lights!

Play Quilt: Making that corner

I left this block until last. The concept of it terrified me! Lines I am good at but curved bits I tend to stuff up.

I got some paper, drew my 3 x 3 2 inch blocks out and then made the outside corner line from one of Tori's dinner plates. I then measured the width of 2 inches around the bend and then voila! Presenting my template ....

Pinned to the material, I trimmed the material 1/4 of an inch from the template. Not sure where pattern piece "C" is, I suspect that the cat or child ran off with it. I will probably retrace these pieces onto cardboard with the seam allowance (or buy a patchwork template).

Rather than use the green fabric for the corner, I had a scrap of "space" fabric which fitted in quite well.

Overall pretty pleased with my first attempt at a cornered piece. With the inside edge I ran a stay stitch along both bits of fabric. It worked well, but I found the edge without the stay stitch was easier to work with.

Getting there! I am feeling rather confident with my 4 piece corner and now I am wondering where else I can use it!

More playmat Blocks: Noah's Ark

Some more to add to the pile that I have already done for Tori's play quilt. I am starting now to sew 4 blocks together to create one mega block. Trimming as I go ...

The top blocks are a darker green and they are utilising some Noah's Ark fabric that I picked up about 2 years ago. Tori spotted the fabric in my sewing room and coerced me into using it. It took some time to fussy cut some animals out, but I think that they look great.

There isn't really any pattern to the layout, so some of the fast quilt construction techniques are not being utilised. I individually cut out the coloured squares, position and then sew and then add the black road. I am not constructing the road from individual squares, just using sashes.

Tori is starting to get excited by the "blankey that is growing". I hope she still wants to play with it when it is finished.

Play Quilt: Happy Campers

I've done some more work on the play quilt. Completing yet another four blocks to add to the others that I have already done.

I opted to use some brown and most of the fabric comes from the "happy campers" jelly roll that I got from the Fat Quarter Shop a few weeks back (currently my favourite online store!).

I must admit but I love the luxury in fussy cutting bits of fabric and watching them come together. I hope that I take some of the ideas from Tori's Quilt and use it to make some more conventional baby quilts.

While I was putting these four blocks together, Tori was playing on the table next to my sewing table with her cars .. wanting to know where the traffic lights are.

Blocking away ...

I tend to go a bit batty if I don't have my creative outlet. Yes I have several projects on the go at once, but who doesn't?

I snuck into my sewing room last night and played around with some fabrics for the car or playmat quilt that I blogged about the other day. First I seperated the blocks in my excel file. I decided to use black for the roads (I know, I know). But I didn't have any grey fabric kicking around and I do have lots of black!

I thought about using block colours, but then I spotted some yummy japanese fabric that I had in my stash and the colour scheme just seemed to work. There was a bit of cutting that needed to be done as the fabric itself is printed like a patchwork.

I will probably end up using applique to make waves over the top of the blue patchwork once it is done. I want to include every once in a while a patch that has something, such as the kids camping or the pigs at the fair.

I've started to use the happy campers jelly roll for the "houses" section of the playmat. Playing around with colours.

The one advantage of constructing a playmat like this using the block method is that you can trim as you go to ensure that all seams are even and then you can stand back and see what works or what doesn't work and re-arrange things.

It is interesting that your ideas change once you start sewing.