Kid's Map Quilt

I love making things for my kids! Especially things that really make them excited. This is one of them!

My son's latest interest is the United States of America and, in particular, all those funny states.  What initially got him hooked was the book, The Scrambled States of America Talent Show, by Laurie Keller, where each state has a quirky little personality. 

At home, discussion about the states had already moved to the continents and we'd been spinning our toy globe for weeks. But those countries are so small on a globe, and hard to get a really good look at. That's why these (roughly) 1-yard fabric panels were perfect for what I was going to do.

 

Because the USA side was slightly smaller than the World side, I sewed some strips of space (another big interest) fabric onto the ends. I did some random quilting lines, mostly following the latitude and longitude lines. I didn't worry about it being perfect.

And then for the batting, I used some thicker, poly/cotton blend (which I pieced together from scraps), and then let my son pick the binding fabric. (He picked this fabric because the big circles look like planets. How appropriate!)

Already, we've had a good time playing. I'll say, "Where's Colorado?...Ohio?...New York?...New Mexico?...Where do we live?" And my son will find it and point to it. (I think he's remembering the pictures on the states, but still.)

 Here he is showing me where we live.

Fun, easy quilt/blanket/toy that I'm sure will get lots of use. I can now officially pat myself on the back.

Hooray for the play quilt!

The Quilt is Finished!

 Wah-hooooooooooooo!

It feels so good to finally be done with my first real quilt. Sat-is-FACT-ion!

It really feels good to have completed a project like this. I ended up doing a few different methods of binding (whipstitch, ladder stitch, and machine stitching) and decided that the ladder stitch looked the best (on the first attempt). The ladder stitch took some time, but I think the results were worth it. I just didn't do well with the machine stitching and the whipstitch looked messy. I didn't pull any of them out, however. So I have a very unique binding!

I was so proud of my finished product that I took it outside for a photo shoot.

Ooooo, nice. Work it. Work it.

Yes, this quilt was a challenge and diversion for myself, but my kids have, throughout the process, claimed it for themselves. And, of course, that's who it was really for to begin with.

One more time, Wah-hoo!!!

And I'm so excited to finally be linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations for Sew Modern Monday! 

The Bug Blanket

One afternoon, while my daughter napped, my son decided he wanted to sew. And this is what we came up with. He picked out the "bug fabric" and I picked out the green fleece, both leftovers in my stash. I cut the quarter-yard of bug fabric in half and sewed it together and my son picked which ribbons he wanted as tags. I pinned the right sides of the two fabrics together (with the ribbons stuffed inside), sewed all around (with extra enforcement on the ribbons) and left a little opening to turn the blanket right-side out. I let my son remove all pins (this is his kind of sewing!).

And here we have it. A small, fun, tag blanket!

Sesame Street Flannel Taggie Blanket

I have gotten into the habit of letting my son pick some fabric every time we go to the store. (I like to see what he chooses. Plus, it inspires me to make something that he really likes the looks of.). So at one point, we ended up with two different types of Sesame Street fabric which hung around our house for some time before I figured out what to do with them. 

Here's the result.

A medium-sized taggie blanket, perfect for my young daughter to lie on! The back of the blanket is a solid piece of maroon fabric and the front was divided into large rectangles. I quilted the blanket by stitching the top down, outlining the rectangles. A very quick project, indeed.