The Road Map Quilt is Finished!

 

Quilts intended to be given for a specific holiday are the BEST, because you have to finish them!

And that's how the giant denim log cabin quilt that I've been dreaming of for my own bed is still a WIP several years old, with the extra-wide red flannel that I bought to back it narrowly escaping from being accidentally used in every new project I think up, but this quilt, intended as a car play mat for my baby niece's birthday, went from idea to reality in the space of a single summer. 

It also happened to get WAY overengineered in the process, but whatever.

To see the quilt design as I thought it up and pieced it, check out this post where I show off my finished road map quilt top. 

After it was pieced, I needed to think up a few applique embellishments. I wanted the embellishments to hint at the purpose for each area--the park, the neighborhoods, the construction zones, the parking lots, the rivers, the roads, the oceans, the dino dig sites--without being too prescriptive. I wanted features that were naturally stationary, so no animals or vehicles. I had trouble figuring out all the pieces that I wanted, and I had trouble clearly explaining my vision, which led to the fun game of people trying to help me by suggesting ideas, and me going, "No. No. No. Nuh-uh. Not that. Um, no. Nope. Not that, either." 

Fun fact: that's actually my pet peeve when people do that to ME, so sorry!

I never did end up happy with my choices for the river (I don't think the piers look like piers) or the construction zones (I think these cones are oversized compared to the other elements)--

--but I love how everything else turned out. I used all stash for the applique pieces, and almost all materials upcycled from other garments, so I think there's a lot of fun texture variety that will appeal to a toddler. 

There's toweling for the beach!

And work pants, quilting cotton, and bias tape for the houses!

I like the idea that this will be both a play mat and a snuggly quilt. The cotton batting will be comfy on little knees, and cozy on little sleepyheads!

I don't know why I can never have any peace when I'm working on the floor. These photos are just a glimpse of ALL THE DRAMA that took place on this spot.

Jones was in the way and screaming his head off, so Syd thought she'd distract him by giving him some catnip off the hanging planter in the window. 

It distracted him, alright, but only to the extent that he rolled and ran around screaming all over my quilt that I was trying to trim, hollering for more catnip. 

And then Spots heard him and she came hunting for catnip, too, and then they both started hallucinating mice under the quilt and attacking it.

Here it is two episodes of Surviving Antarctica later:

During this time, I also learned that Will does NOT think that traveling on foot through Antarctica is a legitimate path of exploration, and especially not if you fly to the continent. And if you do go there and get stuck and nearly die, you nevertheless have no business asking a whaling vessel or a tug boat to pause its legitimate business to come save you and your crew, because you knew full well what you were getting everyone into.

So that's that, everyone! Please consult with Will before planning your next trek.

I barely had enough of that stash cotton batting for this quilt, and I'm going to be very sad the next time I start a new quilt and find myself having to buy new batting. But that's a problem for Future Julie! Present Julie also found a grey flat sheet in the stash that matches the grey flannel roads perfectly. I'd been holding onto that sheet because I thought it was the one that I was going to use to make the final blackout curtain in my bedroom, but I compared it to the other two curtains and it doesn't quite match, so

1. Where is the sheet that matches, so I can make that curtain?
2. Where did this sheet come from, and what did I intend to use it for?

Well, whatever it was meant to be, it's a quilt back now!

When it comes to quilting the lines on grey flannel roads, it's Frixion pens for the win!

I didn't even iron the marks away, just washed and dried the quilt and those marks and the chalk marks on the black flannel roads disappeared like magic!

A back-to-front blanket binding...

... and my road map quilt is finished!

But, of course, the most important question: is it fun?

Better get out the Hot Wheels and see:

It's fun!!!

Here are some cars parked in the bias tape parking lot:

And here are some in the park, parked by the waffle shirt and inside-out sweatshirt tree:

Because our baby niece lives in California, Matt designed her a palm tree, and I made it from some T-shirt and dress pants fabric and put it in the park:

The construction cones are blocking off the construction zone so that non-work vehicles stay out:

There are a couple of houses already in the neighborhoods, just waiting for some building block and LEGO neighbors:

And if you ever want to do some paleontology, this is the place to do it!

After work, you can drive to the beach to relax:

You might remember that for a while I was super worried that the quilt would be, just, ridiculously big--like, her parents have to have enough floor space to lay it down, for goodness' sake!--but now that it's finished, I don't think it's too large:

I mean, it IS pretty big--that's Matt's head just barely visible over the top of it, so it's a good six feet!

But the child simply HAS to have enough room to spread out. It's no fun if you can't spread out!

Syd suggested that for upcoming holidays, I should create quilts with different small world themes to connect to this one. Like, you could drive to the outer space quilt to the north, or the deep ocean quilt to the south. Perhaps a mountain range to the east, complete with castle and dragon?

Thinking up new ideas might be the best part of handmade presents!