Sierra

I have 13 grandchildren and some experience with quilts that have been used to drag someone around the house, made into tents, wrestled on... treated pretty hard. The only problems that came up are the two where the mama washed them every other week and after 5 or 6 years they started showing a lot of wear; and the family with the new puppy! :>( The others are still doing well. Here are my tips:

Give the mama instructions: Spray the bad spots and use delicate cycle only (or handwash cycle); never regular cycle! (front loader washers are OK on regular cycle because they don't pull like agitator washers do). Dry in the dryer on slightly lower than regular heat and take out just before really dry... they will be fluffy, not stiff, that way and be totally dry by the time the kids go to bed. Overdrying makes everything badly wrinkled.

Make the binding especially strong: use bias binding whether you make it yourself or not... it makes it so the edge doesn't involve just one or two threads... and will last longer. I'd advise making it yourself because you can make the binding wider that way.... think little hands grabbing it and pullling.

Yes, quilting lines that are close together make for a stronger quilting but it also makes it less soft. Even the ones the kids drag each other around the house on their hard wood floors are doing OK and the quilting is about 4" and 6" apart (check your batting to see what they recommend).

Make both sides interesting. I thought the car side would be a winner with one of my grandsons and was delighted to see vintage "love bugs" displayed on top of his bed only to find out that he told his mama that he liked the sparkly stars underneath because he could look at them and they put him asleep! Another, a girl, told her auntie that she wasn't reading under her quilt, she was saying good night to her animal friends! You never know.....

Oh, also (if you feel this way) make sure to tell the mama that these are quilts for the children to USE and not to be put on display, or "saved" (can you tell I hate that?).

I'm not the world's best quilter by a long shot, but my kid quilts are holding up pretty darn well! PM me if you have any question and I'll try to help. You'll love making kid quilts (you don't have to worry so much about the quilt police).