Newbie to childrens' quilts...advice please
 

I am about to start on some quilts for my grandchildren, 3 very boisterous children ranging in age from 12 months to 3 years. Now I was wondering, having never done a quilt for a little child, should I be using a thicker thread for my machine piecing and quilting to help the quilt cope with being jumped and played on?:confused: Or am I being a bit silly?

I agree with Tartan. I was taught by Harriet Hargrave to use the best fabric, thread and batting you can afford. Good luck and have fun. So many quality fabrics are available to make some very cute kids quilts.

I agree with the others! I'd also like to add that you might want to use a smaller stitch length and be sure to quilt enough for the type of batting that you use. I love making baby quilts...and the recipients always love them!

Kids love quilts and yes, the quilts take a lot of punishment but kids love 'em! Have fun and just do your best.

One suggestion I might make is to avoid straight line diagonal quilting. I made the mistake of doing that on my SIL's quilt and he has broken a lot of the stitching. He tends to kick or push against the quilt with his feet and that stretches it on the bias. The quilting stitches do not stretch, hence the breakage. So maybe avoid diagonal lines on your kids' quilts if you think they will be rough with them.

You might also consider a poly batting as it is fluffier, lighter and holds up to lots of wear and washings. I like cotton batting for all my adult quilts but use poly for kids to drag around.

I do crosshatching on most kids quilts. It is never more then 2" apart and so far none of the stitches have broken on my grandson's quilts. They are played with like toys too, making forts, super hero capes, flying carpets, and sometimes to cover while sleeping. LOL

Fabulous advice!

I like to include a little something special in a kids quilt, like one piece of special flannel so that some of those blocks have a nice fuzzy feel! I would also consider doing some fussy cutting of a cute prints, so they can 'hunt' for that special zebra, dinosaur, or bird. I LOVE Riley Blake's kids fabrics, it so hard to choose!!

The good news is that a patched quilt is an even-more-loved quilt! I have my "blankie" that my gran made for me when I was little, and it has been patched over and over again. I love each and every patch because some of them have stories (parts of other family member's old clothing, for example) and every patch is proof my "Grammy" loved me. :) My cousin still has his patched-up "blankie" too, and we have some patches that came from the same source, which is also kind of neat.

Our "blankies" went on every trip with us, we built countless forts with them, we played "bullfighter" with them, and when my cousin joined the Navy after high school he took his "blankie" with him into Desert Storm for good luck. :)