Play Mats
 

I want to make a little boy's play mat for a birthday present for a 2 year old. Has anyone made one and do you have recommendations/suggestions? Thanks.

I made one using a cute road panel. I wanted it to be heavier so used Warm and Natural as a batting and backed it with a lightweight denim. I just did a simple echo quilting along the roads and buildings. It went to a pair of twin boys and they have had great fun driving their little cars along the roadways.

I agree with using a panel as the main portion of the quilt. Bug fabric has a good selection:
http://www.bugfabric.com/fabric/pane...s-borders.html

Lots of panels, but I only found one playmat at Bug Fabrics.

I made one playmat to donate. Just made it like a regular quilt with no special treatment. It was a 'construction zone' with roads and I gave a little bag of construction vehicles to go with it.

My friend also did the car quilt and her grandson has fun driving is car on the roads. I don't know if she used a pattern, most likely not. she is just that type of quilter.

check out Northcott Fabrics website--they have a series of 4 panels that are perfect for a little boy play mat--2 city/roads, ones an airport and the other a harbor and they all "fit" together.

Also, I've made round,reversable ones with my 10 degree ruler--if the child is older you can run a cotton cording through rings on the outside so that they can leave toys in middle and pull the cord to become a closure/handle--but do not do that with little kids that could get hung up in cord!

I did an ISpy quilt with black sashing. On the black sashing I did big stitch quilting to make the white line on "roads." Then I made bean bags with matching squares so they could play a throwing match game. A 2 year old could just put the matching bean bag on the square and then later throw then to match.

I made a play may for each grandson. One was train theme and the other was cars. For a "batting," I used something unconventional. I used 100% cotton mattress pads. Why? Because I wanted more cushioning for those little knees and I thought they would be more durable/sturdy than regular batting. Yes, it was a bit of a pain to quilt but I didn't have to quilt very densely since the pads were already "quilted". Those pads are 5-6 years old now and still in good shape. I sewed fabric printed like train tracks around the outside edge of one and pavement colored fabric (with satin stitch stripes) on the other so the boys would have a track for their toys. and yes, Grandma included a couple of trains/cars with the play mats.

I have used Thomas the train fabric for boys and princess fabric for girls. Also sewed à "pocket" for the trains or princesses at one end of the playmat. Sewed a ribbon on it. After playing with the mat the toys go into the pocket and the mat is rolled up and tied with the ribbon. Would work with "army" guys, dinosaurs, etc. Fast and fun to make.

If you are interested in the Northcott fabric, it is called "Connector Playmat". Available from lots of stores.