A Quilt for Parker

Kyle and I have been talking about getting Parker a new bed. A bigger, twin size bed. Or maybe bunk beds.

Elise is almost 18 months old, the same age Parker was when he started climbing out of his crib. And although we haven't seen her try to get out yet, she climbs on everything else so we're thinking it's only a matter of time before she tries to climb out of bed. But the kids share a room so we're trying to figure out how to fit in both a regular bed for Parker and a toddler bed for Elise, along with their dressers, toys, etc. We looked at some bunk beds but they were either too expensive or a kind we didn't like. We found a couple of loft beds at IKEA that looked promising... Parker could have the top, bigger bed and we could put his toddler mattress on the floor underneath for Elise. That way it would kind of be like bunk beds, just not as high. I guess we still have a little while to figure it out.

Anyway, since we were talking about Parker getting a bigger bed and all, I started thinking about needing twin-sized bedding soon. And although I'm sure our little man would love a big bright Lightning McQueen comforter, I have to say I'm just not a fan of the themed sets. I prefer to decorate with colors or make it somewhat eclectic. We've seen cute stuff at Pottery Barn but I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a bedding set. Once he's a bit older and can pick something out for himself we'll let him get a nice one, but right now, well....he's only three and is happy with pretty much anything. Which is a good thing because I decided to make him a homemade quilt.



At Joann's I came across this cute flannel. It had nice bold colors in the train and I found all the solid ones to match. Since it was on sale I bought a couple yards of each, not quite knowing how I would use it.

Most of the quilt patterns I like are more girly looking, but Kyle and I did like some simple striped ones I showed him on Pinterest. After looking up quilt sizes, I started cutting the flannel into strips and sewing them together. Parker's favorite color is green so it made it easy to find backing. I used green and white plaid that matched the colors on the front.

The last few quilts I made have a separate binding that was sewn on and then hand-stitched on the back to hide the seam. It's a pretty way to do it but it takes days to hand-stitch around a huge quilt. For Parker's I opted instead to fold over the backing and use that as binding on the front. It was so quick! It took less than an hour to sew around it by machine rather than spend days doing it by hand.

 I finished it up this morning while Elise was sleeping. Parker loves it! Now he just needs a new bed for the new quilt. :)