Day 2

This project is a little bit different than the GT model and will take a bit longer to make. Once both sides are finished, I will have to patiently wait until the baby is born to get the quilt embroidered. However, sewing it together should be the easy part, and not take too long.

Today I continued working on the design of the quilt. First I decided on four cars for the play area rather than six. Making the cars was difficult. I did not want to use photos, so I created four different graphics. I do not have Photoshop, so it was not easy to do! I opened the photos in "Paint", zoomed in, drew an outline around the entire car, and painted the background white.

Then I drew an outline around each part, and filled it in with whatever color I wanted that car to be. The first time I did this, I did not add any detail. It took about 45 minutes for each one. Then I realized the quilt would be much larger - each graphic would be about 6-7 inches long.

Therefore, I decided to redo them in a little more detail (like adding silver for the wheels and adding the headlights and taillights). This took a few hours for each one, but I believe it was well worth it! The Heritage GT (blue and orange) took the longest.

I drew the three "6" decals on the car, and added the gas cap, wheels, fog lights, and headlights. The stripes on the cars also took a little bit of time to do, but they look nice. The hardest part were the spokes on the wheels. I had to free hand these since I originally painted them solid black. It might have been more difficult to do, but I ultimately decided on the BBS lightweight aluminum wheels to match the wheels on the border cars. They did not come out perfect (but I don't think the baby will notice). :-) The black, yellow, red, and blue/orange (Gulf color) cars shown above are the graphics I made for the center of the "play side" of the quilt.

Once these were done, I knew that I had to change the design. When you put a lot of time into something, the last thing you want to do is toss it and start over, but I would prefer it to look good, so I decided to go for it. I took a break to eat one of my favorite foods - mac n' cheese. That put me back in a lovely mood and gave me energy to keep going! :-)

I went online looking at more patterns, not really seeing anything I liked. Time to get creative! Simple. It needs to be simple. (After all, I wouldn't want the little one to go crazy looking at a bunch of wild shapes!) The stars went bye-bye, and were replaced with white blocks surrounded by a border of color. This cleaned it up a bit, and the white won't compete with the colors of the cars. It also kept the colorful look, with the reds, yellows, blues, and greens.

I did receive a comment from one sister that the primary colors were too bright. After talking with a few quilters (and my wonderful mom), the general thought was that the lighter pastels are good for babies up to about 4-5 months. After this, they outgrow the lighter "baby" colors and prefer the brighter "primary" colors. Since I want the baby to use this for a few years, I will keep the primary colors, and also make sure it is big enough to use as a blankie for the first few years - not just the first few months. I might take my sister's advice and use a calmer blue for the background and border when I pick out the fabric. Either way, here is the new play side of the quilt:

I also decided to personalize the quilt a little bit by adding some embroidery. The embroidery will be in red, and will have the baby's name at the top (thick), and then the date of birth and weight underneath (thin). I do not have this information yet, which is why I will need to wait to put the final touches on until the baby is actually born in February. (Hmmm. I wonder if he will be born on Valentine's Day?) While I anxiously await the little one's arrival, there is still a lot that can be done! Here is what the crib side of the quilt will look like:

The background will be one blue fabric pattern and the border with the cars will be a different one. The lines shown here that separate the border from the background will not be there.