Rockets and Robots, Oh My!!!!

Elizabeth from Don't call me Betsy made this darling quilt and room for her little guy.  These are my favorite quilts, quilts for the little people in our life.  I love her adventures of making this darling quilt and super fun little boys room. Her blog is pretty new, so go on over and give her a good welcome...

Once upon a time...there was a little boy who was unusually tall for his age. And his parents talked in passing about moving him into a twin bed, with him quickly outgrowing his toddler bed, and suddenly, lists were being made. Shopping trips planned. My husband and I are pretty project oriented, so when we decided to move our son Ryan into a big boy bed, it was full steam ahead for both of us. Ryan's really big on rockets and astronauts, so I thought outer space would make a great theme for the new room. And then, I remembered the box of clearance fabric in my closet. Oh, Fabric.com, your blowout sales are so killer sometimes! I snapped up the whole Robots collection by David Walker for $3/yd earlier this year, not really knowing what I would do with it, just that it was adorable, and I that it would make my munchkin smile. I knew it was the perfect place to start for a twin-sized quilt to go with this new big boy bed.

Rockets and Robots Oh My! quilt front At first, I wanted to make another mixtape quilt, but then, I decided for the sake of continuity for my son, I would use the same pattern I used for his baby quilt, the Zoology quilt. I adapted Elizabeth Hartman's Simple Modern Baby Quilt pattern to fit a twin size bed, causing a big headache for me, thanks to all the math, but leading to a really adorable quilt finish. The fully randomly pieced back I threw in several other fabrics, after visiting some local quilt stores, including some Moda marble dots and some Heather Bailey. I worked on the quilt slowly, while also working on all of the other facets of the room - painting, adding wallpaper decals, shopping for the furniture, and so forth. Every time Ryan would see me working with the fabrics, he'd ask what I was doing, and I would say I was working on his special treat. He was quite patient for a toddler!

An attempt at being arty... When we finally declared the room complete, he was more than excited. He was positively ecstatic. He ran around, looking from piece to piece in his room, from the artwork on the walls that his father and I painted to the wallpaper die cuts to the quilt and so on. The room has become his little sanctuary and he just loves it. I love that my living room is no longer decorated in the primary colors of his toys! He even snuggles on the couch to watch TV with the quilt sometimes. So sweet! Even now, six weeks after he's been in the "big boy room," he still shows it off to everyone who visits, and tells everyone about his "special treat" quilt. I love how much he loves this quilt, it just makes me smile to see him with it. It's the first quilt I've ever hand-sewn the binding on with, as I normally machine everything since I am completely unskilled in hand sewing. It was tedious, hard work, but it sure does look awesome.