Hey everyone. Today we're quilting a play mat with roads, a river, and parking spots — and road lines that glow in the dark.
This one is pure fun, y'all. It's also really practical.
A play mat needs to do two jobs. It has to be soft enough for knees on a hard floor. And it has to roll up tidy when playtime is over.
Batting makes both jobs work. Low-loft batting gives you that padded feel. But it stays flat. No puffy hills for little cars to climb.
Then we quilt the roads right into the sandwich. The quilting holds everything in place. And it draws the whole town for you.
Here's my favorite part. Sew the road markings with glow-in-the-dark thread. Turn the lights down at bedtime, and those little roads still shine. Oh my goodness, kids love that.
Materials
- 1 yard of quilting cotton for the mat top, about 36 x 44 inches finished
- Fabric scraps in green, blue, gray, and black for roads, grass, and a river
- Low-loft batting, like an 80/20 cotton-poly, cut 2 inches bigger than the top
- Backing fabric, cut the same size as the batting
- Glow-in-the-dark thread for the road lines
- 50-weight thread in gray or black for quilting the roads
- Size 80/12 needle and a walking foot if you have one
- Two fabric ties, each about 18 inches long, or a wide ribbon
- Chalk or a removable marking pen
- Rotary cutter, mat, ruler, pins or clips, and safety pins for basting
How to do it
- Plan your little town first. Lay the top fabric flat. Sketch two roads crossing, one curvy road, and a blue river strip. Add four or five parking spots along one edge. Keep roads about 2 1/2 inches wide. That's roomy for most toy cars.
- Appliqué the roads and river. Cut black or gray strips for the roads and a wavy blue strip for the river. Pin them in place. Stitch close to each edge with a short straight stitch, about 2.0 stitch length. Go slow on the curves. Slow down or the needle wanders off the road, literally.
- Build your sandwich. Lay backing wrong side up. Batting goes next. Then your road top, right side up. Smooth from the center out. Pin-baste every 4 to 5 inches. Low-loft batting is forgiving here. It does not fight you.
- Quilt the roads down. Stitch in the ditch along both edges of every road. Then stitch one line right down the middle of each road. Use your walking foot if you have one. It feeds all three layers nice and even. Just like that, the roads are locked in and the mat stays flat.
- Add the glow lines. Now switch to glow-in-the-dark thread on top. Sew dashed lines down the center of each road, right over that middle line if you like. Keep your dashes about 1 inch long with 1 inch between them. Test on a scrap first. Some glow threads like a slightly longer stitch, around 2.5 to 3.0. Completely up to you.
- Quilt the rest of the town. Add wavy lines in the river. Meander lightly in the green spaces, or echo around the roads. Keep quilting fairly open. Dense quilting makes a mat stiff, and stiff mats do not roll well.
- Trim, bind, and add ties. Trim the mat square. Bind it just like a quilt. Before you finish the binding on one short end, tuck in your two ties, about 8 inches apart. Roll it up from the other end, cars inside, and tie it shut. Here we go — cleanup in ten seconds.
Tips and variations
Charge the glow before play. Glow thread needs light first. Lay the mat under a lamp or near a sunny window for a bit. Then lights out. Really really fun at sleepovers.
Make parking spots personal. Appliqué a little house or school square by each spot. Use scraps. We're not reinventing the wheel here, folks. Simple shapes read just fine to a four-year-old mayor.
Skip the glow thread if you need wash-and-wear tough. White or pale yellow dashes look great in daylight too. Options, not verdicts. That's the rule in my sewing room.
Go bigger for a train town. Start with a crib-size piece of batting and add tracks the same way. Two lines close together, with little cross ties. Same idea, bigger town.
Now, hear me on this. Your roads will wobble a little. That's fine. It does not have to be perfect. Kids do not grade roadwork, and you're your own worst critic anyway.
Take your time. It's not a race. If I can do this, y'all can do it.
Thanks for sewing along with me, folks. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Shop Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Batting Package at Linda's Electric Quilters.
