I have made many kid quilts over the years as gifts for friends, family, and coworkers. Only once have I made a quilt that was a commission. I had made a quilt for a co-worker and they loved it so much they had me make one for their older child.

The little guy I made this quilt for was big into trains, so this was my design.
You can see some of the strips in this picture.

The only specifics I was given was that he loved trains and they wanted it to be flannel. I drew a few ideas out and let them choose the one they liked best. Once I had the design set, I picked fabrics and started working on the sizes of the pieces.

I started with the tracks. For the sides, I sewed the “wood” railroad ties alternating with green to make long strips. I cut them in sections and sewed them back together to make the long rows. I then sewed the long strips to the gray rails.

I made all the borders and then started on the center. The most detailed part was the railroad crossing sign. I completed all of this at a quilt retreat. So much fun to work on a project surrounded by good friends.

Putting it all together

Once I had the center completed, I added the top and bottom borders. I needed to make the corners separately so that the tracks would continue around the whole quilt. It took some careful measuring to get everything lined up. The picture is not the clearest, but it shows the arcs.

For quilting, I kept it simple, using the quilting to create details on the train. You can see the design in the wheel.

All of my kids quilts are designed to be used as floor quilts for the kids to play on. I expect them to be dragged around, washed and used. I make them larger than a standard “crib” quilt so that they can be used for while. (You should never have any blankets in a crib with an infant.)

While this quilt isn’t nearly as detailed as some of the others I have designed from scratch (like this one and this one), I love the way it turned out.