Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Batman

I hate to play favorites, but this next quilt is probably my favorite quilt that I've made so far.  Don't get me wrong, I love the other quilts.  I don't usually make something that I don't like, but this one took a piece of my heart with it when I gave it to the mom-to-be at her baby shower.  I should have asked for visitation rights, or to quilt-sit when they go out of town...I'm being ridiculous...sort of.

When I found out the mom was pregnant and having a little boy, I contacted the dad through a mutual friend on what they were doing in the nursery.  You see, the dad does all the decorating...ALL the decorating.  He's a very talented graphic designer that has an eye for fashion and color, but he's also a big kid at heart.  When it came to this baby boy's nursery, the dad knew exactly what he wanted to do and was very specific when it came to colors (robin's egg blue, stop sign red and charcoal grey) and theme (classic Batman).  I received these two attachments:



The first is one of the prints used in the room and the second is a diagram of the different batman symbols used since the character's creation.  The dad ended up using this diagram to create an art piece above the crib, which looks awesome.  The diagram was also my inspiration for the quilt.  When I think of Batman, one of the first things that comes to mind is the bat signal.  I liked the cityscape at the bottom of the diagram and wanted to use that design somehow in the quilt.  I ended up drawing up a sketch on graph paper of a simple cityscape with the bat signal in the air.  The idea of recreating the drawing as a quilt was a bit daunting, but I was determined. 

When it came to piecing the front, I decided to machine-piece the buildings separately and then applique them onto the background fabric by hand.  Before the buildings could be attached, I had to put the spotlight and bat signal in the sky.  I ended up picking the bat-signal I associated with Batman as the call-sign.  This took a lot of trial and error to get everything exactly where I wanted it.  Once the bat signal and the buildings were in place, I put windows on the buildings to help bring the buildings to life.  Mixing the red and blue for the windows helps bring in the nursery colors on top of the charcoal grey.  I machine-quilted the quilt with horizontal lines.  I knew I needed to keep the lines fairly close together to help secure the large appliqued pieces of fabric.  I hand appliqued the initial onto the back of the quilt as a finishing touch.






This quilt was so much fun to design and make.  I sincerely hope the baby boy will love his quilt as much as I do.

This post was featured on July 15, 2013.

41 comments:

  1. Janet, this quilt is so amazing! I'm sure this family's jaw dropped when they saw it, and I'm sure that little boy will love it for years and years!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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    1. Thank you so much for sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday, Janet!

      :) Kelly

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  2. This quilt is amazing! I can see why it is your favorite. I'm afraid to show my son, I'm pretty sure he will want me to make him one if he sees it!!
    Amanda

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  3. Wonderful! I'm sure this will be a family treasure for years to come!

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  4. Such a great quilt! So original and perfect, even the back!

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  5. THe BAck is perfect as it can double as a cape when he gets bigger!

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  6. This is super cute and so original! Love it :)

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  7. That is sooo cool!! Probably the coolest quilt I've ever seen. My hubby would love this!

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  8. This is so awesome!! Lucky boy!!

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  9. This is a most beautiful quilt, I don't know how you could part with it... Your friends are very lucky! I love the design' very original, wonderful.

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  10. This is so brilliant! It looks like you executed your vision perfectly. What an awesome gift, and well done for actually letting go - it can be so hard!

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  11. This is so awesome!! What a lucky little boy!

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  12. So awesome! Beautiful quilting and I'm sure this little boy (and his parents) are going to love this!

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  13. This quilt is amazing. What a lucky little guy!

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  14. That's really neat. I also really like your plan of offering to quilt-sit. That might make gifting quilts easier. :)

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  15. This is fabulous and so thoughtful. I love me a skyline, and this is a great example. Well done!

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  16. This is wonderful! My (grown) daughter loves Batman things. I can't decide whether to show her this or not. She will expect me to make one.

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  17. Omg, my daughter would adore this!!! This is awesome, just awesome!

    I am stopping by from the WIP hop, hop on by if you can http://domesticdeficitdisorder.blogspot.com/2013/07/wip-wednesday-july-3rd-edition.html

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  18. A very special quilt, well done.

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  19. I can see why this is a favorite! It's amazing! Stopping by from Needle and Thread Thursday

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  20. Amazing! What a special quilt--I'm sure it will be well loved.

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  21. This is amazing! It's hard to find "boy" quilts, especially superhero related, that are done in a way that isn't too overly commercial, does that make sense? This is precious!

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  22. It's brilliant! Great job, I'm sure they'll all love it! :o)

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  23. This is so creative! Very nice quilt!

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  24. WOW that is a great quilt and a piece of my heart would be gone with the gift too. I gotta ask what are some tips for straight line quilting? I have a long arm and haven't mastered it yet. I get wiggles. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

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  25. Your idea and implementation is awesome!

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  26. This is really great! Fun and creative. Well done.

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  27. I love it - how wonderful. He will definitely love it. Great design and nice finish

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  28. Oh wow, that is so cool! And weren't we clever to coordinate our batman/dog posts?! thanks for linking up!

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  29. Batman Forever!!!!!!!! or Begins!!! or ... whatever :) Love it!

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  30. Janet, that is an amazing quilt! And I love all the texture added with your quilting. Whoop whoop!!

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  31. Where's the like button for this quilt? It has to be the coolest baby quilt ever.

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  32. Love this! Absolutely fantastic quilt - very clever idea!!

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  33. This quilt is fantastic! You captured the theme perfectly. I hope tHe family loved it!

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  34. That it just amazing! Thanks for linking up. :-)

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