 | When I saw my infant grandson outfitted as Batman for his first Halloween, I knew that a crib size Bat-quilt was in my future. However, the path from the certainty of "must make a Bat-quilt," to the actual quilt, was far from certain. I'd never attempted anything remotely like this. |
| The first hurdle was finding the right image. On a visit to my son's home, I surreptitiously flipped through his collection of Batman graphic novels. Once I'd found the perfect image, I had to be even more sneaky about making a quick photocopy. Well, actually, the comic frame wasn't quite perfect. It had a bit of extra detail that I surely would eliminate (not a problem). |  |
 | More importantly, the picture was too narrow. I'd need to add a bit of drawing on each side. Fortunately, expanding what was already there didn't require a lot of skill, or even much imagination. Extend the architecture; complete the flare of the cape. Done. |
So far, so good, but the black and grey colors in the original were not looking like a quilt for a toddler. The brighter, shades-of-blue Batman was what I was looking for.
The next step was very computer-intensive, as I traced every single colored shape from the drawing. (There's probably all sorts of software available to automate all that tracing, but I use a slow, tedious method, using Microsoft Publisher. I do not recommend it to anyone with a normal tolerance for tedium and frustration, but it works for me.) Assuming I'd have the original comic image to use as a pattern , I made this tracing a bit rough--no finesse in the drawing, just enough detail to see the color patches.
Then I played with re-coloring all those shapes in different shades of blue and green. Thinking ahead, I chose my palette from the colors available in Kaufman's Kona Cotton. After all, I wanted to be sure that I could actually find fabric to match my color choices. You can see two versions of color trials below.
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Honestly, I rather prefer the version on the left for its moodier atmosphere. But some of the colors are a bit too close in value. I decided to go with the version on the right.
With the drawing finalized, it was time to scale it up. The computer made this part easy. My expanded comic was proportioned to cover one sheet of paper; scaled up to 500% of original size, it would make a 42 1/2 inch by 55 inch quilt. The pattern would print out on 25 sheets of paper. Perfect.
Using the full-size pattern and my favorite color trial , I calculated yardage requirements and placed my order. I'd need black, a bit of white and peach, brown, orange, 2 shades of yellow, 3 of green, and 5 of blue. Phew!
 | When the fabric arrived, I was still not completely convinced I'd got the colors right. With a few snips cut off a corner of each piece, I made a tiny color trial. It looked good. Time to sew! Coming up next: piecing the background architecture. |
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