Matching sets

When the weather is such that we have to play inside, this Thomas train track can provide hours of entertainment. Not so much the running of the trains and cars, but the designing of the layout. Can you see? He has an airport in the top left, top right - car dealership. Bottom left - construction zone. I think the other area is a traffic jam? I can't remember what he said. There is even a little forest over on the left near the red bridge - complete with wooden jungle animals. And what I love the best - in the middle is a beach - my son put a bunch of seaglass and little shells around the station. My son doesn't have a TON of Thomas trains, but enough to do something with, especially combined with other toys. This layout stayed set-up for a few days and we did go through a battery or two running everything around and around. Everything is all picked up again for now. The track all goes into a tote (with the track layout directions!) and next time it comes out it will seem like a new toy, all over again. Now that we've found the farm animals - I bet the next layout will include a farm! All the little toys go in the toy area and he plays with them all the time without the track.

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Do you think it is like making a quilt? As an adult, I just took out the track, set it up and rounded up the "correct" trains and cars... But my son, he took the core ingredients and added and added to make something all his own and unique. And he had fun doing it.

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With all the "matchy-matchy" lines of fabric out there... why not start with a collection and then add fabrics from your scrap bin to see what you come up with. You will see that my son sort-ov stuck with a "theme" and the components are all about the same size. Something to keep in mind when making a quilt - you might not want to add you entire stuffed animal collection or beach toys to this particular layout! But look at all the things that DO work. Who knows, you might end up with something as beautiful as a seaglass beach!