Someone is having a 60th birthday (no, not the Husband of Chiconia).
And he’s a big Canterbury Bulldogs ARL fan. So his dear wife decided that he deserved something a bit special, and that I was the person to make it (having made hers already). And so begins the fourth Footy* quilt I’ve made. It’s a simple pattern of large and smaller squares in two colours, with the team logo in the middle.
Seven blue fabrics, seven white/pale fabrics and three feature fabrics for the large squares. I’ve cut a total of 114 small blue squares, 114 white squares and 11 large squares. And that’s not including the two outer borders (one narrow one in white, one wider one in blue) and backing and binding.
That’s a LOT of cutting, but it’s easy work: press, fold, trim, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice, slice and slice again. The borders can wait till the main part of the front is finished.
I like making this quilt, it comes together easily and quickly, row by row. The initial layout’s the main thing; it takes a lot of space, and I like to make sure that the colour layout works – a patch of darker colours in one corner would not be a good look. Also, some of my ‘whites’ are actually very pale blue, and need to be matched with the darker blues where possible to give good contrast. I have a little spare of each colour in case substitutions are needed here and there. There are going to be some very nice scraps to play with afterwards, too!
In case you’re wondering about the prevalence of chevron fabrics, it’s totally planned, to tie in with the blue chevrons in the background of the logo.
I’m not greatly looking forward to the quilting part, because it’s a big quilt, nearly 90″ long, but it’s going to be cross-hatching, just like all the others before it. Simple, but pleasing.
My original design, now looking a bit battered after several outings…
I think this will be the last team quilt I make. I don’t want to repeat myself indefinitely, so unless there’s some really urgent need for another sporting blankie, I’m calling it full time on the Footy quilt. Meanwhile, into the scrum!
*Australia has 4 football codes: Rugby League, Rugby Union, Australian Rules and Soccer. And the greatest of these is Rugby League (Go the Storm). Not that I’m biased, or anything…
talltalesfromchiconia 