Go Patriots!

A few months ago, I was at the Clemmons Veterinary clinic with my little chihuahua, and it came out that I am a longarm quilter. I was commenting on how I had to put a gate up to keep the dogs (and fur) out of my studio. Dr. Gilyard asked if I make quilts too. Sure, I said! Well, not generally, but Dr. Gilyard had been amazing with all of our dogs and I wouldn't mind a bit. His daughter was going away to college and all she wanted for Christmas was a New England Patriots quilt. No prob, I said.

I found some Patriots fabric and set to work. I didn't want the quilt to look too old fashioned, so I decided on a simple checkerboard layout. I wanted to throw in something a little more interesting, so I sketched out the Patriot head and fused the fabric onto the center block.

The fusing was a challenge. The blue fabric is all one piece and my Steam-a-Seam 2 is losing its stickiness. It didn't want to stay on the back of the blue. So I had to peel the paper backing off VERY carefully. It was a close call, but I got it all lined up and fused it on. Everything got an extra zig zag stitch all the way around for added stability.

Then I quilted this panto all over the rest of the quilt. I had bought a football pantograph, but the scale was larger than I thought, with big 1" spaces in between lines. That would have been ok if I wasn't planning on quilting a little more densely in the middle. So I found this Widget panto, which looks like footballs, but is a little denser.

By the way, I used Dream Puff batting for the first time and I love it! Should be nice and comfy to nestle under when the cold kicks in.

Thanks Dr. Gilyard!