Day 113 – Redskin Footballs
While I may not be the biggest sports fan in the world, my son is already starting to show interest in baseball! football! and soccer!
Judging from the number of times he shouts “play baseball!” through the house, I know we’re going to have a pretty busy few years coming up.
Since I know many other quilters have sons and grandsons with similar interests, let’s learn a design that will work perfectly for those football fans:
What am I up to today? Taking care of business!
I’ve put off doing some necessary paperwork and contracts for the coming year and am finally biting the bullet this afternoon and getting it all taken care of in one day.
While it makes for a pretty drab, non-quilty day, I have a new audiobook to look forward to when I’m done: Eat, Pray, Love. I’ll let you know if it’s any good!
Inspiration – Back when I was working on Blind Eyes I realized the potential for the eyeball shape to also look like a football shape.
Difficulty Level – Intermediate. This design really isn’t that difficult. Just focus on first making your oval shapes really look like footballs, then be extra careful as you travel stitch to be sure that the laces stay nice and even.
Design Family – Stacking. This is a design that will work just about anywhere on your quilt top. Just watch out for the weird areas on the edges where you’ll have to wiggle in half footballs in order to fill holes.
Directional Texture – All directions. This design has a nice all over texture, but the laces in the footballs definitely stand out, so I wouldn’t stitch this in the middle of a landscape quilt for example, where it might look a bit weird.
Suggestions for Use – I mentioned in my first video cast that I’ve been needing to make Josh and I a new bed quilt. I’ve also been meaning to make James a new quilt as well.
The poor kid is almost 3 and still sleeping under baby blankets I made before he was born, and WAY before I knew he was going to be a boy!
I’ve been asking him every night for the last week what color his quilt should be. Every night it changes between green and blue, so I’m thinking his first quilt should be a mix of the 2 colors.
I’m not sure if I’ll end up using Redskin Football on James’s quilt or not, but it’s definitely perfect for any little boy (or man) with a particular fondness for football!
Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,and send in a picture to show it off.
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Leah, I just wanted you to know that I just recently found your blog and I ordered your Ultimate Quilting Kit and it arrived yesterday. I immediately got everything out and put the bobbin washer in my bobbin case, and the Supreme slider on my machine. I was skeptical that these things would make much difference but since I was starting to quilt a large quilt for a client I thought I would give it a good test. I love everything. The quality of the stitches is better and the ease of moving the quilt is much better. I was already using the Machingers gloves but I was in need of a new pair. I was able to get about 3/4 of the inside of the quilt done yesterday. I didn't have any thread breakage. I even used a lot of the ideas from the filler videos to quilt the blocks in this quilt. I am so excited and motivated to get some major quilting done this year and you have inspired me so much. Thank you for the great info and the inspiration.
I loved "Eat, Pray, Love"! My machine has been in for its yearly service so I get her back today! Yay!
Another outstanding design!
Cindy – That's AWESOME! I'm so glad the tools worked as well for you as they did for me.
Keep going with more quilts – You never know how many you can finish in one year!
Rock on!
Leah
What a great design for BCS game day! Eat, Pray, Love was a fantastic book – hope you enjoy it!
I hope you enjoy Eat, Pray, Love. I really did.
No pun (t) intended? Loved it when you mentioned everybody should be able to "Tackle" this design.
I have been following your free motion designs and love them. Also I received my order of the magnetic needle holer and self threading needles and absolutely love them. Thank you for everything and Happy New Year!
Jane
I also ordered your Ultimate Quilting Kit and received it recently, but haven't had a chance to try it all out yet (as I'm finishing piecing a quilt on a vintage Singer 301 at the moment). I'm looking forward to using the kit & getting to know my new Juki better in the process.
Eat, Pray, Love is the current "Chapter a Day" book being read on NPR. I read it this fall but I'm getting more out of the audio version on NPR every day. I think you'll really like it.