Learning to Quilt

For some time now I've been interested in learning how to quilt. Something about quilts just makes me all happy on the inside! And what better way to learn a new skill than as a huge commitment into a gift for someone else? Well, there are probably many, many better ways, but this is the only one that seems to work for me. I deposited a nugget of wisdom to the class that I assist every so often, saying "desperation has been my greatest teacher - my best work is done when it has to be". At the time I was referring to homework procrastination, but the same could really be said for anything I do. The one kid who was listening to me really got his tuition's worth that day. I digress.

The quilt. The quilt in question was to be made as a Christmas present for the biggest (and cutest) Atlanta Hawks fan in the world, who was a fan before they were winners, and who can be quoted as saying "the Hawks could probably beat any team in the league" months and months and months before they did indeed begin beating pretty much every team in the league. Ain't no bandwagon fan.

Since this was my first quilting endeavor, I knew simple would be best and decided on a pattern of rectangular blocks in varying widths by row. With the Hawks color scheme in mind - red, navy, and silver - I headed out to search for fabric. Believe me, it is quite difficult to find masculine but not patriotic red and navy fabric at Hancock's.  I decided after my first fabric browse that it would probably be best for the sake of masculinity to keep things primarily navy with bits of print scattered throughout. That thought also led me to the decision to keep one corner relatively free of print blocks in order to incorporate the Hawk's logo (thank goodness for easy to replicate throwback logos, am I right?!). I read in some places that this was a no-no, but I used a set of navy sheets as the bulk of my fabric - the flat sheet for the backing, and the fitted sheet for the front navy blocks. I found this to be a really convenient method and will probably continue to use sheets in my quilting whatever some places may say. After whipping up the quilt top, it was just a matter of quilting straight lines across the rows (in navy) and the contrasting logo (in white). 

Here's the quilt top:

And the finished quilt:

Logo detail:

And some lovin' in lieu of a signature:

So there ya have it! Jeff's somewhat masculine and non-patriotic, super snuggly Hawks quilt. Pretty proud of this one, and so thankful for the guy who inspired it!