I love football! I love football! I love football!That’s my reason That’s why I chat about the whole damn season

This is a quilt made for an avid footie fan/former player.  Playing for travel teams in childhood, Langley Saxons in high school,  culminating as a Christopher Newport University Captain, he amassed a tremendous amount of tournament patches as well as shirts.

I was thrilled to obtain the soccer field fabric designed by Robert Kaufmann as I knew it would be a great way to highlight some of the patches.  Many years ago, Robert Kaufmann came out with basketball court, hockey rink, American football gridiron, and soccer pitch designs.  Like most fabric manufacturers,  RK had a limited print run on designs.  Once ithey're gone. they're gone, :( However, one of my favorite fabric stores that tends to carry older fabric was my saving grace yet again and they had this design in stock.

    

The left side of the field has light blue and grey patches representing the CNU Captains and the right side are the green and gold of Langley High School.  The remaining patches were sewn on the various t shirt blocks.

The recipient picked up the quilt with his daughter and son.  He asked them where it should be put in the house obviously thinking the family room but the children simultanrously laid claim to the quilt shouting "my room!"

And she's been working on her game Because life is taxing Gotta get it together and see what's happening

This quilt was made for the sister and cousin of three previous recipients,  She is an excellent lacrosse player, so good in fact that she earned a full scholarship to play at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Instead of using a solid piece or pieces of fabric for the backing,  we used a green for the middle fabric and appliqued both her high school cardinal mascot and college buffalo mascot as opposing teams.

I then used more of the buffalo fabric that was used for the sashing and borders above the field and red cardinals below.

When the recipient was a little girl, she and her dad were members of the Indian Princess YMCA program,  My sister and dad were also in the Indian Princess program way back in the 1970s.  I don't remember my sister's Princess name but my dad was Bumbling Bear.

In any case I rearranged all the patches from the vest to fit them in the 14.5 " square block.  Luckily all the patches had only been glued onto the vest.   It was a tight squeeze but it was doable.

I was able to keep the zipper intact for this block.  I love retaining the architectural elements of garments such as hoodies, pockets, buttons. and zippers.

The recipient's paternal grandmother's father was a US Congressman from Iowa who served in the House in the 1950s and 60s, making this t shirt very vintage.

Um, how much sound from the brass to the air Will it take, to put your cheers in the air? (Pardon me there)

The recipient was not only a trumpeter for the marching bands both at Thomas Jeffersosn High School of Science and Technology and at the University of Virginia, he majored in music. TJHSST, referred interchangeably as either TJ or Jefferson, is a public magnet school that is currently ranked 14th in the nation.  In his spare time during his US Presidential terms, Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia.

When the recipient graduated from UVA back in 2016, he had cut up his shirts in different sized squares and  hemmed them with gigantic stitches. He then glued them on a fleece blanket that had the Cavalier Marching Band logo machine-embroidered in the lower-right corner.  

He was never pleased with the results so his mom contacted me to see if we could "fix it" for his birthday. She wanted to incorporate the blanket in its entirety.  Neither mom or son had any idea what kind of glue had been used back then.  I was really nervous that him being a TJ grad AND a guy that he had used Gorilla Glue or something even stronger. I did a test and discovered that it was a water-soluble adhesive.  I soaked the blanket in a bathtub and found all the squares had become free and were floating independently.  I then washed all the squares and the now plain blanket to get rid of any remaining stickiness.

He wanted a masculine sashing so he opted for a blue and white plaid with rust accents.  Upon initial layout of the squares against the plaid, I could tell the design really needed a solid to both separate the busy plaid from some of the busier designs and to unify the square sizes.  This Kona grey set off squares nicely.

The original blanket had curved corners so I machine-appliqued the entire blanket on top of the flannel.  Usually you would add sashing by sewing the strips to the outer edge of the fleece.  This is a great quilt for the winter as it has 4 layers, top, batting, fleece, and flannel.

 Happy Birthday!

To all the party people who are happy and free, Tsouras and Foley rewriting history

This was a very special commission to create.  An elderly gentleman wanted a quilt made from his AND his wife's Army uniforms and patches.  His wife had started to cut pieces from their uniforms but unfortunately had died before this was completed. All the fabrics had been cut into squares or rectangles, but he wanted circles in the design.

The recipient had met his future wife when they were both serving as 2LTs,  Foley was the wife's maiden name and then they both were Tsouras after marriage. During this era, she was in the Women's Army Corps otherwise known as WACs.

There were so many patches that needed to be incorporated.  Rank patches are easy to position directionally.  Some of the unit and branch patches had to be identified as they were embroidered in subdued black for fatigues and were not easily discernable.  I headed off to the museum at the nearest Army base and talked to a curator who provided information about the unknown patches.  I did not want to place one sideways or upside down.

I only fastened the shoulder boards at their bases and then buttoned them to the quilt.  The recipient had not provided buttons but I was able to find replacements at the PX.  He had 12 shoulder boards but only 8 of the button flaps.  Being short 4 flaps, I sourced 2 Class A shirts from my son's old BSA troop's uniform stash. The BSA shirts were a slightly paler, more oatmeal shade than the Army's khaki shirts but it wasn't noticeable.

The recipient had mentioned liking circular designs but had given me rectangular small cuts of fabric.  I designed a double Dresden Plate out of a flight scarf for the inner circle, fatigue pants for the first plate and shirts for the outer plate.  I also arranged the branch patches in 4 grids that looked somewhat circular.

I wanted a simple but interesting border.  Originally, I was going to use the same licensed US Army fabric that I was using as the backing, but it was too busy as the border.  I was lucky to find a burlap home decorating trim that was not only in Army green but also printed in a Greek Key design.  The recipient had mentioned that he was first-generation Greek-American when we met so I knew this would be appropriate.

Born and branched the Air Force for the USA They call me Silas Johnson but I'm MGJ

This quilt was made for a retired 2-star USAF general who served our country for over 3 decades.  Based on old movies, I knew pilots used to wear white scarves while flying but I never realized that in later years the squadrons and other units had scarves designed specifically for their organizations.  

I was presented with a big box of aviator scarves.  The vast majority were silk or a poly/silk blend.  Two scarves from Guam were made from barkcloth.  Most of the scarves had crests on the end with a repeating pattern in the middle.  I ended up arranging the crests into blocks and bordering them with the middle sections.  There were so many different pieces that I made a spreadsheet to keep things organized.  There were 65 lines of 8 columns detailing color, direction, unit, size of deconstructed scarf, crest quantities, crest design, crest size, block assignment.

The polka dots were from the recipient's very first unit.  This was more of bib than a scarf as the original garment was about 18 by 18 with a longer strip with snaps fastened at the back of the neck.  Most of the scarves were long, thin rectangles.

The fabrics of the scarves were very slippery, stretchy, and thin.   Some of the satin blends were shiny .  I backed everything with fusible interfacing,

Two of the scarves were made from barkcloth.  Not surprisingly these were both from Guam, as barkcloth originated in the Polynesian islands.   

I really enjoyed the mathematical challenge of designing this quilt.  Trying to incorporate as many of the different designs into a prescribed parameter while still being visually pleasing was a lot of fun.       

  

 

My name might be Hinteregger, or maybe it's Ryan If I said that I was weak, man, you know I'd be lying

This quilt was created for a recent high school graduate of a Sydney, NSW prep school.  He is an American-Australian dual citizen due to one of his parents being an expat from Boston.

I used the same layout as his sibling's quilt but of course using his school colors of red, black, and yellow.  Because his expat parent is a HUGE Massachusetts sports teams fan and the internet makes following seasons so easy, this young man is also a rabid sports nut. I was given the school blazer, a pair of soccer socks, 6 pockets from the school dress shirts, 2 ties, some polos, and a team jersey.  

 I had a good bit more of his uniforms than I did with his sister, but still had to supplement a bit with extra fabrics and Boston pro team garments.  I was able to find a Red Sox uniform that provided me with the logo, a former player's name and team number, and the name of the city on the front,. 

I also found 2 team t shirts (Celtics and more Red Sox!) in my local area which is surprising as I do not live near Massachusetts.  I couldn't find Patriots nor Bruins shirts around my vicinity but was able to find licensed fabric for these fracnchises and appliqued the dress shirt pockets to them. 

The students at the school wear ties as part of their uniforms, The dark one was a bit shorter than the red so I am guessing it was for the Lower School and the red one was for the Upper School.

The school is large enough that the students are split into houses to provide a more close-knit environment within a bigger institution.  The recipient was in the Maloney House which was named after the first student enrolled at the school back in 1937.

I sewed both the  blazer and part of a button-down shirt into a quilt block.  I did have to move the pockets closer to the midpoints so more of those features would be visible.

 

The mom was able to get an entire roll of the ribbon trim that is used on the blazer pockets and sleeves.  This was perfect for making a tiny patch on a big background more interesting.

This was given to him over Christmas as they had come back to the US for their first post-pandemic visit.  Quilts are expensive to ship even with the US borders so they knew to bring an extra suitcase for something like this.

Oh Livvy I can’t live without ya Everyday my life I’m talking bout ya All Of my friends they go on about ya Olivi uh uh, Olivia!

This was made for an expat's child who lives in Sydney.  The family visits stateside about every 3 years.  She graduated from high school in December 2020 (they are half a year off being in the Southern Hemisphere) and matriculated to the same university where one of her parents went to graduate school.  It is extremely expensive to ship something as heavy as a quilt from the US to AU so the recipient had to wait until they next visited their American relatives.

Students in Australia don't collect as many t shirts as do kids in the US.  However they do wear school uniforms and the parent supplied me with several school crests. dance team logos, and other tiny pieces of the uniform.   I was sent a small ziploc bag containing about 13 items that I wanted to turn into a decent sized quilt.  Eventually a lot of extra fabrics that reflected the recipient's interests were included.

The recipient's name is also the name of a children's book character .and luckily there was licensed fabric with the image and coordinating prints to go with it .  I didn't know if a young female adult wanted to be associated with a pig (the character) so I just used the coordinate.

This was not a surprise quilt so I communicated directly with the recipient for favorite colors, animals, university major, etc. 

Thank goodness for the internet.  I was able to find the uniform supplier website so I could see the prints of the seasonal garments.  The girls wear a blue plaid skirt and navy blazer in the winter, similar to what a lot of prep school kids have to wear in the United States.The blouse has piping on the sleeve that is the same plaid as the skirt. 

  

However, their summer uniform is very different to anything I have seen locally.  The summer uniform is a pinstripe shapeless dress which reminded me of hospital candystriper outfits.  They also wear a hat with a very wide brim to help protect them from the lack of an ozone layer over Australia.

I was able to match the pinstripe summer uniform fairly easily to a quilting cotton.  For the skirt fabric, I was able to find a tartan but then dyed it with a royal blue color as to make it match better as it originally had too much of a turquoise tone.

The recipient is a dual citizen so she was able to attend NASA Space Camp in her early high school years.  

I was given 3 MSCW crests, several MSCW letters, and one embroidery of just the crown, and some dance images. With a bit of sashing, the crests were made into 6 inch blocks.  The other tiny images and lettering were appliqued on greyish feline fabric since she loved cats and the color grey.  She also liked pale pink so I made sure to use that as well to feminize the predominantly blue quilt. I also heard she liked to go out a lot once Covid restrictions were lifted so I was very happy that the pink fabric had high heels as the motif.  The tiny logo rectangles were a bit boring by themselves so I framed each one with blue and white gingham ribbon.

The recipient is currently a biochemistry major at the University of New South Wales.  I incorporated some science-themed blocks as well as a UNSW recyclable bag that I had received at an Idealist Education Fair when representing my own alma mater.  The bag is NOT cotton but some highly heat-sensitive poly fiber so I included a written warning never to iron the yellow block as it will melt.   The white horizontal strips are from the sleeves of the uniform blouse and between the actual piping and the uniform website, I was able to create a fairly similar plaid.

Brothers out there with sisters, peep it Years and years you try to keep her a secret

In celebration of a successful formal recruitment at the wearers' school, I am finally posting pictures of a joint order.  Apparently at this university, the Chi Omegas do a lot of functions with the Sigma Chis.  So much so that the ΣX boys are little brothers and the ΧΩ girls are the big sisters.

This is much different than in my day.  While my sorority definitely tended to pair with certain fraternities at my university, it was not a formal joining.  We were free to affiliate as individual members of fraternities as Little Sisters. Favorite guys of our sorority were called Keymen rather than Little Brothers. 

In any case, the Chi Omega is a Sigma Chi Big to a specific Sigma Chi and he is correspondingly the Chi Omega Little to her.  ΧΩ colors are red and yellow and ΣX colors are cobalt blue and yellow.  I assumed they would want yellow as one of the colors as it ties in with both of their groups but they decided to eliminate yellow entirely and go with each of their other colors ie the red and cobalt.  They also wanted the big/little relationship embroidered on the sleeve.  My machine does not have that capability so the embroidery was done by hand using a running stitch.

What she asked of me at the end of the day Caligula would have blushed "Oh, you've been in the house too long" she said And I naturally fled

So like many of us over the last 24 months I have spent a LOT of time at home.  I was so bored that I learned how to crochet.

I had seen the African Flower hexagon technique that was used to make an owl.  I used a J 5.25 mm hook and worsted weight yarn of various colors  Once I learned the stitches, it was amazingly easy.  I knew the hexagons were large but had no idea I would end up with a HUGE stuffed animal.

I then decided to make the same pattern using Kappa colors of dark and light blue since our mascot is an owl.  I did not want such a huge owl so used a much skinnier fiber and smaller hook.  This time I used a 1.5 mm hook and  #10 crochet thread.

What a size difference the hook and fiber make!  I found it much harder to crochet with this thread and tiny hook as opposed to the yarn and larger hook.

Here are the 2 owls together.  They don't match at all but I wanted to show their proportions.

I have decided that I am officially hooked!