Football shaped blanket...
 

Hi all,
My daughter-in-law (she and son married this past July) came to me with a picture of a football blanket she wanted "help" making for my son...I found a website with a pattern for a baby size blanket, and I based son's on it...mind you enlarging the scale of it for a 6' 3" man was quite fun...lol...I think all in all it turned out pretty great, considering prior to this I had never sewn with minky fabric...and that my dear dil has never sewn period :shock:.. The back of it is cotton fabric, we considered using fleece but were afraid it may be too hot...after stitching it I am so glad we went with the cotton...It is 91" from tip to tip...so plenty long enough for my son; and actually larger than needed...but dil figured she had paid for the fabric, and it may as well get used! When dil gave it to him he loved it, and hoped it would bring luck to his and his dad's beloved Packers...as we all know THAT is another story...:rolleyes:.
I am going to put a link to the site where I got the baby sized pattern, as I want to give the lady full credit for the original idea...
http://www.happytogethercreates.com/...tern-free.html
Regards,
Kif

My sons would love this. They are huge Michigan fans. Thank you for sharing.

How Cute!! Great Job! How did you quilt it?

oh that is awesome!! great job!! i think mark twain had it right!

Thats why I love this board, its so inspiring. You have inspired me today! The quilt is wonderful.

Great job--clever idea!!

I love it!

Wonderful quilt for a football fan! This would be a great graduation gift for a kid who played football in high school or college. Thanks for sharing.

Wow love it...this couldn't have come at a better time...I've been planning a quilt for my man, but going with the concept of a football field with the Dallas Cowboys theme..but might just change my mind and do this, if I can find Dallas Cowboy material to back it with....great job btw.

So cool! What a great idea. I can't think of a football fan that wouldn't love it.

I never would have thought of making a quilt in the shape of a football, but it is darling. Any man would love it; heck, many women would love it!!! Great job -- both you and dil.

Linda

Looks like a fun quilt! :)

It turned out great! Love my Packers!

Really wonderful and awesome idea, every one loves this quilt especially football players. Thanks for sharing such an useful and good quilt with us.

what a neat idea it is very nice!!!!

Oh, that is amazing!

Now for the questions. How did you make the pattern for this large sized quilt? Did you use newspaper as template paper? The baby quilt seems like it would be easy to do for the pattern, but a huge quilt seems daunting. Can you share specifics on how you did this?

How much yardage did it end up taking? Did you use any batting in between the layers?

I have a friend who LOVES his Packers and would love a quilt like this.

Thanks for sharing with us all and inspiring us.

Suzanne in VT

Cute idea, pretty neat football blanket

You are one smart lady, it looks great. The minkee was a good idea.

That is so cute, nice and big.

I love this quilt...you did a great job on it!

OMG I have got to make one for my brother who is a die-hard Dallas fan. Thanks for sharing!

What an awesome idea and work.

what a great quilt for a football fan

What a great idea for a guy quilt!

Thanks for all the kind words!! I am planning to try and draw out how I did it and try and post it here...as when I try and explain it, I don't even understand myself!!.LOL...When I am back home this evening I will work on tracing out what I did and posting it here...
Kif
PS I also must confess I don't watch football...never have, just have a son and husband who loooove it!! Also, yes we are in Texas, home of a lot of people's "beloved Dallas Cowboys"...so I call my dh and ds "traitors"....LOL

Absolutely GREAT ! Hope you and DDIL had fun working on it together.....and how could your son NOT love it !!

that is really cool! I am bookmarking the baby quilt link. Thanks for sharing! I think that is such a clever idea! Your enlarged version is awesome!!

WOW! What a great quilt and story.:thumbup:

Gorgeous quilt! It really looks like a football.

My dh would love that

just too cute

We bought 3 yards of minky and of the green bay fabric (100% cotton), with the shape of the football there was enough left to make another quilt, maybe a rag type quilt, that is for another day...month..year...in my case! lol..I printed off the baby sized blanket, enlarged it as much as I could with my printer...still not large enough, so I cut off large sheets of freezer paper and taped them together...I then made the original pattern into a half football instead of quarter football (where I only had to fold my fabrics once, and place the pattern on one fold) I put it on top of the freezer paper and traced the football as large as we needed it. A plus with using the freezer paper is I was able to lightly tap it in various places with my iron so it stuck to fabric enough for me to cut out the shape...no pinning needed! After doing this for both the minky fabric and the cotton fabric I cut out the white lines and "lacings", I actually used warm and white batting to make them, as they were so long for our size blanket that I did not have long enough felt. I used 505 basting spray to temporarily hold the end stripes and laces on the right side of the minky fabric then did a zig zag stitch applique around the edges of them. Then put fabrics right sides together, use plenty of pins to hold the layers together!!...and sew around them, using a 1/2" seam, as I had read larger seams better for minky fabric...I also used a stretch needle, no reason except I thought since the minky was stretchy maybe that needle would be better..(hey, even tho I say I am pretty structured, I am finding the older I get the more I "fly by the seat of my pants"...). I left an opening to turn the blanket right-sides out..I then top-stitched around the whole edge including the opening, so it was closed, too...Last thing I did was outline quilting about 1/8" away from the edges of the laces and white stripes on ends..I did not do any other quilting, tho I told dil it might look good to quilt some football shapes on it, and also help hold the layers together...I did not use any batting, just the minky and the 100% cotton backing...I am also going to attach a little very rough drawing of the layout...since I have had some pms wondering about that...I hope this is "clearer than mud"...I have never done a "tutorial" of any sort...and after reading this you all will probably know why!;)
Regards all,
Kif
PS If there are any other questions, please pm me and I will try and help out if I can..
And, as far as "daunting"...let me tell you, if I can figure this out, anyone can!! Trust me...

That is so awesome! What a great gift idea! :) :)

Thanks so much! My new son in law is a die-heart Cowboys fan, my daughter, Saints, so they are home divided living north of Dallas! I think I'll have to make them each one.....Cowboys and Saints! Thanks so much for the info!

Clever idea..

debbiecharlie;5854464]Thanks so much! My new son in law is a die-heart Cowboys fan, my daughter, Saints, so they are home divided living north of Dallas! I think I'll have to make them each one.....Cowboys and Saints! Thanks so much for the info![/QUOTE]

My daughter in law is a big Saints fan, too..I just laugh at my hubby and son loving the Packers, dil the Saints, and my mom loves her Cowboys! So we are also a football family divided, living in Texas. Well, except me, I don't like football, at all!!
K

That is great!!!!!!!!

What a cool idea!

Great idea for football fans. Little ones for the little guys and Big ones for the big guys.