Sports Themed Full-Sized Quilt

I machine pieced this quilt on my PFAFF Expression 710.

I quilted this quilt on my Janome QMP-18 long arm.


Finished size: 75" x 88"

(click on photos to enlarge)

🏈⚾🏀FINISHED QUILT:🏀⚾🏈

Front piecing: A 7x7 grid of 38 full diamonds (4 half-rectangle-triangles - HRTs each) and 8 half diamonds (2 HRTs each) surrounded by a blue inner border, and then a final outer border of 122 pennant-shaped triangles...all created using 16 different and distinct sports-themed novelty fabrics. 

Backing: The backing fabric is new Robert Kaufman Artisan Batik yardage that I purchased from an estate sale.

Quilt Stitching, Pattern: I quilted using edge-to-edge "Football Basketball and Baseball" from Wasatch Quilting.

Quilt Stitching, Thread: I used "Genoa Gray" (So Fine 50 #503) thread for the front of the quilt, then chose "Cashew" (So Fine 50 #405), for the quilt back.

Label: I embroidered a label right onto the binding, still one of my favorite ways to personalize a quilt's label.

🏈⚾🏀PROGRESS PHOTOS:🏀⚾🏈

Construction - Blocks:

I collected sports-themed quilting cottons (both at my local quilt shop as well as online), and came up with the following:

football

soccer

baseball

basketball

tennis

pickle ball

ping pong

golf

I could see that the fabrics fell into one of two categories: white backgrounds or dark backgrounds. So I began to search for a quilt block that would highlight the fun patterns, but also incorporate a strong light-vs-dark contrast.

I also wanted the blocks to be in a shape that somehow referred to a sport...how about a baseball diamond? I saw My Fabric Obsession's blog post and considered creating diamonds by joining (4) half-rectangle-triangles (HRTs) together, and everything started to fall into place.

So, inspired by this quilt, I decided the diamonds would be dark, and the surrounding background would be light.

I cut 5"x7" blocks from all the fabrics, then began chain piecing them together to make the half-rectangle-triangles (HRTs). 

I pressed every single block using starch, since I was working with biased edges. I made a total of 170 HRTs by the time I completed the diamond portion of the quilt.

Before I joined 4 blocks together into a diamond, I sliver-trimmed all edges to keep the blocks square. This really helps the blocks stay straight and even when I'm sewing them together into a quilt top.

I was very careful to not have any of the same fabric patterns touch as I joined together the 4-HRT diamonds.

When I first arranged all the diamonds together (see photo above), I didn't like how the top and bottom didn't have the same number of half-diamonds at each edge. So I made more HRTs! I ended up using 38 full diamonds (4 HRTs each) and 8 half diamonds (2 HRTs each) and then I felt the center of the quilt was finally large enough.

Construction - Borders:

My finished goal was a minimum of 70" x 80" to cover a full-sized mattress. To grow the quilt's size, I auditioned different border combinations. I tried:

3" black inner border with 8" pennants or 6" pennants

1.25" blue inner border with 8" pennants or 6" pennants

3" blue inner border with 8" pennants or 6" pennants

I decided on the 3" blue inner border and the 8" pennants. I made a triangle template and got to cutting! 

The final outer border used a total of 122 pennant-shaped triangles. Again, I made sure no two exact patterns were adjacent to one another.

Many pins were used while attaching the pennant border to keep those biased edges from stretching the triangles out of shape.

Piecing finally finished - ready to load onto the longarm and be stitched into a quilt sandwich!

Quilting:

After loading the backing, I rolled the fabric back and forth between the front and back bars a couple times, which helped even tension. The right side of this Robert Kaufman Artisan Batik print faces the floor when it is loaded onto the longarm, and the wrong side faces up, into the inside of the quilt sandwich's middle, so what you see in this above photo is the wrong side of the batik.

Here, this photo is taken from beneath the longarm, and you can see the right side of the batik fabric facing out. Periodically I check underneath to confirm the bobbin thread is stitching satisfactorily (no eyelashes or railroads, etc) just as I monitor the top stitching throughout the quilting process.

After the backing is ready, a double-layer of batting is draped over the backing, and then the pieced quilt top is floated as a final layer.

The quilt sandwich is then completely basted through all 3 layers, stitching down one side, across the belly bar, and back up the other side, advancing and repeating, before it is finally ready to be quilted. This pre-basting saves me hours, due to a straighter, more even quilting experience every time!

This quilt is being made for my sports-loving grandson's transition from his nursery to his "big boy room", so I used my ProStitcher software to resize, repeat, and wrap the edge-to-edge "Football Basketball and Baseball" design from Wasatch Quilting. 

Starting the first of 9 rows.

Beginning stitching on row 8, with just one more row left to go.

As I unrolled and set up to quilt the 9th and final row, I saw that the double-layered batting was not laying flat. I think using two layers caused some fullness in the batting, even though the fabric top itself was flat.

I employed the "soup can" method to put a little tension on the folded area of the 2-layered batting so it would smoothe itself as the stitches passed over that section.

The "soup can" method wins again!

Label:

After the binding strips are ready, but before they are attached to the quilt, I embroidered the label directly onto the binding fabric. 

Trimming:

When trimming, I lined up my ruler to cut exactly 7" from the outer edge of the inner blue border. This helped the quilt remain square, and also assured all of the pennants were the same finished length.

Binding:

I joined together several 2.5" strips of blue & black patterned batik until I had a total of about 380" of binding strips. Then I ironed them in half.

First I attach the binding fabric to the back of the quilt, using my sewing machine and a scant 1/4" seam.

I join the two ends of the binding on the bias to reduce bulk.

Then I wrap the binding around and sew it to the front of the quilt. 

I use a couple of old-fashioned corsage pins to create nice miters at each corner.

Washing:

I machine washed the finished quilt (cold water, no bleach) using dye trapping sheets (I use either Color Catchers or Color Grabbers). 

After washing, the quilt's beautiful texture and soft scrunchiness can be enjoyed immediately!

🏈⚾🏀QUILT SUMMARY:🏀⚾🏈

I machine pieced this quilt on my PFAFF Expression 710.

I quilted this quilt on my Janome QMP-18 long arm.

Finished size: 75" x 88"

Front piecing: Using 16 different sports-themed fabrics, a 7x7 grid of 38 full diamonds and 8 half diamonds, surrounded by an inner blue border, and a final outer border of 122 pennant-shaped triangles. 

Back: Robert Kaufman Artisan Batik in greens and blues. 

Binding: Machine sewn blue & black batik.

Quilting: Edge-to-edge "Football Basketball and Baseball" design from Wasatch Quilting.  "Genoa Gray" (So Fine 50 #503) thread on the front, and "Cashew" (So Fine 50 #405), on the back.

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