Let's Go Wild!

It's very nerve racking when you get hired to make a quilt.  It's one thing when it is a stranger hiring you, but when it's a friend of 20 years, EEK!!!  That's what happened to me in October of 2013.  My friend Jeff really liked my work and decided he NEEDED one of them.  As a male he didn't want anything girly and he is a huge Kentucky Wildcats fan so I wanted to do a blue and white quilt for him.

Finding quilt ideas is sometimes fun, other times I hate it.  His quilt took forever to figure out.  Do I want to do a chain quilt for basketball? Or a star quilt for winning?  What about a classic blue and white 9 patch?  Oh I know!  I'll do a basketball court!!!  Okay not a real basketball court, but kinda close...

On Pintrest I found a quilt that if you squint you can see basketball courts.  I clicked on the link and it's only pictures of said quilt... So there I was with my handy graph paper, my dandy pencil and my wonderful box of 64 crayons drawing lines and coloring them in until I came up with my design.  I snapped a quick picture and sent off to Jeff in Oklahoma (did I mention this quilt was being made for a good friend that moved from Nevada to Oklahoma 15 years ago?) he loved it.

Luckily since I had drawn out the pattern on graph paper it was so easy to figure out the material needed and the best part was I could use fat quarters!!!  When there are 16 different blues and whites that all need to compliment each other for a quilt fat quarters are a blessing!  I picked out 9 whites/light blues and 7 dark blues and cut and piled them all. I ended up with lots of extra parts because I wanted it all random... So each "FQ" was cut into 22- 2.5"*2.5"; 9-2"*4.5"; 10-2.5"*6" (the top row in the picture can be cut into 2-2.5*2.5 and either 2--2.5*6 or 2-2*4.5 or one each of the 6 and 4.5).


Since I wanted that part to be 100% random I put ALL 2"*4.5" pieces into a paper bag.  I sewed a light 2.5*2.5 to a dark 2.5*2.5 (you need 2 of those color combos for a block).  Then came the fun part  reach into the bag and pull out a 2*4.5 (no putting it back or accidentally dropping it) and sew it between your light/dark combos.  When you have finished this step you will have lots of 4.5"*6" sets.

To the top of each set sew a 2.5*6 of the same fabric as the 2.5*2.5.  Do the same to bottom. You'll end up with how ever many you need of the 8.5"*6 finished block.  Since I was making a throw I used 63 blocks (7 columns and 9 rows).

Now put ALL the blocks back in the bag and pull out 2 at a time.  Match up a light top with a dark top and sew together.  Continue doing that until you have 9 rows of 7.  Sew the rows together.  I added a thin 1.5" border to the quilt just because in the hand quilting it makes it more stable and the seams less likely to unravel.  Once you are done with the top go ahead and baste and quilt.  For the quilting I did straight lines in each block from corner to corner.  I of course added a nameplate on the back and called it good.  The Henry family loved it and used it during the final four this year.

My cat loves laying on my unfinished quilts...

I used left over scraps for the binding.

Mitered corners are the best.