Sunday, February 26, 2012

School Spirit Quilt

My youngest child has a favorite quilt.  It's not the nice one that my mom made for him, it's one that is falling apart and has so many patches, I've started to patch the patches.  My sister made me this quilt when I graduated from high school.  I used it on my dorm room bed during college.  Neither of the other kids were interested in it at all, but Daniel decided this was HIS quilt.  When he comes downstairs in the morning he has it wrapped around himself.  It's spread out on the family room floor and used as a raft, etc, etc.  I'm saving the original to show you at the end of this post ( I don't want to scare you away)

The quilt is made from bandanas.  I found these in a craft store near Cleveland called Pat Catan's.  Purple and Yellow!  Our school colors.  How perfect - I could see a new quilt developing. 


I used 3 bandanas in each row and made 5 rows, alternating purple and yellow.  I must warn you if you try this, the bandanas were not all the same size - wonderful!  That made the sewing of the rows together interesting.  
The backing is 5 rows of flannel, I used purple and a mottled yellow, 3 purple rows and 2 yellow rows. I wish I could say they matched up perfectly at the edges to the width of the bandanas, but they didn't.  The recipient hasn't complained yet.    



I used one layer of warm and natural as the batting.  Simply laid out the backing and front, right sides together with the batting on the bottom and sewed almost all the way around, just leaving an opening so I could turn the whole thing right side out.  


I tied this quilt - on each corner, in the middle and halfway between the corners.  The last thing that I did was stitch the opening closed.  



Now, the photo of the original - it started out with gray and maroon bandanas.  You can see I had to stitch white and black ones onto the top to cover the old ones.  The top left bandana is gone and the batting is exposed as is the middle one on the bottom.  When I mentioned that I could now throw this one away  since there's a replacement, I got a very firm "NO".  

Hope you are having a good weekend.  ~Ann

10 comments:

  1. Hey a man knows what he wants - that older one is finally broken in! Your new one is a great idea - looks great! I have a yellow and green large patch quilt my Mom made for my bed when I was in 5th grade I think - made the same way - somehow over the years my husband took it over - LOL it needs patches for it's patches too!

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  2. Lol, you know how it is when you have a favorite!!

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  3. Love it! Kind of like getting rid of my "blankie" when I was little!

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  4. Great story!
    Happy Sunday.
    Hugs :)
    Lauren

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  5. You're a good Mom, Ann! You've just made a new memory for you and your son. :0)

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  6. Such a great story, I love it when quilts are loved and used, and loved some more. When I make quilts I always tell the person who is receiving it, please use it, I certainly don't make quilts so they can hide away on a shelf somewhere.
    Wendy

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  7. Ann, You are my GIVEAWAY WINNER!!!!!!

    Please, email me your address to send your gifts soon.

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  8. What an awesome idea!! New Follower Cynthia here from floweringangel@etsy and my blog of the same name. I am going to back my daughters old comforter with pinks, I am really excited now about this one. Thanks again!!!

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  9. I love that he does not want to get rid of the original though, that is funny! What a great idea for a quilt! Great gift in the school colors also!

    Cathy

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  10. I love this idea! I've been searching all morning for school spirit gear. Now I'm thinking this is a better idea. Thanks for posting this. I'm seriously going to show everyone I know.

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Thank you for visiting my blog. I'm so happy to "meet" you through blog land. ~Ann