Go Big Blue

This is the second quilt I gave away at Christmas. It was a lot less time in the making, admittedly, but also a lot less time in the planning. In our family we draw names for Christmas so the adults buy only one present each for one other adult. For Christmas 2010, the name I had drawn was Jeremiah, my nephew by marriage, my niece Sarah's husband.

Though I had had his name for a some time, it had taken me a little while to decide what I wanted to give him. Unfortunately, we don't get to hang out with Sarah and Jeremiah all that much, so I wasn't really sure what he might like. When I thought about making him this throw, I also had to double check to make sure he really is a True Blue fan. Jeremiah graduated from and played football for Georgetown College, in Georgetown, KY, which is just outside Lexington.

Everybody who knows me is well aware that I am not into sports. But where I live now is absolutely True Blue country so one has to be fairly dim-witted not to be aware of the UK Wildcats and how important they are to most people around here. By the same token, of course, around Louisville, another Kentucky team - I think they like the color red? - seems to be favored, and one can always find people anywhere with allegiances to teams other than the home team. So the last thing I wanted to do was make a Christmas present for Jeremiah which would offend him! But Sarah assured me that Jeremiah is a Wildcat follower at heart so I set to work.
For one side I bought as many different UK prints as I could find and just pieced big chunks of them together, adding, of course, a nice zebra in the middle. To make the throw nice, warm and cuddly, I put a big fleece on the back. Originally, I wasn't even going to put batting in the middle, but then it occurred to me that I might as well do so and make it a REAL quilt, since it would not be any more trouble to do so and the throw would be nicer and warmer if I did. We had a pretty cold winter which made it seem even more necessary.

Subsequently, all I did was quilt it on my machine - something I don't do very often - using the walking foot to make lots of "straight" lines.
Though it is not a masterpiece of a quilt, in this case, the fabric and the message that sends, was as important as anything, and I am pretty sure Jeremiah liked it. Here's a picture of him holding it with me on Christmas morning.