A Very Special Anniversary Quilt

We have had a very hectic week in our house as we have celebrated my little one's birthday and our anniversary in the same week. Things have finally quieted down around here which means I can share with you my very special quilt that I created for my husband. Remember that bag of fabric I showed you?

You know, the one that got turned into this . . . 

Well, I continued to expand on it until it became just what I had envisioned . . . a warm and cozy quilt perfect for the ultimate hockey fan! 

My Original Sketch

My first step after completing the piecing was to play with dresdens again. I created two fans made of 4 dresdens each.

I then laid and pinned the dresdens onto opposite corners of the quilt. 

Now normally I thread sketch or satin stitch my design onto dresdens to create a feathered look but I decided I wanted something a little more bold and different. I dug through my stash of supplies and found some leftover yarn.

I sketched my designs onto the dresdens and began sewing the yarn over my sketches using a zig zag stitch.

It was just the pop that the quilt needed and added a hint of texture to the quilt front.

After I finished all of the dresdens, I appliqued the center design onto the quilt using a satin stitch and then echo quilted around the center design once to help make it stand out.

I then quilted the rest of the quilt top using basic straight line stitching (I wanted to keep the design feeling strong and masculine) and stitched my black binding all around the front of the quilt. Then I took to the couch to hand sew the binding to the back of the quilt. When I began hand stitching the binding down I found myself wishing that I had a bag of Wonder Clips to help hold everything down and then an idea struck me!

A pack of Dollar Store bobby pins that I had on hand worked perfectly for holding down the binding. And thank goodness I finished the quilt just in time . . . just hours before my husband got home from work on our anniversary! Phew . . . talk about cutting it close!

The next day I made one more gift for my husband. I took the dress that I wore to our homecoming dance in high school and an old jersey to create the perfect pillow to accompany his quilt. 

The satin from the bottom of the dress was perfect for creating a soft backing for the back of the pillow.

I think I will have one warm and happy Blackhawks fan this season! :)

Happy Quilting!