My youngest brother graduated from high school last month and I made him a quilt to take to college at Northern Illinois University. To keep the quilt feeling more masculine I kept a simple design with a large focal point. I also made it a twin x-long to fit a dorm bed, which meant I had to clear our living room of all furniture to baste it (please excuse the mess . . . my kids have been busy making memories).
My brother loves their husky logo so I made a 36 inch by 36 inch appliqued block for the center. I also added 2 squares on opposite corners of the block with some paw print appliques just to add some more visual interest.
I did echo quilting around the husky to really make him stand out in the center.
The gray border has simple straight line quilting with just a hint of free motion thrown in on the paw print applique blocks.
I did some diagonal lines on the red border and some more straight lines on the white and black lines at the top and bottom of the quilt. The finishing touch was some free motion quilting on the licensed Northern Illinois fabric.
The back of the quilt was done using a pieced backing of gray and black. I also added some applique squares that were cut from my son's custom t-shirts that he would wear to my brother's high school football games over the last 3 years.
I also added a little note to the quilt back.
I am so happy with the way this quilt turned out! It is the first quilt I have worked on in a long time where I actually thoroughly enjoyed every step of the process. Every thing turned out better than I had even pictured in my mind. Hopefully this will get me back into the swing of quilting more regularly.
I hope this quilt will give my brother warm memories of home while he is away at school! Until next time . . . happy sewing!
Great quilt!
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