A little more Mad about Plaid.........

First, A Year of Schnibbles Update. I chased that turkey all over my design wall again yesterday and STILL don't have a combination that suits me. But I think I have learned this, just because I own and love all 40 pieces of this family of fabric, I don't have to put all 40 pieces in this quilt top. I am SO hoping I have a picture of a completed quilt top to show on Monday!

Last Friday I introduced you to a pattern book by Teri Christopherson, "Mad About Plaid".

I used this book to create my USC vs UCLA quilt for my daughter and her boyfriend.

The first quilt I made from this book was quilt # 19, named "My Mets Blanket".

I used this pattern from the book called "Stripes".

"My Mets Blanket" was named by and made for my husband. He calls all my fiber works of art, blankets. Yes, I made 18 quilts; 5 for my daughter, 1 for a friend, 3 for my folks, 1 for charity, and 8 for me, before I made one for my husband. The fact that he calls them blankets, and smirks when people ask me if I work and I say , "Yes, I'm a fiber artist" had nothing to do with it....really!!

I think it's hard to make quilts for males. All those pretty pastel colors and flower print fabrics just don't speak to the man in my house. I like plaid fabric, and think they have a nice manly look, but it really annoys me when I cut the fabric and the lines aren't perfectly perpendicular. I've been told that's just the way plaid is, everyone's quilt tops with plaid look a little off center. Not mine, if the plaid isn't perfect it's not in my quilt. Let me know if you've ever found a perfect plaid.

So, what's a hard working, eager to please, wife and fiber artist to do? When I found this book I knew I had the answer for the ideal quilt for my husband. My husband is a NY Mets baseball fan. Has been since he was a kid. He was born and raised in the heart of Cubs and Cardinals territory but for some reason has been a loyal Mets fan as long as that team has been around. (1962 for you trivia folks)

So here is what I came up with. Blue and orange are the Mets team colors.

I used blue dimple fabric by Andover Fabrics. I like the dimple fabric for a man because it looks like the dimples on a golf ball, subtle yet manly. The orange fabric has a small fleck of white. I don't know what it's called. The top came together easily, this pattern uses strip sets to make the plaid design.

Once I had the top done I struggled with what to put on the back, until I found this.....

I found fabric that is the seam of a baseball!!

I went with an overall quilting design using gray thread. Gray because that was the color of a Mets home uniform. The quilter was unsure of the gray but it turned out nice I think.

This is one of the most used throws in our house, and sometimes I do feel a little guilty that I made the father of my child wait for almost 2 years to get his own quilt.....sometimes.