I love fall

Everything about fall I love.   I love the crisp mornings, I love the smell of leaves, I love the colors, I love raking leaves for the kids to jump into, and bundling up to go to soccer games in the mornings on Saturdays. 

One Saturday I parked my chair beside a coach of the opposing team.   We're talking about U-6 and U-8 games so we're still (moderately) friendly with most other families involved.  (I will not like the point where the other parents yell at my kids.  I'm saying that upfront right now)  

This coach laid out a quilt for the players not in the game that quarter to sit on.   AND I COULD NOT STOP LOOKING AT IT.   It was a flannel patchwork quilt.   Handmade and hand quilted.  So unbelievably cute I knew that was the absolutely next thing I was going to make.

A quick trip into Goodwill and I had 4 size 2XXL shirts for less than $3.00 each.   A few cuts to take off the arms, split the seams, cut off the collars from the fronts and I had a large stack of material, (and I didn't even touch the whole piece on the back of any of the shirts!)

 leftover cuffs with buttons

 I will do something cute with the front piece with the pocket still attached :)

 all this from the sleeves!

 the leftover backs

 I just randomly pieced 2 squares together and ran them through my machine one after another in a long string.

 2 by 2s made a 4 square block.     then 4 - 4 square blocks made this 16 square block.

9 - 16 square blocks made this -3 blocks per row



  I added a maroon frame, and a striped border (from the remnant bin at JoAnn's)

 

I didn't quite have enough material for a solid flannel backing so I decided to add a square in the center for fun.

The second quilt above came from an advertisement for Better Homes and Gardens at Walmart.  I love this leaf pattern on the bed so I ripped out the ad and used more of the squares I had leftover from the Soccer Patch.   A closer look and a quick sketch of a block to get started....

 

Here's one.

  

 three....

and four ready for the stems.

 A strip of the flannel backing from the first quilt, folded in half, machine stitched in place and then folded over again, this time hand stitched into place.

 

I played around with the layout a bit but finally decided on a pinwheel placement.   This quilt is small.  Lap size.   Each block only 16".    Adding a thick border around each block plus a border around the whole lot.  I also added some 4 patch blocks in the intersections. 

 

I think the falling leaves would make a lovely full size quilt too.  I do have a spare bedroom........