Last weekend, I was trying to decide on a good gift for my father for Father’s Day. I had a revelation-a quilt! He likes to sit around and read or study so a nice lap size quilt would be a great gift. I didn’t have to think too long about what kind of quilt. My dad is a big Clemson fan and likes to collect Clemson paraphernalia so I knew he would like a Clemson quilt. I quickly looked up some ideas on Pinterest until I found a design that my sister and I liked. (My siblings happily went in with me on the monetary aspect of the quilt-making since I would do all the work for them 🙂 ) Unfortunately, the picture I found does not lead to a website so I couldn’t find any specifics out about that picture, but since it was just a patchwork square quilt, it was pretty easy for me to personalize. I tweaked the design a bit to make it rectangle instead of square and decided on 8.5 inch squares. Thankfully my local Hobby Lobby carries some Kona cotton and I was able to find the colors I needed there- Purple, Clementine, and Bleached White. The backing is a Clemson logo print. I appliqued the tiger paw onto the middle block- purposefully leaving the edges a little raw so they will fray nicely. I made this quilt pretty quickly in any spare time I had this week so I didn’t take the time I should have to make all my patchwork squares line up perfectly but it’s not so bad that most people would notice- although my husband did make a comment about it.

The quilting is just straight lines quilted a 1/4 inch from each seam. I bound it in the same Kona cotton purple that I used for the blocks. I used my walking foot for the quilting and binding. This was my first time using the walking foot and I was happy with the help it provided, but it did take a bit of getting used to. I quilted most of the day Saturday and finished the binding Saturday night so I decided to machine stitch the binding in order to be finished by Father’s Day on Sunday. I don’t  think I will make that decision again. While it turned out fine, I prefer the look of the hand-sewn binding.

The other change I would make is to sew the tiger paw onto the block before quilting next time- I wanted the paw outline to be on the back of the quilt, but since haven’t figured out the free motion quilting on my machine yet, it was really difficult to maneuver that part around.

I am happy to report that my dad loves the quilt and I am glad to have it finished so I can catch back up with my quilting class…I’m 3 blocks behind! Hoping to catch up on that this week and show you my progress soon.

I couldn’t resist showing off my cute photographer’s assistant 🙂