Wednesday, January 22, 2020

11.2- Team Colors

It doesn't seems possible but here we are, 22 days into the new year and on our second Project Quilting Challenge.

This week the challenge is Team Colors. I don't know why color challenges are always hard for me, but they seem to be the ones I have the most trouble with. Which makes absolutely no sense considering there are millions of teams in the world so how hard is it to pick your favorite and make something in those colors?

I sat down on Sunday, well actually I curled up on the couch in front of the TV while the football games were on and napped in front of the warm cozy fire, dreaming about what team colors I could create a quilt project with.

I have never been much of a football fan, maybe because I spent too many years as an EMT at Football games hoping no one got hurt, especially when my own son was out on the field. I love watching basketball, but I can't really say I have a favorite team. My own kids are grown up, and although I will always be a Dupree Tiger Fan, I wasn't too excited about making anything in purple & gold.  Once again a color challenge had me stumped.

To top it off, it was freezing cold all weekend, I was still putting the Christmas mess away, and on Sunday we had a water line break so we were without water, and no way to get it fixed before the day was over. By 7:00 that evening the only team I was a member of was TEAM CRABBY and I really didn't think it would be much fun to make a cold black heart quilt. LOL

Monday marked the 110th anniversary of my Grandma Amy's Birthday. She was a pivotal part of our family for just over 100 years. Every January we would brave the crazy cold of the Minnesota winters & as many family members who could get there would gather in Marshall to celebrate her birthday. I'm not sure if the birthdays themselves were the memories we remember or the COLD weather adventures we had getting to the party & getting home again!



We have a photo of her when she was a teenager, taken the winter of 26-27. She is the goalie on a team of girls hockey players in Virginia, MN. Varies family stories about the picture sort of blend into themselves and of course she is not here to tell the whole story. But I know the picture was taken after an exhibition hockey game & they played for the city park girls hockey team.


A family history book has an interview with her and she talks about also playing hockey for the High School in Virginia. But we all know her real love was speed skating, and she loved to race. She skated for the Duluth Girl Scouts throughout high school. A quote from her in the history book, "I think of all the times I raced and came in first. Nellie and I always raced together as a tandem team. I was always the leader, and wonder if some of the other troops in the city must have hated us because we always won."

She could skate and she skated well, she skated until she was in her 80's and it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how amazing it was that she was still ice skating at that age. I grew up thinking all grandmas skated!

 I thought it would be fun to make a little quilt with HER team colors...until I found out that the uniforms they were wearing in the photo were borrowed from a boys team, and possibly were black and cream colored. Not very exciting colors, and technically not really her team colors. So I was stuck at square one and really did not have a plan.

While I was contemplating my project for the week, grumbling about the water situation, and unable to quilt next door because I was waiting for parts, I figured I better dig through the fabric pile and at least come up with a game plan.

I found some fun purple and gold fabric (after I said I wasn't going to make anything purple & gold!) I decided since I was thinking about Minnesota and family, I would throw together some little Vikings coasters. I drew a little viking helmet & the word SKÖL and appliquéd them to the background. Adding a V to the helmet.  I know a few Minnesota Vikings fans I could share them with & it would give me something to do since I was refusing to cook until there was running water in my house! LOL


While working on my coasters I starting thinking about girls sports, about how they have evolved over the years and how the early girls teams really played a huge part in paving the way for girls sports today. From borrowed boys uniforms to owning the ice.  I decided to color all the uniforms a different color representing different Minnesota girls hockey teams of today.

I wanted to have the exact photo on my project, so I downloaded an app that would allow me to create a coloring book sheet from the photo. Of course I am cheap and didn't want to spend any money, so I had to go with the free picture and couldn't get the fine detail I wanted.



 I tried two different apps and printed them onto 8 x 10 pieces of cotton fabric. This was something I had never done before using my own fabric ironed onto a piece of freezer paper,  I wasn't sure how it would turn out and I was really happy with the results and plan to use this process again.

I picked the better of the two prints & used my tsukineko inks to color in the picture. Any family member will know why Grandma Amy is wearing the light blue and silver  uniform :)

The printing was really thick and it was hard to get good detail with their faces, I kept messing with them until I had to tell myself to stop because they were starting to look like zombies.


I quilted the finished project using dark blue thread and only outlining the shapes and adding texture to their hair. I used the print with the larger pixels on the back of the quilt, just because I was too lazy to cut out another piece of fabric. I used a silvery blue batik on my binding. The finished quilt is 8 x 10.

The finished coasters are various sizes and I just edged them with different stitches and my pinking shears.

Today is Wednesday and someone is here (fingers crossed) to fix the water line break. I didn't get any dishes washed this week, but I did get two little Team Color projects done!




13 comments:

  1. What a wonderful way to honor your grandmother! And I love that you chose multiple team colors to represent many teams. I hope the water situation us resolved quickly (and inexpensively!) so you'll have less stress surrounding the next challenge.

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    1. Thank you! One water issue was fixed and another one “sprung up” lol the 2nd one just involved shutting off the power to a well and saying we will fix that in the spring! But the ice rink grew before we figured it out!

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  2. Amazing story of your grandma, and great inspiration for a fabulous little quilt.

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    1. Thank you! We think she was a pretty amazing grandma and I can only hope to be like her when I grow up! :)

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  3. Impressive project! Very cool process and story :)

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  4. Your Grandma Amy was obviously one heck of a woman!!! What a fabulous way to honor her. You did a great job on the printed block...just the right amount of everything!! Your coaster will warm the heart of any Viking fan! Was your Grandma Amy Scandinavian? She looks a great deal like my mom, who was Finnish and Swedish.

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    1. Thank you! She was Norwegian and Swedish. A couple of years ago some of my aunts and a group of cousins went to Norway to visit relatives and see where her Dad grew up. It was an unbelievable trip and made me appreciate “where I come from” even more!

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  5. I love both of your projects but especially the one with your grandmother and her teammates - the story is equally as interesting.

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  6. Thanks for sharing your Grandmother's story and the process used to create your Team Colors challenge quilt! I think she would be SEW pleased with the results.

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    1. Thank you! She was never a quilter but she was an incredible seamstress! She made beautiful clothes and even winter coats! Everything! I didn’t inherit her ability to make clothing, my sister did, but I do think I inherited some of her artistic abilities and maybe some of her fashion sense :)

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  7. WOW! This is absolutely incredible. just wow

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