My sister, the one who is younger than me but looks much, much older, is a rabid Kansas City Chiefs football fan. When I say rabid I mean every game day she dresses in red and gold, all the TVs in her house are on the big game, no one is allowed to talk about anything while the game is on and even if one tried, my sister would only nod her head but she wouldn't be listening. She would be hyper-focused on the game, the players and the latest issue with the refs/players/coaches/etc. My sister lives in Salt Lake City but during football season she routinely flies to Kansas City to see her beloved Chiefs - she lives for a day spent screaming, jumping up and down and talking trash with any opposing fans at Arrowhead Stadium.
The family room in my sister's home is full of KC Chiefs paraphernalia...I don't have a picture to show you but trust me, she's got everything from pillows to light-up neon signs...but what she didn't have, until now, is a Kansas City Chiefs quilt. I decided last October to make her a football quilt for Christmas - I love encouraging her mania, it's what I excel at - I gave myself plenty of time but life jumped in the way and my machine was on the fritz and I just didn't get it finished in time. On Christmas morning I Facetimed my sister and showed her the quilt, showed her I was still working on getting it quilted and I told her I would have it to her soon...that was 3 months ago!
When it was finally quilted I realized it needed something. It was just toooooo plain. I decided to hand-applique the words Arrowhead and Tomahawk Chop (because Arrowhead is the name of the Chief's stadium and Tomahawk Chop is some kind of cheer that is done at the game) onto the quilt but soon realized it would take me forever plus I just couldn't get it to look "professional". After hand-appliqueing three letters I gave up, there had to be a better way!
Enter my friend Joni Flaker to save the day/quilt! Joni is in the T-shirt business but that's not all, she can print vinyl stencils for anything and that's just what she did for me. At first I wasn't sure how it would look but when she told me she could get the exact KC Chiefs font, I was sold!
The stencils were custom made for me, the exact size I asked her for which was so great!!! Once the back of the stencil is pulled off, it sticks to the surface, in this case, it stuck to my quilt top. Then the top piece of the stencil is removed and it's ready to paint! I used acrylic paint that a fabric medium had been added to and stenciled/tapped the paint onto the fabric. It worked like a charm and took me all of about 10 minutes, no kidding, start to finish. Of course, I let the paint dry, which took about 20 minutes, then I heat set it with my iron.
After the paint was set, I hand-quilted around each letter using a rather large "utility stitch" and I really like the look of it - the hand stitching made the stenciled letters look like they were appliqued! Once the binding was sewn down I was able to move onto the best part of quilting for me...a quick washing and drying of the quilt...and then I birthed that baby as I gently pulled it from the dryer, all soft and cuddly, even the painted part!
Look, I have always said I'm the maker of 30-foot quilts - meaning my quilts look good from 30 feet away, and this one definitely fits that requirement! It's a football quilt - it's not pretty, but it will stand up to nachos and cheese whiz and any tears that are shed if the Chiefs have another losing season.
If you need a stencil, I can highly recommend Joni!!! If you want more information, shoot me an email.
My sister will love this. Merry Christmas ya' filthy animal!
