The banner in action

The completed hockey banner (see here for construction details) had its second outing in Palmerston North last week.  There were 24 teams representing their regions in the 2015 Collier U13 tournament. 
  

Banner in place and enthusiastic Wellington supporter!

At the opening ceremony the banners were on the ground in front of each team, the Wellington banner was one of the few that didn't blow away in the strong breeze.  The yellow nylon-like fabric is quite heavy duty and with two layers it isn't particularly light.

Opening ceremony

almost windproof banner

small selection of banners

During the tournament the banners were hanging on the fence.  They ranged in size and style with a mix of professional and hand crafted.

The girls had a fantastic time and played some great hockey.

A bit of the same

Last year I made a banner for my daughter's hockey team.  This year she is in a different team so another banner was needed.

My plan was to make this years banner bigger.  Off I went to Pete's Emporium to hopefully buy the same fabric as last year.  One of the things about Pete's Emporium is that the stock changes - there was no yellow/gold or black like I'd used last year.  There was a stronger/thicker yellow and a small piece (less than 1m) of black.  The amount of black dictated the size of the banner - similar size to last year ~1m x ~1.5m. 

Using the no-pin technique with my current favourite for a range of quilting uses - blue painters tape.  

The words are printed in Word and are about 500 point.  







 
Freemotion quilted around each letter three times.  Way easier than trying to manoeuvre the weight of the material around all those curves and corners.




 


Removing the paper (well most of it).

The next step is to carefully cut away the black to reveal the yellow lettering - reverse applique.

Repeating the process for the Wellington Hockey emblem. 

To complete the banner, stitched the black to the yellow, added a full size peice of yellow to the back, then added the eyelets - one banner.

 

The banner has had one outing with another one soon.

Almost a Quilt

My daughter's hockey coach recently had a baby girl.  I was asked to make a polar fleece blanket from the team. 

Completed blanket

After wandering the aisles of Spotlight a navy blue and a light blue spotted fabric were chosen - even though we knew it was a girl.  The plan was to have hearts on one side and mostly the spotted fabric with the team name on the other side - instead of attempting to use each girl's name.

The 15 girls were asked to draw a heart that was a similar size to their hand - interpreted in a range of sizes.  

Cutting the pattern for the letters was made heaps easier with my new Silhouette Cameo cutter.  Choose a font, size, type in the words, load the paper, push a button and out come the pattern pieces for each letter.  Way easier and faster than getting the right font size, printing then cutting out each piece with scissors or a blade.

Testing layout with paper pattern and trialling fabric options.






The pattern pieces were pinned to the fleece and cut out.  As fleece moves alot I firmly tacked each heart before sewing them.

layout assistant

The blanket was presented to the family the day after the baby was born - not bad considering she arrived a week or so early.

other side of completed blanket