Stadium Seating

On any given Sunday in the fall you'll find me in the football stands cheering, usually while working on something quilty:-)  Given that those bleacher seats can be cold and hard (and occasionally wet) I decided we needed something warm and soft to sit on.  The result, my stadium seating blanket.

I wanted the bottom to be water-resistant so I started with this awesome Joel Dewberry laminated cotton that I picked up at Marden's last summer.  For the top I went with a coordinating felted wool.  In between I added 2 layers of Quilter's Dream wool batting (a single batting folded in half) for cushioning.  I made this in the same way I described for my Anthropologie Hack Chalkbaord Table Runner but here are a few more tips if you want to make one for yourself.  If you've never made a mitered edge start by reading my Self Binding Napkin tutorial for complete instructions on this technique

Supplies Needed:

1 yard 60" wide laminated cotton

1/2 yard felted wool (wool usually comes 50" wide)

1 Craft Sized (36" x 46") wool batting

I started by quilting the felted wool and wool batting together using simple straight lines.  It's hard to quilt through all that wool but as long as you pin heavily and roll your edges up tightly it will work.  Also, I used a coordinating thread and masking tape as a guide so it didn't have to be perfect.  It's easier to quilt your wool sandwich and then trim it down to the size you want.  In this case 15" x 49".  I also recommend basting around the edges 1/4" from the edge to make it easier to sew it to the laminate.

Cut a piece of laminate 6" x 30" for the strap.  Fold the strap in half lengthwise wrong sides together and sew along one short side and along the long raw edge.  Turn the strap right side out and sew it to the center of one of the short sides of your wool sandwich.  When sewing with laminate it's helpful to use clover clips rather than pins which will leave permanent holes.  Also, you should increase your stitch length  to 3.0 and use a denim needle.

Cut the laminate 22" x 56".  Mark the center point of each side of your wool sandwich and your laminated cotton.  Start with one long side and match the center points, wrong sides together.  Stitch the length of the wool sandwich using a 1/2" seam allowance.  Repeat on the remaining 3 sides starting and stopping where you meet a seam allowance.  Make sure your strap is tucked inside and leave a small hole on one of the long sides for turning.  Miter the corners by drawing a line from the folded edge to the sewn seamline.  Stitch along this line and trim to 1/2" on all 4 corners.  

Turn your blanket right side out through the hole.  Push out your perfectly mitred corners with a chopstick.  I used a  whip stitch to sew the hole closed by hand rather than topstitching as I would normally because I didn't want holes in my laminate to let water through.

The finished blanket is 17" x 50", plenty of room for two adults, and rolls up easily for storage.

It's hard to believe that after 7 years this is Audrey's last year of cheering for our local Pop Warner league.  Never fear, I expect this will still get plenty of use... she's planning on trying out for the high school cheer team next year:-)  Go A-B!!!

Linking up to the fabulous Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.