Houston Texans Awesomeness

Finished JD's Houston Texans quilt square for Cole's Quilts. This was my first attempt at charting a logo, and of course it had to have lots of curvy and pointy bits to make it challenging. My main concern was getting the shape exactly right, since it's very bold. I had seen some Texans logo finishes online, and they had gotten the shape right, but they were huge. It's easier to get a good shape on a larger scale. For the quilt square I needed a much smaller logo but I didn't want it to look blocky.

First, I found a logo the size I wanted and printed it out. Next, I used transparent graph paper and traced it. Then I went crazy. Actually, all I did was work backwards (if this doesn't surprise you, it means you've been visiting awhile). Instead of stitching and then backstitching, I did the backstitching first and then filled in. That way I could get the shape exactly like I wanted it. The consequence of having to fill in, though, is that with a curvy, pointy design like this you end up with lots of little bits around the edges that you can't fill with a cross stitch, or even a proper fractional stitch. So I took what I like to call an "embroidery approach" and just filled in with whatever was needed: fractional stitches, backward stitches (top leg going the opposite way of the other cross stitches), straight stitches, etc. Here we are in progress.

And here's the finished logo.

The resident Houston Texans expert, Mr. Wonderful, approves. We both are Texans fans, and when I saw that JD's quilt request included Houston Texans football, I had to stitch for him. I'm proud to send it off for his quilt.