Chapter 2 - Anthony's basketball and orange theme
While Ziva continued cutting and assembling half-square triangle blocks, Tony decided that Anthony's quilt would be his next project. He and Ziva had found a flannel with a basketball print all over that just screamed 'Anthony' to the father.
They had also scored big time at a yard sale with thirteen large totes of fabric from an older woman who was clearing out her stash since she was no longer able to sew due to arthritis in her hands and wrists. When she realized that the couple were quilters, she showed them some of her other items not included in the yard sale. Tony and Ziva purchased two more sewing machines, a folding cutting table, notions, patterns, and five partially finished quilt tops. The old woman was happy to see her collection go to fellow quilters.
"Hey, Zi," Tony moved over to the cutting table where Ziva was stacking the triangle shapes she'd cut with the die cutter. She had watched a tutorial about stacking coordinating fabric layers to make the triangles quickly for a themed quilt either by pattern or by colors.
She looked up from her pile of fabric and the die-cutter that could press two triangles aligned on the long side from a stack of twelve layers of fabric: twenty-four triangles in all with each press of the cutter. She was currently cutting more reds, pinks, and similar colors and patterns for Tali's quilt, and for Beth's quilt.
"Hey," she paused her cutting and wrote a number on a scrap of paper to her side. "Did you have a question?"
"Uh huh, are you working on anyone in particular's quilt? I mean, I did one for LJ, and you started one for Tali," he pointed the star squares made of half-square triangles.
"These are for Tali and Beth," she indicated the stacks that needed to be sewn into squares and then arranged into larger blocks to make a pattern. "Why do you ask?"
He shrugged as he grinned at her; she knew him too well sometimes. "I think I want to use that basketball-themed flannel for Anthony's quilt. Probably something with orange and maybe navy blue to coordinate," he picked up two of the half-square triangle shapes and placed them together on the table. "Maybe some half-square triangles, make some pinwheels or stars…"
"I am almost done cutting the triangles that I need. You can use the cutter soon. Do you have your fabric chosen yet?"
Tony shook his head as he replied, "Nope. I'm going to dig through the totes we got. I am so glad Mrs. Donner sorted her fabric by color." He pulled the totes labelled 'orange' and 'blue' from the shelves in the newly converted sewing area of the master bedroom. The pair had decided to make the previous sitting area into a sewing center so they could leave projects out instead of having to clean up everything after each sewing session.
~Quilts~
Two weeks later, only Tony and Anthony were at home after a basketball practice. The two had a snack and then Tony motioned for Anthony to follow him to the master bedroom.
"Wanna show you something," the father told his son. 'See if you like it…"
Anthony walked behind his Abba wondering what his father wanted to show him. He remembered that his parents had started quilting as a hobby and that at the last yard sale they went to as a family, the two older DiNozzos had gone nuts over a boatload of sewing stuff.
"What do you think?" Tony held up a quilt top with orange, white, and navy blue half-square triangle pinwheels sewn into blocks of color with an orange batik between the blocks. He pointed to the piece of flannel with the basketballs printed all over. "That's the backing."
"It's okay."
"Just okay?" Tony was somewhat crestfallen. "It has orange, navy blue, basketballs…"
Anthony paused before replying, he wanted to suggest an improvement to the color scheme but didn't want to offend his Abba. "Do you have any yellow like this orange? With the shades of color?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well. I think that adding some yellow would give it some pop. You know, bring the main design to life," the son shrugged as he pointed to places where he would add the yellow as a contrast. "Maybe a square or a circle here, here, and here…"
Tony opened the tote labelled 'yellow' and father and son dug through to find the right shade of yellow fabric for the accent pieces. The duo spotted the remnant of yellow chambray at the same time. Anthony pulled it from the tote; he folded it to a square and laid the piece in one of the places he'd indicated.
"That's it!" Tony grabbed the cutting mat, rotary cutter, and a metal ruler to make four-inch squares from the scrap. He cut three and then Anthony cut the remaining bit of the scrap into a circle freehand.
They placed the yellow accents on the quilt top. Tony showed his son how to iron the shapes to the fusible webbing and then trim the shape. Next, they ironed the shapes to the quilt top to create the accents. Lastly, Tony showed Anthony how he used one of the built-in stitch patterns on the machine from Mrs. Fielding to outline and fix the applique in place. He even let the almost teen sew two of the squares to the quilt top.
Ziva came through the master bedroom door as Tony held up the top for Anthony's approval, "There you two are! I thought you would be watching the NCAA tournament since Ohio State is playing." She glanced at the finished quilt top, "Very nice. Those accents of yellow are perfect."
Anthony grinned, "See? I told you so, Abba! Hi, Ima. Abba and I are working on my quilt. I forgot all about the game to be honest. We had a snack after we got home from practice and then Abba wanted to show me the quilt he's making for me. It kinda snowballed from there…"