College Colors Day: Show Us Your Team Quilt (Plus 3 Tutorials to Make One)
⚡ Quick Answer
- What it is: College Colors Day is the annual kickoff-season celebration where fans wear their school's colors — and quilters show off their team quilts
- When: August 30
- How to join in: Show us your college quilt — team colors, mascot fabric, a graduation quilt, or the one you sent to the dorm
- What you need: Two solids in your team's colors, or a licensed college print
- Three tutorials to start from: Two Color Collegiate Quilts, the Touchdown Quilt, and the Favorite Things Quilt
Everybody has a team. Maybe you went there, maybe your kids did, maybe you just married into it and had no say in the matter. On August 30, College Colors Day, fans everywhere pull on the sweatshirt and fly the flag — and quilters have a better option than a sweatshirt!
Show us your college quilt! Team colors, mascot fabric, a graduation quilt, the one you sent off to the dorm room — we want to see the quilt you root in. Post it and tag @missouriquiltco, and let us know who you’re cheering for.
And if you don’t have one yet, there is still time to start. Here’s how to put your team on a quilt.
Key Takeaways
- ➤Two solids will get you there. Nearly every school’s identity is two colors. A two-color quilt in the right two solids reads as a team quilt from across the room — no licensed print required.
- ➤Match the color, not the name. Pull the shades from Kona Cotton Solids or Colorworks Premium Solids and compare them against your team’s jersey, not against a memory.
- ➤Novelty and licensed prints want a simple pattern. Big fussy-cut squares let the print do the talking; a busy block will chop it into confetti.
- ➤A team quilt is the dorm gift that gets used. Send it in August, and it comes home at Thanksgiving covered in evidence.
Start With Your Team’s Two Colors
Almost every school in the country is defined by exactly two colors. That’s a gift to a quilter, because two-color quilts are some of the most striking quilts you can make — high contrast, graphic, and much faster to plan than a scrappy one.
The trick is getting the shades right. “Red and white” covers a lot of ground, and the difference between a crimson and a cardinal is the difference between the right team and the wrong one. Two solid lines make this easy:
| Solid line | Why quilters reach for it |
|---|---|
| Kona Cotton Solids | The widest shade range in quilting cotton — if your team color exists, it is in here somewhere |
| Colorworks Premium Solids | Smooth, saturated color with a lovely hand — beautiful for bold, graphic two-color tops |
| College fabric | Licensed team prints and logos when you want the mascot itself in the quilt |
💡 Pro Tip: Hold your fabric next to an actual piece of team merchandise — a cap, a jersey, the sweatshirt in the closet — in daylight before you cut. Screens lie about color, and so does memory.
Three Tutorials to Make Your Team Quilt From
You don’t need a special pattern for a college quilt. You need a pattern that shows off two strong colors or one big print. These three do exactly that.
Best for licensed team prints
Two Color Collegiate Quilts
Four large fussy-cut team images surrounded by flying geese and pinwheels. Built for exactly this job — send your student off with their team on the bed. See the tutorial
Best for the sport itself
Touchdown Quilt
Blocks of footballs, baseballs or basketballs surrounded by team colors. Misty uses the Touchdown, Batter Up and Slam Dunk patterns. See the tutorial
Best for a fast novelty-print quilt
Favorite Things Quilt
Two yards of novelty fabric and a bit of coordinating yardage. Jenny’s answer to “I love this print and don’t want to cut it up.” See the tutorial
Four Ways to Get Team Colors Into a Quilt
- •Two-color piecing. Pick one block, cut it in your two solids, repeat. Simple blocks look strongest here — the color is doing the work.
- •Fussy-cut logos. Center licensed prints in large squares so the logo stays whole and readable.
- •Team-color binding. A neutral quilt with a school-color binding is a subtle, grown-up version — good for a professor, a dean’s office, or someone who has to stay diplomatic.
- •A backing that shows loyalty. Novelty team print on the back, solids on the front. Flip it over on game day.
Who Are You Making It For?
College quilts have a way of marking a moment. A few that come up again and again:
- •The dorm quilt. Make it washable, make it warm, and don’t make it so precious that they’re afraid to use it. Twin XL is the size most dorm beds want.
- •The graduation quilt. Four years of a school in one blanket. Signature blocks for friends and roommates make this one hard to beat.
- •The rivalry house. Two schools, one household, one quilt with a very firm seam down the middle. It settles nothing, but it looks great.
- •The tailgate quilt. Made to sit on. Use what you already have, quilt it densely, and let it earn its stains.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is College Colors Day?
August 30. It’s the annual celebration at the start of the college season when fans wear their school’s colors — and a perfect excuse to pull out the team quilt.
Can I sell a quilt made with licensed college fabric?
Licensed collegiate fabric is sold for personal, non-commercial use. Make them for your family, your friends and your own bed — but don’t plan a business around them.
What if my school’s exact shade isn’t available?
Get as close as you can and let contrast do the rest. A quilt reads by value and contrast first; nobody standing in a doorway is going to argue about your particular gold.
What size should a dorm quilt be?
Most dorm beds are Twin XL, which is longer than a standard twin. Add length before you add width.
I only have a weekend. What should I make?
The Favorite Things Quilt — two yards of a novelty or team print plus coordinating yardage, and the print carries the whole design.
Now go dig out that quilt and show us your colors. Who are you rooting for?