You Learn Something New Every Day . . .

Do you know what a hat trick is?  Most commonly, when a single player scores three times (or more) in a single game of sport, such as hockey, it's called a hat trick.  Do you know what the origin of "hat trick" is?  Ah, here's that new thing I mentioned in the title of this post!  I picked this up from Wikipedia: 

According to the Extended Oxford English Dictionary 1999 Edition, the term "came into use after HH Stephenson took three wickets in three balls for the all-England eleven against the twenty-two of Hallam at the Hyde Park ground, Sheffield in 1858. A collection was held for Stephenson (as was customary for outstanding feats by professionals) and he was presented with a cap or hat bought with the proceeds."

That sport was, of course, cricket.  I'm more familiar with hat tricks in soccer because we're a soccer family.  But hat tricks occur in many sports.  But here's the real question:  Why is a Schnibbles quilt that's composed of 9-patch blocks called Hat Trick?  Ah, good question, Kim!

Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilt Company always includes in her patterns a little introduction about how the quilt got its name.  For the Hat Trick pattern, she explains that when someone (Moda Lissa, is my guess) suggested she rework some of her previous quilt patterns so they were charm-pack friendly, one of the first quilts she thought of reworking was her quilt pattern called Wayne & Gordie (named for hockey greats Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe).  Because both Gretzky and Howe had lots of hat tricks during their careers, the name for the Schnibbles quilt was born.  Here's what the "original" Wayne & Gordie pattern looks like:

And the Schnibbles quilt version looks like four of those 9-patch crosses.  Want to see mine?

Remember those 9-patch blocks I was working on?  The difference between my quilt and Hat Trick is that Hat Trick has only a top and bottom border and it's pieced--maybe it's supposed to look like the two goal areas in a hockey game?  Or maybe it's just borders.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  In any event, I like square quilts, so I used a different border treatment.

I still have a question though:  Why is a quilt that is composed of groups of five 9-patch blocks set in "X" formations named after two hockey players?  I may just have to buy the Wayne and Gordie pattern to find out!