Football Blanket For A Baby Or Toddler

Baby shower gift for parents who are Football fans
Purchased 1.1 meters of the Fleece Print for the back in an appropriate pattern for the theme of the blanket (in this case different sports balls were the closest thing to match the football)

Purchased 1.1 meters of dark brown dimple chenille which I have heard being called "Minky" fabric for the top of the blanket.

Purchased .1 of a meter of arctic fleece in solid white for to make the markings on a football.

Since this is for a baby gift I washed the fabric before creating this gift.
The first idea I had was to cut the fabric in a foot ball shape but changed my mind so that this gift would last longer than just a baby blanket but work on a toddler bed also.

The fleece and chenille were wider than the length that I bought so I turned it around to use the width of the fabric for the length of the blanket.
Cut the white fleece in strips to create the markings on each end of the blanket and the marks like laces down the center.
Measured and remeasured the white fleece and the placement of the strips to make sure it looked proper to the proportion of the brown dimple chenille. Pinned everything secure before sewing the white strips on the brown minky top. Should have pulled out my roller foot to start as the longer strips on each end were turned over and straight stitched and the laces were zigzagged around the edges and this all feed better in the machine with the special stretch needle and roller foot.
Once the top was finished, pinned the top and bottom together with the right side of the fabric together and the wrong side out. I sewed the two ends of the blanket together BECAUSE that was the salvage edges and I wanted to try and square up the blanket before determining where the straight line of each long side would be.
Completed one long side so that three sides were sewn closed. For the fourth side I sewed part way from each end so that a part in the middle of the fourth side was still open to be able to turn the blanket right side out.
Working the corners out to nice points, and hand sewing the rest of the side shut was then finished by machine sewing about a half an inch from the edge around the whole blanket. I should have tacked a couple of places in the middle of the blanket too so that when this is washed later it will stay flat.
When I arrived at the baby shower I realized that I nailed the gift correctly as all the decorations were in a football theme since the parents are huge fans.
The fabric label was to let this baby know that I made this gift for a very special little boy, but I did not feel I could iron this on so I machine sewed around it.
This whole blanket turned out quite heavy and will be very warm, maybe even too warm.