June | 2013 | Zippy Quilts

Last weekend was Father’s Day, so it’s time to start thinking of a quilt to be made for the appropriate man for NEXT Father’s Day. Here are some man-quilt ideas (modern, of course).

Make it big enough to cover him for a nap. 60” x 72” is about right but modify depending on his size.
It doesn’t have to be in dark “masculine” colors; consider his favorite colors. If he likes yellow, a yellow and black quilt will still look masculine (just don’t make it yellow duckies).
There are a lot of fun novelty fabrics appropriate to masculine interests—everything from Alexander Henry’s pinup girls to power tools, beer, and many more.
To use stash, consider simple patterns that make interesting abstract designs. For example, Yellow Brick Road is an easy pattern that can use up a good amount of stash. Start with 1 to 1-1/2 yards of focus fabric and add enough fat quarters of other fabrics to make your quilt. Make enough blocks to leave off the border and it instantly looks more modern.
Plaids or flannels (or plaid flannels!) make good man-quilts
Save old shirts, pants, or jeans and make a quilt of them
Of course, you can always just let him choose from among the quilts you’ve already made. My husband saw this one when I was piecing it and asked for it! I was very pleased that he liked it, so of course it is his now!
Made from a free Batavian Batiks pattern available at: http://www.wilmingtonprints.com/PImages/Pdf_165.pdf

Donation quilts are a great use for scraps, but they aren’t usually very exciting to make. I make them more interesting by trying something new with each quilt.

Most donation quilts are smaller than bed size, which makes them a good place to try new things. Here’s an example where I “tweaked” the usual quilt design in several ways to make it more modern while still using older fabric from my stash.

First, this is a typical donation quilt. It’s made 40″ x 40″ as requested by the charity, and it used up a fair number of those 5” charm squares that seem to reproduce themselves while the fabric closet door is closed. I used it to practice some of the quilting designs I’m learning in Leah Day’s Craftsy class, so I did learn something in making it.

And here’s what I decided to do on the next donation quilt for a children’s charity to make it more modern.

I made these changes to made this design more modern:

The blocks are rectangles rather than squares. It didn’t use up any charm squares, but it did use come cute fabric I’ve had for a while.
I found a nice coordinating almost-solid in my stash. (Solids are commonly used in modern quilts.)
The rows run vertically and are offset by a half block starting alternate rows. This breaks up the usual march of blocks across the quilt, making a diagonal zigzag pattern. It doesn’t hurt that the quilt also is easier to construct because there are no corners to match 😉
The quilt was designed without a border.

If you’d like to make a quilt like this, I’ve made a separate page with instructions; click on this link. If you make a quilt from this, send me a picture!